about what they are going to do with their lives,” Ortiz said.
As Ortiz’ comments indicate, the U.S. government is aware
of the long-term reintegration problems facing Northern
Triangle deportees who return home to nations with few
jobs and high rates of poverty and violence. The existing
program in Guatemala—the Guatemalan Repatriates Project—provides immediate assistance free of charge: hygiene
supplies, phone calls to family, and either a bus ticket to
their home town or a stay at a migrant shelter. The program
is funded by USAID and operated by the International Organization for Migration. It has a tent inside the Guatemala
City airport, as do NGOs that provide services to returnees.
Since the Repatriates Project was launched in June 2011,
it has provided basic communication and health services,
transportation, and shelter to about 23,000 Guatemalan returnees. Another goal of the program is to help returnees
find jobs. But it is not as successful at providing this longterm integration assistance—so far, only four returnees have
found jobs through the program.
Experts say that, with scarce opportunities for reintegration and work, most deportees intend to return to the
United States. According to a 2010 survey conducted by
IOM in Guatemala, 68 percent of all returnees were forcibly returned (deported) and, of these, 43 percent said they
intended to return to the United States within 12 months.64
On-the-ground professionals like IOM’s Delbert Field said
that in Guatemala, more than half return. “If you see the operation at the airport and also at the land borders, the coyotes are waiting at the door to get them back up to Mexico,”
Field said. “They are literally ready to ferry them back up.
Even on some of the [deportation] flights you can tell there
are people ready to step into that role the moment they get
out of the airport. People who come off the flight, their cohorts are waiting right outside the door at the airport. [On
land borders] they pose as money changers right outside the
migration office.”
Sister Valdette Wileman, who leads the Center for the
Returned Migrant in Honduras with the support of the
Honduran government, the Catholic Church, and the U.S.
embassy, said that almost all of the returnees she works with
plan to go back. “They have a lot of shame of having failed,”
Valdette said. “Their goal was to send money here from the
United States.” Interviews with Honduran deportees in January 2011 revealed little appetite for settling down at home.
A returnee who had worked as a mechanic and welder in
Florida said, “As an immigrant the idea doesn’t go away.
I’m going to spend some time with my family here and then
go back.” Not surprisingly, when family is left behind in the
United States, the desire to cross the border again is even
stronger. “I’m not leaving my family alone there,” one returnee said.
El Salvador has a similar program for returnees; the
12 Briefing Paper, June 2012
Table 10 Northern Triangle Deportees Removed
on Criminal Grounds, 2010*
Total number
deported in 2010
Percent removed on
criminal grounds
El Salvador
1,150,000
19%
Guatemala
799,000
6%
Honduras
468,000
6%
* Criminal deportees have been convicted of a crime in the United States that
makes one eligible for deportation under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Not
all individuals who have been deported on criminal grounds are gang members
or violent criminals. Low level drug convictions and some non-violent offenses
may result in a removal on criminal grounds. Non-criminal deportees have been
removed because of a status violation (e.g. being in the country illegally or working
without authorization).
“Welcome Home” program was initiated by Catholic Relief Services and then transferred to the Salvadoran government. Like the programs in Guatemala and Honduras,
“Welcome Home” provides returnees with basic, immediate
services but has no effective plan for long-term reintegration of deportees. “No one is doing [reintegration] in any
organized way,” said CRS El Salvador’s Erica Dahl-Bredine.