Almost 48,000 Guatemalans Deported from U.S. to Date in 2014

GUATEMALA CITY – The deportation of Guatemalan immigrants from the United States reached a total of 47,805 in the first 11 months of 2014, 3.47 percent more than in the same period last year, officials said on Monday.

According to a report by Guatemala’s DGM migration office, U.S. immigration officials sent back 47,805 undocumented persons to the Central American country between January and November this year, which represents 1,607 people or 3.47 percent more than in the first 11 months of 2013.

In that period last year, 46,198 undocumented persons were repatriated to Guatemala.

Of the total number deported between January and last November, 41,727 were men, 5,896 were women and the rest were minors.

The Guatemalan Foreign Ministry estimates that some 1.8 million people from that country are living in the United States, 60 percent of them “without papers.”

In 2013, U.S. immigration authorities deported a total of 50,221 Guatemalans, compared with 40,647 in 2012.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina estimates that some 100,000 citizens of his country could benefit from immigration measures announced recently by his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.