The president of Guatemala said the Trump administration’s deportation of Guatemalan citizens amounted to the exportation of coronavirus cases.
“We’ve had serious problems with deported people,” Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said Thursday. “We haven’t been treated by the United States in a way that I’d say is kind in relation to the deportees.”
“We understand that the United States wants to deport people, but what we do not understand is why they send us flights full of infection,” said Giammattei, a retired doctor.
A total of 119 Guatemalans that Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent back to Guatemala on flights in March and April tested positive for the virus shortly after arriving. The Guatemalan government has identified approximately 2,500 cases of the coronavirus throughout the country.
Guatemala refused to accept U.S. deportation flights for two weeks after 44 of its citizens who returned on an April 13 flight from Louisiana tested positive. The U.S. government sent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to Guatemala after the flight to confirm the cases.
Colombia, Haiti, Jamaica, and Mexico have reported infections among people who have been deported from the U.S.
As of May 16, ICE had 26,660 detainees in custody. Of the 2,368 detainees it has tested for the coronavirus, 1,181 have tested positive.
