The Fray Matías de Córdoba Human Rights Center and the Kino Border Initiative have documented conditions facing people deported by the U.S. through Nogales, Tapachula and Guatemala City, finding that since April 2026 DHS has shifted from land-border returns to flying Mexican deportees deep into the interior—mainly Villahermosa and Tapachula—logging 408 such flights between mid-April and July 2026. Of 387 Mexican citizens interviewed, 42 percent reported ICE failed to return passports, IDs, money or belongings, some described being pressured to sign removal papers, and 20 percent reported serious injuries; most had lived in the U.S. an average of 14.3 years, with 58 percent separated from U.S. citizen family members. A Puente News Collaborative investigation adds that at least 2,200 Mexicans have been deported to Guatemala this year as part of a broader U.S. third-country deportation push that has sent roughly 19,000 of an estimated 22,000 third-country deportees to Mexico; Brownsville resident Daniel Ramirez and fellow deportee Felipe Flores described being shackled during a 15-hour flight to Guatemala City before facing a costly, multi-day bus trip back across Mexico, with Ramirez ultimately routed to Matamoros. Tapachula, a city of 400,000, has become a major hub for these deportees, many of whom are then bused into Chiapas or held at the Siglo XXI detention center while Mexico's asylum agency COMAR can take up to two years to decide cases.