The USA has despatched about 2,300 Mexican nationals to Guatemala, regardless of objections from the Mexican authorities, as President Donald Trump steps up deportations.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo confirmed on Wednesday that his nation has acquired about 2,284 Mexican nationals deported from the US this 12 months.
Really helpful Tales
listing of three objectsfinish of listing
“They’re arriving on planes carrying Guatemalan returnees,” Arevalo mentioned in a information convention.
“In coordination with the Mexican authorities, what now we have completed is deliver them via in transit in order that we will return them to Mexican territory inside 24 hours of their arrival within the nation.”
The removals are a part of a rising development of third-country deportations below Trump, who has despatched migrants and asylum seekers from the US to nations they might don’t have any connection to.
Largely, the Trump administration has justified such deportations by saying that the immigrants in query are unable to return to their residence nations.
However that isn’t the case with Mexico, which has constantly accepted deportations from the US.
Critics have blasted the third-country removals as a type of punishment, successfully stranding migrants and asylum seekers removed from residence.
Talking concerning the Mexican nationals despatched to Guatemala, Arevalo has mentioned that the deportees are rapidly repatriated to their nation, with the prices lined by both the Mexican or US authorities.
However Mexican officers voiced concern concerning the US sending its residents to third-party nations.
“The Mexican authorities has expressed its opposition to this observe to US authorities and has reiterated that each Mexican citizen has the appropriate to enter the nation,” Mexico’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
Following a gathering with Guatemalan officers on Tuesday, the Overseas Ministry additionally mentioned that the 2 nations are united by shared values together with shared safety and “human mobility with dignity”.
Guatemala is just not the one nation to obtain Mexican nationals from the US in current months. Reviews have additionally emerged that some Mexicans have been transported to Honduras as nicely.
“They didn’t inform us something, simply to get on the flight,” Arturo Trejo, a Mexican man who was deported to Honduras, instructed the TV channel Telemundo.
Mexico’s Nationwide Migration Institute (INM) instructed The Related Press information company that the US had justified the observe as a type of deterrence.
“The reason being that the USA needs to forestall them from crossing again into its territory,” the INM mentioned.
The US Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), in the meantime, responded to inquiries concerning the observe by saying that it was “utilising all lawful choices to hold out the most important deportation operation in historical past, simply as President Trump promised”.
However many human rights specialists view the third-country deportations of Mexicans as an intimidation tactic.
“What we’re seeing appears a part of [a] broader development in direction of a really extreme US migration coverage the place they search to instill terror and concern in migrants in any respect prices,” Ana Maria Mendez, the Central America director at migrants rights group WOLA, instructed the information service Reuters.
As neighbours, the US and Mexico have lengthy had an in depth relationship. The 2 nations stay high buying and selling companions for each other, with a cross-border trade of roughly $964.1bn in 2025 alone.
However since Trump returned to the presidency final 12 months, the Mexican authorities has needed to strike a fragile stability.
It has sought to cooperate with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, whereas defending the rights of its residents towards alleged abuse.
Critics have accused immigration brokers of utilizing extreme violence throughout raids, and specialists have famous a rising number of deaths whereas within the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Since Trump returned to workplace, no less than 15 Mexican nationals have died in ICE custody, and one other three died throughout enforcement operations.
In response, the Mexican authorities has filed complaints with state prosecutors within the US. It has additionally denounced circumstances in ICE detention centres as “incompatible with human rights requirements” and urged common visits from Mexican consular officers.
