Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said Monday that his country can receive about 150 unaccompanied minors who are currently in U.S. custody every week. The president’s sayings come in the midst of a temporary judicial blockade in the United States on the repatriation of children and adolescents.
“The government is interested in receiving all unaccompanied minors who want to return to Guatemala voluntarily or by order of a judge,” the president said at a press conference.
In ideal conditions, it allows us to receive 150 and a beak of children each week to be able to relocate them. It depends on the ability to identify family members to facilitate a safe return, he added.
Arévalo explained that the initiative began after a visit by Guatemalan authorities to detention centers in the U.S. They came back very concerned, especially about the situation of minors. Those unaccompanied when they turn 18, they become in ICE centers, which have completely different conditions, he highlighted.
The president said his government has the mechanisms and temporary shelters to receive minors without being left out of institutional care and said that his administration has been in coordination with the US in this regard. But the decision to send, the number, and the pace is a decision that is on the part of the U.S. government, which is now in a judicial dispute, he added.
During a hearing on Sunday, federal judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, who issued the two-week block, asked the Justice Department to present evidence to support his claim that the parents or legal guardians of the minors had requested their return. The judge also asked the Justice Department’s lawyer to clarify the whereabouts of the minors, some of whom had already boarded planes.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala reported that it has strengthened the logistical actions necessary to receive them, in a safe and orderly manner, measures that are framed in the best interests of the child and that seek to prevent vulnerable adolescents from being sent to detention centres.
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