The United States deported a record of more than 61,000 Guatemalans during 2024, reported the Guatemala Migration Institute upon receiving the last four flights of the year with deportees this Friday. The last four flights landed amid expectations about immigration policies that Donald Trump will adopt, who on January 20 will assume the U.S. presidency for the second time and who has promised mass expulsions of migrants
From January 3 to December 27, the United States deported 61,680 Guatemalans. Of these, 42,049 were men, 14,477 women, and the rest minors under 18 years old, Migration indicated in a report. Guatemalans returned to the country throughout the year on 508 flights. On these flights, 3,785 family groups returned, according to the report.
At the La Aurora airport in the capital, onlookers noted the arrival of one of the year’s final four flights from Laredo, Texas, transporting over a hundred individuals, mostly mothers with young children either walking beside them or being carried.
In 2023, the United States deported 55,302 Guatemalans, which exceeded the previous record of 2019, when 54,599 were expelled.
Thousands of Guatemalans emigrate irregularly to the United States each year to escape violence and poverty that affects six out of ten people in this country of 17.8 million inhabitants, according to official data.
The foreign ministry estimates that about 2.7 million Guatemalans are in the United States, but only 400,000 have documents to work.
Migrants abroad, mainly in the United States, send remittances to their families in Guatemala that are vital to the national economy. The central bank’s projection is that 2024 will close with a record of almost 21 billion dollars, equivalent to 19% of the Gross Domestic Product.
