In 2024, the Guatemalan Migration Institute announced that a remarkable number of 61,680 Guatemalans were returned to their home country by the United States. This record-breaking figure was confirmed as the final group of deportees arrived in Guatemala City.
On Friday, four aircraft arrived at an air force base in the Guatemalan capital from Texas. Witnessed by AFP journalists, approximately 100 individuals, mostly women with young children, disembarked from one of the planes.
The returns from America increased as Donald Trump prepared to return to the White House as president in late January 2025. Trump has made a promise to carry out mass deportations.
According to the Guatemalan government, there are approximately 2.7 million Guatemalans residing in the United States. However, only 400,000 of them possess the necessary documentation to legally remain and work in the country.
According to officials, a total of 508 planes transported 61,680 Guatemalan deportees from the United States in 2024.
In 2023, the number of Guatemalans being sent back reached a new record of 55,302, surpassing the previous highest recorded in 2019 of 54,599.
Every year, thousands of Guatemalans make the difficult decision to enter the United States irregularly. They are driven by the urgent need to escape the prevalent violence and pervasive poverty that plague their homeland.
In 2024, Guatemalan migrants sent an unprecedented amount of money back to their families, serving as a crucial source of financial support. According to Guatemala’s central bank, these remittances reached a record high of nearly $21 billion, which accounted for approximately 19 percent of the country’s GDP.
