El Salvador said on Monday its president would discuss migration issue with U.S. President Donald Trump this week in New York, after agreeing the United States could send back asylum seekers who cross El Salvador while journeying north.

It is said that the Central American country would assess whether to extend refuge to migrants returned by U.S.

In exchange, the United States pledged to help the poor, violence-stricken country expand its tiny asylum system.

The agreement, announced on Friday, is similar to "safe third country" deals the Trump administration wants with several Latin American countries traversed by growing numbers of U.S.-bound migrants, many of whom set out from Central America.

Guatemala has already signed such an agreement that requires asylum seekers passing through the Central American nation to seek refuge there first rather than in the United States. Guatemala's Congress has yet to ratify the deal.

Honduras is in talks with the U.S. over the possibility of implementing a similar measure for Cuban asylum seekers.

Immigration advocates have criticized the deals, saying Central American countries, from which many people flee violence, poverty and corruption, lack the capacity to process more asylum claims and cannot assure migrants' safety.

The U.S.-El Salvador deal will take effect only after details are hammered out including how to return asylum seekers to El Salvador and the number of people to be sent back, according to the agreement.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who took office in June, will be in New York along with Trump for the United Nations General Assembly. The two are scheduled to discuss regional security and investment in a meeting on Wednesday in addition to migration, according to a statement from the Salvadoran presidency.