Definition (English):A bilateral agreement between the government of the United States and the government of another country which establishes the terms through which asylum seekers coming to one country may be sent to the other country in order to pursue their asylum claims in that country.
Definition (Spanish):Un acuerdo bilateral entre el gobierno de los Estados Unidos y el gobierno de otro país, por el cual se establecen las condiciones bajo las cuales a ciertos solicitantes de asilo en el territorio de uno se podrán trasladar al otro para llevar a cabo el proceso de petición de asilo en aquel.
Comments:An initial review of official government documents regarding these agreements appears to show that the term 'Asylum Cooperative Agreement' may be a sort of US English shorthand. These sorts of agreements have existed for a long time; they became relevant to the work of the interpreter during the second Trump administration, when that administration began to execute agreements with e.g. Ecuador and Honduras, amongst others, and the DHS began to, in fact, pre-termit respondents' application process in the United States in order to refer them to a 'safe third country' in order to pursue their claim for protectoin there. The official government agreements released, for example in <a href='https://coleccionlegis.com/muestra/documento/lectura/acuerdo-entre-el-gobierno-de-la-republica-de-honduras-y-el-gobierno-de-los-estados-unidos-de-america-para-la-cooperacion-en-el-examen-de-las-solicitudes-de-proteccion'>Honduras</a> and the corresponding <a href='https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/25-625-Honduras-Migration-and-Refugees-JIP.pdf'> English version from the United States refer to these agreements as `Acuerdo entre el Gobierno de la República de Honduras y el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos de América para la cooperación en el examen de las solicitudes de protección.` and `AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HONDURAS FOR COOPERATION IN THE EXAMINATION OF PROTECTION REQUESTS`, respectively. So: they are not 'cooperative asylum agreements' per se, but rather 'cooperative agreements in the examination of protection requests'. After all--we call the thing 'asylum', but in the US, asylum is requested via the form I-589, which can encompass three forms of protection: asylum, corresponding to the legal institution created and somewhat acknowledged and implemented on an international level, suspension of removal, which in this author's understanding is a form of relief from removal, not necessarily protection, that is US-specific, and protection under the Convention Against Torture, which is a whole other ball of misery. Therefore: 'Asylum Cooperative Agreement' is a simplified shorthand for this... thing.