Australia still plans to honor an agreement to accept refugees from Central America, even in the face of President Trump's high profile hesitation to take a group of refugees off Australian hands.

"Australia will participate in a multilateral program to resettle refugees from Central America," Nicole Chant, a spokeswoman for the Australian ministry of Immigration and Border Protection, told the Washington Examiner in an emailed statement. "It's expected that Australia will be referred a small number of people for resettlement and they will be resettled within the existing Humanitarian Program."

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull agreed in September to resettle Central American refugees who were living in a Costa Rican camp, supported by the United States. Soon after, then-Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States would accept about 1,200 Middle Eastern refugees who had fled to Australia.

The deal led Turnbull's opponents to accuse him of planning a "people swap" with the Obama administration, but Turnbull denied any quid pro quo arrangement.

"We are encouraging all countries to work with [the UN refugee agency], as we are going to on this subject that you've just asked about, to find a durable solution for these refugees," Kerry told reporters at the time. "And that was a key focus of the leaders' summit that took place in New York in September, and my sense is that we're reaching an understanding of how we may be able to deal with it."

The agreement also frustrated congressional Republicans, who protested that President Obama had classified the terms of the deal for no good reason. "[C]lassification of an agreement regarding individuals to be considered for admission by the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is unprecedented," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wrote in a letter to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security in December.

Trump famously complained about the deal in a phone call last week with Turnbull, saying that following through on the agreement would expose the United States to the "next Boston bombers." Trump also said that he would "get killed" politically for accepting the refugees, according to a leaked transcript published by the Washington Post. "This is the worst deal ever," he said.

Kerry's statement seemed to imply that the American and Australian refugee agreements were developed at the same summit. Turnbull's government avoided any hints of backing out of their deal, although they have not yet processed the Central American refugees.

"People are yet to be referred for resettlement in third countries, including Australia, under the arrangement," Chant said.

Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Asia-Pacific region, said he hasn't heard any threats that Australia would reject the Central American refugees. He predicted that Trump would subject the refugees that Kerry promised to take to 'strict vetting" procedures and ultimately allow them into the country.

"I think it's important," Yoho told the Washington Examiner .