Guatemala agrees to increase acceptance of U.S. deportation flights

After Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit, Guatemala's Central American countries agreed to increase the number of deportations received from the United States.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Guatemala President Bernardo Arevalo also announced that his country will accept non-citizens sent from the United States.

"We agree to increase the number of flights deported and other ethnic deportations to the country by 40%," said Arevalo, who appeared with Rubio.

This is not the first time Guatemala has accepted a flight deported from the United States: under the former administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

But incumbent President Trump, who has run a lot of campaigns to make irregular immigration to the United States, has put pressure on countries across the region to join his efforts since taking office on January 20.

A Guatemalan official spoke on anonymously, telling the news agency that under Biden, Central American countries received about 14 deportations a day.

It is unclear how much it may increase under Trump.

But Reuters pointed out that nearly 66,000 people expelled from the United States in fiscal 2024 than Trump’s first semester (from 2017 to 2021).

Rubio visited Guatemala on his first trip as a top American diplomat.

Before arriving in Guatemala, he had been traveling the area to support Trump's anti-immigration push, passing through Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Next, he will head to the Dominican Republic.

But in Guatemala, he praised Arevalo for accepting non-citizens into Guatemala's borders.

Prior to taking office, the Trump Transition Team worked to deal with the position of detained non-citizens as part of the immigration attack. Some countries, including Venezuela and Cuba, have refused to participate in the U.S. deportation.

For example, news reports emerged in December, with Trump planning to approach Caribbean countries including the Bahamas, Grenada and Turks and Caicos to accept immigration from other countries.

But the leaders of the island country refused. "The Bahamas have no resources to meet this requirement," said Philip Davis, the Bahamas Prime Minister.

Rubio said on Wednesday that the United States will provide financial support to Guatemala to return non-citizens to their home countries.

He also praised Arevalo, who said the deportation flight protocol was “very important to us in terms of the migration situation we face.”

"He is willing to accept not only the people, but also people from other peoples, because it is also important for them to try to eventually return to their homeland, and we have committed our support with these efforts," Rubio said.

President Arevalo said there was no discussion on accepting immigration with criminal records.

The day before, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele proposed to prison that any violent criminal in the United States would send him the way - whether they are immigrants or American citizens.

But even Trump administration officials doubt the legitimacy of the proposal.

Rubio publicly thanked Bucker for his proposal but acknowledged legal obstacles. "We have a constitution," he said of the United States.

Nevertheless, the United States began sending undocumented immigrants to its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the site of a detention center for suspected human rights violations.

As of 2022, an estimated 11 million undocumented people live in the United States, and many play a crucial role in their communities.