Guatemala

Advocacy for Guatemala

What’s Happening?

Guatemalans have fled their country in large numbers since the 1980s to escape violence, impunity, corruption, poverty, lack of security and services, droughts, and hurricanes. Many are unaccompanied children who frequently have relatives in the United States. Guatemala’s economy relies heavily on remittances from the United States even as tens of thousands of Guatemalans are deported from the U.S. each year, frequently saddled with debt and targeted for extortion upon arrival, while lacking sufficient support with re-integration. 

What Must Be Done?

International immigrants And Refugee Agency is advocating for increased protections for displaced Guatemalans, including increased support for those displaced by the impacts of climate change. It also opposes Guatemala serving as a “bridge” to repatriate third country nationals denied a chance to seek asylum in the United States.