US Routes More Mexican Deportees via Guatemala Despite Objections

The United States has again used Guatemala as a transit point for deporting Mexican nationals, flying in 42 people from Texas on Friday alongside 80 Guatemalans. The move comes despite Mexico's public objections to the growing practice of returning its citizens through third countries.

Guatemalan immigration officials processed the group at a reception facility in Guatemala City, where Mexican consular personnel were present to assist. The deportees were registered, given information about the process, and had mobile phones returned to them before being boarded onto a bus for the roughly seven-hour journey to the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Carlos Woltke, Guatemala's deputy immigration director, said the reception of Mexican deportees is a reciprocal arrangement. He noted that Mexican authorities provide similar assistance to Guatemalans returned overland, and that Guatemala is "responding to the needs of the Guatemalan people" by participating in the process.

Woltke firmly rejected any suggestion that the arrangement constitutes a safe third country agreement. "No agreement has been signed, and the president, Mr. Bernardo Arévalo, has no intention of signing a safe third country agreement," he said. "We have not signed any such agreement and have no plans to do so."

According to Woltke, 2,389 Mexicans have been deported by the US through Guatemala so far this year — a sharp increase from the small number transferred there in the previous year. He described the arrangement as a political matter, adding that Guatemala must "play our part" in the process if it expects fair treatment for its own citizens abroad.