Sawt Falasteen - US migrant deportation flights arrive in Latin America

A total of 265 Guatemalans arrived on three flights -- two operated by the military, and one a charter, the Central American country's migration institute said, updating earlier figures.

Washington also sent four deportation flights to Mexico on Thursday, the White House press secretary said on X, despite multiple US media reports that authorities there had turned at least one plane back.

The Mexican government has not confirmed either the arrival of flights or any agreement to receive a specific number of planes with deportees.

But Mexico's foreign ministry said Friday it was ready to work with Washington over the deportation of its citizens, saying the country would "always accept the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms."

The flights came as the White House said it had arrested more than a thousand people in two days with hundreds deported by military aircraft, saying that "the largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway."

Some 538 illegal immigrant "criminals" were arrested Thursday, it said, followed by another 593 on Friday.

By comparison, under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden deportation flights were carried out regularly, with a total of 270,000 deportations in 2024 -- a 10-year record -- and 113,400 arrests, making an average of 310 per day.

- 'Bad, hard criminals' -

The Guatemalan government did not confirm whether any of the migrants arrested this week were among the deportees that arrived Friday.

"These are flights that took place after Trump took office," an official in the Guatemalan vice president's office told AFP.

A Pentagon source told AFP that "overnight, two DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft conducted repatriation flights from the US to Guatemala."

Early Friday the White House posted an image on X of men in shackles being marched into a military aircraft, with the caption: "Deportation flights have begun."

And Trump told reporters that the flights were to get "the bad, hard criminals out."

"Murderers, people that have been as bad as you get. As bad as anybody you've seen," he said.

Friday's deportees were taken to a reception center at an air force base in Guatemala's capital, away from the media.

Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.

On his first day in office he signed orders declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport "criminal aliens."

His administration said it would also reinstate a "Remain in Mexico" policy under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Friday on X that program had been reinstated, and that Mexico had deployed some 30,000 National Guard troops to its border.

The Mexican foreign ministry did not confirm either claim in its statement.

The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST