US Has Sent Over 2,300 Mexicans to Guatemala and Honduras Before Bouncing Them Back to Mexico

Guatemala has taken in roughly 2,300 Mexicans deported from the United States so far this year, according to Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo, who confirmed the number in a televised interview aired Wednesday night. For most of Trump's second term, Mexicans deported from the US went straight back to Mexico by land or air. Now a chunk of them are flying through Central America first.

Arevalo laid out the mechanics plainly. Deported Mexicans arrive on the same planes carrying Guatemalan nationals being sent home. Guatemala treats them as being "in transit" and, working with Mexican immigration authorities, ships them onward to Mexican territory within 24 hours. Guatemala isn't housing them, granting refuge, or processing them as asylum seekers. Arevalo was explicit that his country is not acting as a "safe third country." Costs are covered by either the US or Mexican government, he said.

Honduras is also in the mix, though the numbers are murkier. Human Rights First, a migrant advocacy group, told Reuters it has confirmed roughly 200 Mexicans deported to Honduras. But Honduras's own Attention to Returned Migrants Center told Reuters it hasn't received any deported Mexican citizens, and the Honduran foreign ministry said it has no information on the matter at all. There's a disconnect between what advocacy groups are tracking and what the Honduran government is acknowledging.

One case gives the numbers a face. Arturo Trejo, a 56-year-old from Mexico's Hidalgo state, told Telemundo he was flown to Honduras before being sent back to Mexico. "They didn't tell us anything, just to get on the flight," he said. People are being moved between countries without being told where they're going or why.

Mexico is not on board. Mexico's National Migration Institute confirmed to the Associated Press that the US has been rerouting Mexicans through Guatemala and Honduras primarily since April, then busing them to southern Mexico. Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it has told US authorities directly that it opposes the practice and has reiterated that Mexican citizens have the right to enter their own country. Mexico says it's working to make sure anyone rerouted this way still gets home safely.

The Department of Homeland Security isn't apologizing for it. Asked why Mexicans are being routed through Central America instead of sent home directly, DHS told the AP the administration is "utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised."

Why do it this way at all? Immigration analysts cited by Reuters believe the point is geography: moving Mexican deportees through Guatemala or Honduras first puts more distance and more logistical friction between them and the US border, making illegal reentry harder. Ana Maria Mendez of the migrant rights group WOLA offered a sharper read, telling Reuters the tactic reflects "a very severe U.S. migration policy where they seek to instill terror and fear in migrants at all costs." That's her characterization of intent, not a proven fact, and DHS has not confirmed deterrence-through-fear as a stated goal. The stated goal, per DHS, is simply maximizing lawful deportation volume.

Some outlets have folded this into a broader story about US pressure on Mexico. The AP and Independent both noted that Mexico's government has separately protested the deaths of 17 Mexicans in US immigration custody or during enforcement operations, and that civil organizations believe the third-country rerouting is partly a pressure tactic tied to that dispute. This is attributed to unnamed "civil organizations," not confirmed by any US or Mexican official on record, so it should be treated as a theory rather than an established motive.

The deportation surge behind all this is real and documented. Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse shows immigration judges ordered 79,000 removals in June, up from about 25,000 in December 2024, according to Breitbart News. Andrew Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies told Breitbart the backlog has dropped from nearly 4 million cases to under 3.5 million. TRAC itself, described by Breitbart as sympathetic to migrants, still put the current backlog at 3.2 million. Fox News reported this month that DHS says both arrests and deportations are running ahead of last year's pace.

What's not resolved: whether Guatemala's 24-hour transit arrangement holds up as deportation volume keeps climbing, and whether Honduras's denial that it has received any Mexican deportees will survive scrutiny given Human Rights First's count of roughly 200 and Arturo Trejo's own account of being flown there. Mexico says it's still pressing Washington to stop the practice outright. So far, DHS has given no indication it plans to change course.