HUMSI — Human Security Initiative

Human Impact Project

A living database documenting reported immigration enforcement incidents and their human impact.

Texas man among thousands of Mexicans deported to Guatemala, then forced back across Mexico

Sep 1, 2026·Location: Brownsville, TX

Country of origin: Mexico

Texas man among thousands of Mexicans deported to Guatemala, then forced back across Mexico
Photo via San Antonio Express-News

Daniel Ramirez, a 30-year-old Texas resident born in Mexico's Tamaulipas state and raised in Brownsville, was detained by U.S. immigration agents near his home and held for days in detention without being able to shower or brush his teeth before being shackled for a 15-hour flight to Guatemala City under the Trump administration's third-country deportation policy. He was then bused across the border into Tapachula, Mexico, more than 1,000 miles from the U.S. border, joining at least 2,200 Mexican nationals sent to Guatemala this year as part of a broader program that has deported about 22,000 people to third countries, with roughly 19,000 sent to Mexico. Ramirez, who lived in the U.S. for years without legal status, said the transfer felt like "a punishment for us so we don't go back again." He later took a multi-day bus trip to Matamoros, near Brownsville, where he found work painting cars.

Suggest a correction, comment, or update

Sources

More incidents in Texas