As a new Trump administration takes office next month, one Central America is making a proactive move: Sources tell Reuters that Guatemala, in an attempt to get in President-elect Trump's good graces, has said it will accept citizens of other countries who may be booted from the United States under Trump's mass deportation plans. "There has to be a regional response," one Guatemalan official says. "And we want to be part of the solution."
Deporting citizens to their home nations can be difficult if those nations and the US are on iffy terms and deportation flights are refused. The overture from Guatemala could assist Trump's deportation plans, especially since some nations, like Mexico and the Bahamas, have already indicated they don't want to receive citizens from other countries who are deported from the US. Guatemala—as well as Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua—all face what Reuters calls a "moment of reckoning" once Trump assumes the US presidency again, but Guatemala has taken the most initiative to meet with Trump transition team members and others on topics such as migration and drug trafficking.
The AP notes that several of the Central American countries are "ill-prepared to handle" the promised deportation influx. Even migrants in the US with no criminal record may be at risk, as they may be kicked out of the country to meet Trump's ambitious deportation numbers, according to Jason Houser, ex-chief of staff for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Biden administration. "Hondurans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans need to be very, very nervous, because [Trump officials] are going to press the bounds of the law," Houser says. (More Guatemala stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
