OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:02 PM – Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo revealed on Wednesday that his country is willing to take in migrants deported under the Trump administration, regardless of their nationality.
“We have agreed to increase by 40% the number of flights of deportees both of our nationality as well as deportees from other nationalities,” Arevalo stated.
Arevalo’s comments came during a visit from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The announcement follows a similar deal made by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who similarly agreed to accept deportees regardless of their nationality. Bukele also noted that El Salvador will gladly accept American criminals convicted of violent crimes — if the U.S. wishes to ship them off in order to create more room.
“We can send them, and he put them in his jails,” Rubio stated when talking about Guatemala’s president. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”
“This is an example of foreign aid that’s in our national interest. That’s why I’ve issued a waiver for these programs. That’s why these programs are coming back online. And they will be functioning because it’s a way of showing to the American people this is the kind of foreign aid that’s aligned with our foreign policy, with our national interest,” Rubio added.
President Donald Trump responded, seemingly intrigued by the offer Arevalo made.
“I’m just saying if we had a legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Trump stated on Tuesday regarding the question of sending violent American criminals to serve their sentences in a foreign country. “I don’t know if we do or not, we’re looking at that right now.”
As of now, Guatemala only plans to house the migrants awaiting deportation back to their home countries. In return for temporarily housing them, the United States will pay the country a fee.
“However, the permanent answer to immigration is to bring development so that no one has to leave the country,” Arevalo added.
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