The United States deported a record 61,680 Guatemalans in 2024, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute. The announcement came after the arrival of the year’s final deportation flights in Guatemala City on Friday.
Four planes, departing from Texas, landed at an air force base in the Guatemalan capital, with around 100 people—mostly women and children—disembarking from one aircraft. The significant increase in deportations occurred as preparations intensify for Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency in January 2025. Trump has vowed to implement mass deportation policies.
Guatemalan authorities estimate that 2.7 million of its citizens reside in the U.S., but only 400,000 have legal documentation to stay and work. Officials confirmed that 508 deportation flights landed in Guatemala this year, significantly surpassing the 55,302 deportees in 2023 and the previous record of 54,599 in 2019.
Many Guatemalans flee their home country to escape poverty and violence, often relying on remittances sent by family members in the U.S. Guatemala’s central bank reported that nearly $21 billion in remittances were sent in 2024—a figure equivalent to 19% of the country’s GDP, marking a new record.
