
Place of origin Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and Guatemalan Minister of Governance Francisco Jimenez shake palms after signing a memorandum of figuring out on a joint safety program settlement on the Palacio Nacional de l. a. Cultura on June 26 in Guatemala Town, Guatemala.
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After planes with Guatemalan youngsters had been loaded within the U.S., then averted from setting out by way of a federal pass judgement on’s choice to briefly halt the youngsters’s removing, the Guatemalan govt stated on Aug. 31 that it was once chargeable for not too long ago proposing to Division of Place of origin Safety Secretary Kristi Noem that the unaccompanied Guatemalan minors be returned to their house nation.
In a commentary printed to the social media platform X at the night time of Aug. 31, the similar day because the pass judgement on’s choice, the Guatemalan govt indicated it sought after to stop 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: %.twitter.com/6956IVTWeN
— Gobierno de Guatemala 🇬🇹 (@GuatemalaGob) August 31, 2025
The Guatemalan govt has plans to spot the wishes of each and every of the Guatemalan youngsters and intends to incorporate them in social techniques of their house nation, the federal government mentioned. All movements which have been taken regarding the unaccompanied minors have taken the youngsters’s human rights under consideration and feature complied with due procedure, the federal government alleged.
NPR requested the Guatemalan govt what number of youngsters it had asked be returned from the U.S., and whether or not all in their folks have requested that the youngsters be returned to Guatemala, as a U.S. legal professional indicated in a listening to on Aug. 31. The Guatemalan govt didn’t instantly reply and did indirectly deal with the ones questions in its commentary.
The commentary seems to comprise a factual error. The Guatemalan govt stated it steered the theory of sending again the unaccompanied minors to Noem whilst she was once within the nation in July. However Noem visited Guatemala on June 26, after making stops in Costa Rica, Honduras and Paraguay in a excursion of Central The us.
All over that seek advice from, Noem and Guatemalan Inside Minister Francisco Jimenez signed agreements, together with one to doubtlessly permit other people no longer initially from Guatemala to hunt asylum in Guatemala as a substitute of the U.S., even supposing U.S. legislation lets in asylum seekers to stay as they agree to courtroom lawsuits related to their case. Noem was once additionally pictured on June 26 gazing other people being deported from the U.S. whilst at L. a. Aurora World Airport in Guatemala Town, with U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala Tobin Bradley.

Place of origin Safety Secretary Kristi Noem (R) talks to ERO Regional Attaché Guadalupe “Lupita” Serna (C) and U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala Tobin Bradley as other people deported from the US disembark a repatriation flight as Noem is given a excursion of Division of Place of origin Safety operations at L. a. Aurora World Airport on June 26, 2025 in Guatemala Town, Guatemala.
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The Division of Place of origin Safety didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from NPR referring to whether or not Guatemala had steered that the unaccompanied minors be returned to Guatemala whilst Noem was once visiting the rustic in June.
Some lawyers representing the Guatemalan youngsters set to be deported disagree with Guatemala’s commentary that the method to take away the unaccompanied minors has no longer brushed aside their rights. Within the try to ship youngsters away with out permitting them to first end pursuing their asylum claims, legal professionals for the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle, the legislation company representing probably the most Guatemalan youngsters within the U.S., consider the U.S. has violated each federal regulations and the U.S. charter.
“At nighttime on a vacation weekend, the Trump management ripped susceptible, worried youngsters from their beds and tried to go back them to risk in Guatemala,” stated Efrén C. Olivares, the Vice President of Litigation on the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle.
The U.S. district courtroom issuance of an emergency Brief Restraining Order on Aug. 31 averted the federal government from getting rid of any unaccompanied Guatemalan minors in U.S. custody for the following 14 days. The Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle has vowed to proceed protecting the Guatemalan youngsters’s proper to stick within the U.S.