Wave of Deportees

The U.S. will likely deport 24 thousand Guatemalans this year

Disillusioned, their heads down, their expressions serious, they exit the plane that brings deportees to the country.  They leave behind the American Dream and the illusion of escaping the Guatemalan poverty they were mired in.

This week, the count of deportees from the United States surpassed 14 thousand Guatemalans.  The Ministry of External Relations predicts that, at the end of the year, more than 24 thousand Guatemalans will be returned, 5 thousand more than last year.

Many return to their homes frustrated for having been detained in the desert during their attempt to make it to the North, and indebted for having paid the coyotes, others with a rotting life at their backs, after having worked many years in the U.S. and having a divided family.

Upon their arrival, they find a bag with food and a drink on top of a chair, the welcome of migration personell, support to help find a job, and the challenge of starting again.

Cesar Rios, who lived in San Diego, California, for 14 years, left his wife and four daughters, whom he will try to bring from the United States, after he accomodates himself in Rio Brave, Suchitepequez, a place he doesn't even remember how to get to.

"One lives with fear.  We didn't go out much, we didn't leave [the house], and when I returned home from work, they grabbed me," he comments with impotence.

He is sure that he doesn't want to return because he already has risked too much, but others, like Pedro Garcia, who was grabbed after 4 years of living in the U.S., will wait two weeks and try again.  "Here there is nothing to do," he comments.

Many complain of the hitting and abuse that they recieved during their detention.  "I spent 40 days in a [detention center].  They threw me to the floor, they hit me.  They treat animals better," protests Fredy Ramos as he touches Guatemalan soil after three years of absence in the North.

There is more family drama, but there isn't more immigration.  Previous statistics indicate that when this year finishes the amount of deportees will have tripled since 2004, when 7 thousand 29 people were returned.

Panic from the Raids

The tension due to the increased raids and deportations has been felt intensely for months, now.  Guatemalans have been obligated to change their daily habits.  They don't go out, they have changed their modes of transportation, and they live in constant tension.  They are limited in their communities due to the fear that in one day the life they built through years of work and struggle, will dissapear.

"There is a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty, because people know that the police arrive at every site--the factories, the trainstops, the busses-- and they live trapped in their communities out of fear," dice Marlon Gonzales, president of the Coalition of Guatemalan Immigrants (CONGUATE).

He afirms that for some time now they have been advertising that things have gotten worse and everytime there are more raids.  The U.S. Government augmented the funding of the Department of Homeland Security and now they have more capacity and more personel to quicken the deportations.

Juan Garcia, of the Comittee for for Migrants in Action of Rhode Island, explains that many of the deportees are denied political asylum, that have been presented for years.

Garcia complains about the lack of support from the Guatemalan government.  "We are abandonded to our own luck, and we'd like to know what the Guatemalan government is doing," he said.

Despite the hardening of migratory measure, the number of Guatemalans that risk their lives to go to the U.S. has not diminished.  Still, crossing the border has become much more dangerous and much more expensive.  A study by the Mesa Nacional de Migraciones (Menamig) establishes that in 10 years the amount that coyotes ask for has increased.  In 1994 they asked for $300 now they ask for $4,000.

The routes by which they transport hidden people in tracks and the treks through the desert have gotten much longer and more dangerous.  This is illustrated by the fact that the trip North has cost 149 Guatemalans their lives this year.

The Effects

In additon to the personal consequences, the deportations affect Guatemala.  The country will absorb more unemployed and indebted people, and more poverty.

"Three or four people depend on one migrant and if that migrant stops working, it generates more poverty, more unemployment, and more insecurity," affirms Garcia.

Luis Linares, analist from the Association of Social Investigations and Studies (ASIES), signals that the problem is serious.  "Thousands more are seeking employment and thousands of families fail to receive the remittances that were sent to them from the North."

Marta Altolaguirre, Viceminister of Exterior Relations, explains that the situation has gotten out of control and she expects that authorities in the United States will get more strict everytime.

They Shouldn't Emigrate

She insisted that considering the situation, Guatemalans should weigh very seriously the decision to march off to the United States, because they risk their lives and there is a good chance they will get deported.  "They shouldn't leave because there is a lot of danger," said Altolaguirre.

The Ministry plans to start a complete program to assist deportees, this month, in which they will offer psychological and legal support, in addition to subsidies and assessment to help find employment, but they need 11 million quetzales. 

She said that Guatemala cannot influence the decisions of th United States, although they have been energetic in their demands that they don't violate human rights and that they don't seperate families.

While the legal situation is undefined, thousands of people try to enter the United States, in search of what they don't find in their own countries, despite the risk of death in the desert or of being captured by U.S. agents and being sent back to their place of origin.  Nothing stops them.

More Stoppage and Less Remittances

For Luis Linares, analyst from ASIES, the increasing deportations are going to further aggravate the social situation in the country.

First, because everytime more unemployed people arrive in the country that need to find work, and because the families that depended on remittances from the United States are left without that income. 

"The impact on the national economy might not seem notable, but for many families it is a serious problem," explained Linares.

He signaled that it will have a marked effect on the Central American region, now that the massive return of migrants is being noted in all of the countries on the Isthmus. 

The challenge for the country, said Linares, is the creation of employment,  both to make opportunities for the people that return and also to avoid having Guatemalans making the march abroad to look for resources.

Migration Reform

International pressures aren't favoring migrants.

Migration Reform in the United States is stalled, it didn't advance in the Senate during June of this year.

The pressure from Latin American countries and migrant organizations in the United States is constant, but the advances are scarce.

After the failure of federal legislation, individual states are approving norms that affect migrants.  19 of the 50 states prohibit the contracting of undocumented workers.

While reform is not approved, the measures against migrants are more strict everytime.

(End of article)

Captions

Statistics

The hardening of U.S. legislation is progressively increasing the number of deportees, along with the fear of Guatemalans living in the country.

14,212 is the number of deported people from January to August 10.

18,305 were deported in 2006

24 thousand guatemalans are predicted to be deported in 2007

1.2 million Guatemalans reside in the United States

149 have died trying to enter the U.S.

Adolescents, Mojados, and Expatriots

At 15 years of age, Mario has lived the illusion of programming his trip North, the toughness of travelling in trucks, walking through the desert of Arizona, and being detained two times only to be deported back to his contry swallowing his tears and with a great debt behind him.

Around 700 minors have experimented with what it is liketo be deported from the U.S. this year.

In the same plain Rudy, 16, and Oscar, 17, were being returned.  Two cousins that returned to their routine in Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango.

When they tell their story, they try to boast and look at it like an adventure, but their expressions change when they tell of the two weeks they spent locked away in miniscule cells.  "During the whole time they didn't let us go out on the patio and they gave us very little food," they say.

Despite the penury that they went through, they are going to try again, and their families support them, because they want to make money "and here it is not possible."