After receiving a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Guatemala’s country in Central America has agreed to increase the number of deportation flights it receives from the United States.
Bernardo Arevalo, president of Guatemala, made the announcement at a press conference on Wednesday that his nation would accept US-based non-citizens.
Arevalo, who appeared alongside Rubio, and Rubio, announced that they have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees of both our and deported from other nationalities.
Guatemala has previously accepted deportation flights from the US; it did so under US President Joe Biden’s previous administration.
However, the current president has campaigned heavily to stop illegal immigration to the US, and he has urged other nations in the area to join his efforts since taking office on January 20.
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.
Under Trump, how much of that might grow is still a mystery.
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’s first trip as the top diplomat of the US included a trip to Guatemala.
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. Next, he’ll make his way to the Dominican Republic.
But while in Guatemala, he praised Arevalo for accepting non-citizens into Guatemala’s borders.
Prior to taking office, the Trump transition team had to decide where to place non-citizens who had been detained during 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.
However, island nation leaders resisted. According to Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis at the time, “The Bahamas simply does not have the resources to accommodate such a request.”
Rubio stated on Wednesday that the US would provide Guatemala with financial assistance in order to allow it to 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”.
We pledged our support for those efforts, Rubio said, and it’s important that he accepts people from other nationalities as they attempt to eventually return to their own homelands.
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.
Even senior Trump administration officials have questioned the legality of that offer, though.
Rubio acknowledged the legal difficulties, but he publicly thanked Bukele for his offer. “We have a Constitution”, he said of the US.
However, the US began visiting its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Tuesday after receiving complaints about alleged human rights violations.
Source: Aljazeera
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