Guatemala’s president has said after meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that his country will accept migrants from other countries being deported from the US.
Under the “safe third country” agreement announced by President Bernardo Arevalo, the deportees would then be returned to their home countries at US expense.
“We have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees both of our nationality as well as deportees from other nationalities,” Mr Arevalo said, speaking during a news conference with Mr Rubio.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, shakes hands with Guatemalan Vice President Karin Herrera during a photo opportunity at the National Palace in Guatemala City (AP)
Immigration, a Trump administration priority, has been the major focus of Mr Rubio’s first foreign trip as America’s top diplomat, a five-country tour of Central America.
In El Salvador on Monday, he announced a similar but broader agreement.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his country would accept US deportees of any nationality, including American citizens and legal residents who are imprisoned for violent crimes.
During his trip, Mr Rubio has faced questions about the legality of El Salvador’s offer, as well as about the major upheaval at the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Almost all the aid agency’s workers overseas are being pulled off the job and out of the field under a sudden Trump administration order.
Mr Arevalo, a progressive and son of a president credited with establishing much of Guatemala’s social safety net, told the AP in January that his predecessor’s “safe third country” agreement with Mr Trump was “absolutely inadequate”, and that a more regional approach must be taken for dealing with immigration.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is directed to the meeting table after a photo opportunity with Guatemalan Vice President Karin Herrera, right, at the National Palace in Guatemala City (AP)
But he notably did not rule out making a similar deal.
“We are not a safe third country, nobody has proposed it,” he said at the time.
Guatemala has been co-operating in receiving deportees from the US, accepting both civilian and military flights.
But Mr Trump’s promised mass deportations from the US would hit Guatemala hard, as remittances — the money Guatemalans send home — make up about one-fifth of the country’s gross domestic product.