The Trump administration finalized a rule on Tuesday allowing the US to send people seeking asylum to countries they pass through on their journey to the border.

The most recent deal to come out of the Asylum Cooperative Agreement (ACA) is with El Salvador. Similar agreements also exist with Guatemala and Honduras. But critics say these plans do not meaningfully address the problems asylum seekers face.

People seeking asylum in the US who travel through Central America are often fleeing their homes because of gang violence. The reach of these organized crime groups can extend beyond the boundaries of their home countries. Sending asylum seekers to different countries in the same region they fled does not guarantee safety.

The existing deal with Guatemala exemplifies many of the problems this system presents. Only 2 percent of the 1,000 asylum seekers transferred from the US to Guatemala have filed for asylum there. The asylum system there is backlogged and offers minimal support to refugees once they arrive. Many people who were transferred ultimately returned to their home countries because they were unable to support themselves and were in just as much danger as they would be at home.

Vice president-elect Kamala Harris has criticized the rule, but President-elect Joe Biden’s team has not indicated any plan to repeal it. His immigration plan says that he intends to “expand efforts to register and process refugees in the region for resettlement in the U.S. and other countries,” but does not specifically indicate how he plans to mitigate the impact of these rules.