The United States has sent about 2,300 Mexican nationals to Guatemala, despite objections from the Mexican government, as President Donald Trump intensifies deportations.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo confirmed on Wednesday that his country has received about 2,284 Mexican nationals deported from the US this year.
“They are arriving on planes carrying Guatemalan returnees,” Arevalo said in a news conference.
“In coordination with the Mexican government, what we have done is bring them through in transit so that we can return them to Mexican territory within 24 hours of their arrival in the country.”
The removals form part of a growing trend of third-country deportations under Trump. Mexico has consistently accepted direct returns from the US, yet some of its citizens have been sent to Guatemala and Honduras instead.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “The Mexican government has expressed its opposition to this practice to US authorities and has reiterated that every Mexican citizen has the right to enter the country.”
After talks with Guatemalan officials, both sides affirmed shared values, including “human mobility with dignity.”
One deportee, Arturo Trejo, who was sent to Honduras, said, “They didn’t tell us anything, just to get on the flight.” Mexico’s National Migration Institute explained, “The reason is that the United States wants to prevent them from crossing back into its territory.”
The US Department of Homeland Security responded that it was “utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised”.
Human rights experts view the practice as intimidation.
“What we are seeing seems part of [a] broader trend towards a very severe US migration policy where they seek to instill terror and fear in migrants at all costs,” said Ana Maria Mendez of WOLA.
