GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo told a televised interview Wednesday that roughly 2,300 Mexican nationals deported from the United States have landed in Guatemala so far in 2026 alongside returning Guatemalans, but are processed as transit passengers and sent on to Mexico within 24 hours.
Arévalo said the migrants are not housed or granted refuge in Guatemala and that the country has not been designated a “safe third country” for asylum purposes. “They are arriving in planes of Guatemalan returnees, and what we have done is process them as in transit, in coordination with the Mexican immigration authorities,” he said.
The comments follow U.S. media reports that the Trump administration has been routing some deportations through Guatemala and Honduras as part of efforts to deter irregular migration. Mexico’s government previously denied agreeing to transfers of its citizens to third countries; Reuters’ requests for immediate comment from Mexico and Honduras’ foreign ministries went unanswered.
President Donald Trump, who won reelection in 2024 on a platform of tougher immigration enforcement, has overseen expanded deportation measures and arrangements with countries across the Americas to remove people the U.S. deems to be staying illegally.