The state-run Guatemalan Migration Institute said that the United States has repatriated a record 61,680 Guatemalans in 2024, following the arrival of the final deportee planes in Guatemala City.
Four planes arrived from Texas and landed Friday at an Air Force installation in the capital of Guatemala. A hundred or more individuals, mostly women with little children, were seen getting off one of the planes by AFP journalists.
The increased returns from America took place before Donald Trump’s late January 2025 re-entry into the White House. Trump has pledged to deport large numbers.
According to the Guatemalan government, just 400,000 of the 2.7 million Guatemalans residing in the United States possess the necessary documentation to be allowed to work and remain in the country.
Officials say that in 2024, 61,680 Guatemalan deportees were transported by 508 planes from the United States.
The number of Guatemalans deported in 2023 was 55,302, surpassing the previous high of 54,599 set in 2019.
Every year, thousands of Guatemalans illegally enter the US to flee the country’s extreme poverty and violence.
Their money sent home to their family is frequently a lifeline. According to Guatemala’s central bank, close to $21 billion, or 19 per cent of the nation’s GDP, was transferred back in 2024, setting a new record.
