Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and Guatemalan Minister of Governance Francisco Jimenez shake fingers after signing a memorandum of understanding on a joint safety program settlement on the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura on June 26 in Guatemala Metropolis, Guatemala.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Pictures
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Pictures
After planes with Guatemalan youngsters had been loaded within the U.S., then prevented from taking off by a federal choose’s determination to quickly halt the youngsters’s elimination, the Guatemalan authorities stated on Aug. 31 that it was liable for just lately proposing to Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem that the unaccompanied Guatemalan minors be returned to their house nation.
In a press release revealed to the social media platform X on the night of Aug. 31, the identical day because the choose’s determination, the Guatemalan authorities indicated it wished to forestall the youngsters from staying in shelters and detention facilities and that it helps coordinated motion to reunify Guatemalan youngsters with their households.
El Gobierno de Guatemala informa sobre acciones de reunificación acquainted de menores guatemaltecos migrantes no acompañados: pic.twitter.com/6956IVTWeN
— Gobierno de Guatemala 🇬🇹 (@GuatemalaGob) August 31, 2025
The Guatemalan authorities has plans to establish the wants of every of the Guatemalan youngsters and intends to incorporate them in social packages of their house nation, the federal government said. All actions which were taken regarding the unaccompanied minors have taken the youngsters’s human rights under consideration and have complied with due course of, the federal government alleged.
NPR requested the Guatemalan authorities what number of youngsters it had requested be returned from the U.S., and whether or not all of their mother and father have requested that the youngsters be returned to Guatemala, as a U.S. lawyer indicated in a listening to on Aug. 31. The Guatemalan authorities didn’t instantly reply and didn’t straight tackle these questions in its assertion.
The assertion seems to include a factual error. The Guatemalan authorities stated it advised the thought of sending again the unaccompanied minors to Noem whereas she was within the nation in July. However Noem visited Guatemala on June 26, after making stops in Costa Rica, Honduras and Paraguay in a tour of Central America.
Throughout that go to, Noem and Guatemalan Inside Minister Francisco Jimenez signed agreements, together with one to doubtlessly enable individuals not initially from Guatemala to hunt asylum in Guatemala as an alternative of the U.S., even though U.S. regulation permits asylum seekers to stay as they adjust to court docket proceedings related to their case. Noem was additionally pictured on June 26 watching individuals being deported from the U.S. whereas at La Aurora Worldwide Airport in Guatemala Metropolis, with U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala Tobin Bradley.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem (R) talks to ERO Regional Attaché Guadalupe “Lupita” Serna (C) and U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala Tobin Bradley as individuals deported from the US disembark a repatriation flight as Noem is given a tour of Division of Homeland Safety operations at La Aurora Worldwide Airport on June 26, 2025 in Guatemala Metropolis, Guatemala.
Anna Moneymaker/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Anna Moneymaker/AFP through Getty Pictures
The Division of Homeland Safety didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from NPR relating to whether or not Guatemala had advised that the unaccompanied minors be returned to Guatemala whereas Noem was visiting the nation in June.
Some attorneys representing the Guatemalan youngsters set to be deported disagree with Guatemala’s assertion that the method to take away the unaccompanied minors has not disregarded their rights. Within the try and ship youngsters away with out permitting them to first end pursuing their asylum claims, legal professionals for the Nationwide Immigration Legislation Heart, the regulation agency representing a few of the Guatemalan youngsters within the U.S., imagine the U.S. has violated each federal legal guidelines and the U.S. structure.
“At midnight on a vacation weekend, the Trump administration ripped susceptible, frightened youngsters from their beds and tried to return them to hazard in Guatemala,” stated Efrén C. Olivares, the Vice President of Litigation on the Nationwide Immigration Legislation Heart.
The U.S. district court docket issuance of an emergency Momentary Restraining Order on Aug. 31 prevented the federal government from eradicating any unaccompanied Guatemalan minors in U.S. custody for the subsequent 14 days. The Nationwide Immigration Legislation Heart has vowed to proceed defending the Guatemalan youngsters’s proper to remain within the U.S.
