In 2024, roughly 66,000 people were deported from the US to Guatemala. Under Trump, that number is expected to rise.
The Central American country of Guatemala has agreed to ramp up the number of deportation flights it receives from the United States, after a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo also announced that his country would accept non-citizens sent from the US.
“We have agreed to increase by 40 percent the number of flights of deportees both of our nationality as well as deportees from other nationalities,” said Arevalo, who appeared jointly with Rubio.
This is not the first time Guatemala has accepted deportation flights from the US: It did so under the previous administration of US President Joe Biden as well.
But Trump, the current president, has campaigned heavily on stamping out irregular migration to the US, and since taking office on January 20, he has pressured countries around the region to join his efforts.
A Guatemalan official, speaking under condition of anonymity, told the news agency Reuters that, under Biden, the Central American country received about 14 deportation flights per day.
It is unclear how much that might increase under Trump.
But Reuters noted that the nearly 66,000 Guatemalans deported from the US in fiscal year 2024 was more than any single year during Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021.
Rubio visited Guatemala as part of his first trip as the US’s top diplomat.
He has been travelling the region to curry support for Trump’s anti-immigration push, passing through Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica before reaching Guatemala. He is set to travel to the Dominican Republic next.
But while in Guatemala, he praised Arevalo for accepting non-citizens into Guatemala’s borders.
Prior to taking office, the Trump transition team had grappled with where to place non-citizens detained as part of immigration raids. Certain countries, like Venezuela and Cuba, have refused to participate in US deportation flights.
In December, for instance, news reports emerged that Trump planned to approach Caribbean countries, including the Bahamas, Grenada and Turks and Caicos, to accept migrants from other countries.
But the leadership of the island nations refused. “The Bahamas simply does not have the resources to accommodate such a request,” Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said at the time.
On Wednesday, Rubio indicated the US would offer financial support to Guatemala so it could return non-citizens to their home countries.
He also praised Arevalo, saying the deportation-flight deal was “very important for us in terms of the migratory situation we’re facing”.
“His willingness to accept not just nationals but those from other nationalities as they seek to ultimately return to their own homelands is also important, and we’ve pledged our support with those efforts,” Rubio said.
President Arevalo, for his part, indicated that the question of accepting migrants with criminal records was not discussed.
A day before, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, offered to jail any violent offenders the US sends his way — whether they be migrants or US citizens.
However, even officials in the Trump administration have expressed scepticism about the legality of that offer.
Rubio publicly thanked Bukele for his offer but acknowledged the legal barriers. “We have a Constitution,” he said of the US.
Nevertheless, the US on Tuesday began sending undocumented immigrants to its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the site of a detention centre criticised for alleged human rights abuses.
An estimated 11 million undocumented people live in the US as of 2022, many serving vital roles in their communities.