\n<\/p>\n
Carlos Navarro was eating takeout outside a restaurant in Virginia recently when immigration officers apprehended him and said there was an order for his removal from the country.<\/p>\n
He had never had an encounter with the law, said Mr. Navarro, 32, adding that he worked at poultry plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
By last week, he was back in Guatemala for the first time in 11 years, calling his wife in the United States from a reception center for deportees in the capital, Guatemala City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Navarro\u2019s experience may be a preview of the kind of swift deportations coming under President Trump to communities around the United States, which is home to as many as 14 million unauthorized immigrants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The administration, which has promised the largest deportations in American history, was said to be starting them as soon as Tuesday<\/a>. In his inaugural speech on Monday, Mr. Trump promised to \u201cbegin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Navarro\u2019s situation provides a glimpse into what mass deportations could mean in Latin American countries at the other end of the deportation pipeline.<\/p>\n Officials there are preparing to receive significant numbers of their citizens, though many governments have said that they had not been able to meet<\/a> with the incoming administration about its deportation push.<\/p>\n Guatemala, a small, impoverished nation scarred by a brutal civil war, has a substantial undocumented population in the United States. About 675,000 undocumented Guatemalans lived in the country in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That makes it one of the largest countries of origin<\/a> for unauthorized immigrants in the United States, after Mexico, India and El Salvador, and a laboratory for how mass deportations also stand to change life outside the United States.<\/p>\n Last year, Guatemala received around seven deportation flights a week from the United States, according to migration officials, which translates to about 1,000 people. The government has told U.S. officials that it can accommodate a maximum of 20 such flights a week, or around 2,500 people, the officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n At the same time, Guatemala\u2019s government has been developing a plan \u2014 which President Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo has referred to as \u201cReturn Home\u201d<\/a> \u2014 to assure Guatemalans facing deportation that they can expect help from consulates in the United States \u2014 and, in the case of detention and removal \u2014 a \u201cdignified reception.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe know they\u2019re worried,\u201d said Carlos Ramiro Mart\u00ednez, the foreign minister. \u201cThey\u2019re living with immense fear, and as the government, we can\u2019t just say, \u2018Look, we\u2019re also scared for you.\u2019 We have to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Guatemala\u2019s plan, which it shared at a meeting of foreign ministers from the region in Mexico City last week, goes beyond the immediate concerns that many governments in the region share \u2014 such as how to house or feed deportees on their first night.<\/p>\n It also addresses how to reintegrate deported Guatemalans back into society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The plan, which focuses on linking deportees to jobs and making use of their language and work skills, also aims to offer mental health support for people coping with the trauma of deportation.<\/p>\n In practical terms, it means that when deportees step off the plane, government employees will extensively interview them, to get a detailed picture of those returning to the country, the help they need and the kind of work they could do.<\/p>\n Experts say Guatemala\u2019s plan appears to reflect an unspoken expectation on the part of the Trump administration that Latin American governments not only receive their deported citizens \u2014 but also work to keep them from returning to the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Historically, many people sent back to their homelands have turned around and tried to go back, \u201ceven under extreme circumstances,\u201d said Felipe Gonz\u00e1lez Morales, who served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.<\/p>\n According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, roughly 40 percent of deportations in 2020 involved people who had been deported before and re-entered the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The dynamic has for years been \u201cbasically a revolving door,\u201d Mr. Mart\u00ednez, Guatemala\u2019s foreign minister, said in an interview.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump aims to change that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the entire world watches President Trump and his administration mass deporting illegal criminals from American communities back to their home countries,\u201d Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition, said in an email, \u201cit will send a very strong message not to come to America unless you plan to do it the right away or else you will be sent home.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Already, the number of illegal crossings at the U.S. border is down drastically, with around 46,000 people attempting to cross in November, according to the U.S. government, the lowest monthly figure during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Trump administration is expected to pressure governments in Latin America to keep supporting its crackdown on migration.<\/p>\n But Guatemala\u2019s plan to reintegrate the deported is not just a way of showing Mr. Trump that Guatemala is cooperating, according to Anita Isaacs, an expert on Guatemala<\/a> who created the blueprint for the plan.<\/p>\n Ms. Isaacs said of deportees, \u201cif you can find a way of integrating them and of harnessing their skills, then the opportunities for Guatemala are enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Until now, she said, deportees getting off a plane in Guatemala City mostly got some basics, like new identification documents, sanitary supplies and a ride to a shelter or the main bus terminal.<\/p>\n Instead, she proposed, Guatemala could embrace its newly returned citizens as an economic asset, including for its tourism sector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n