On Thursday, Mexico denied the landing of a US military plane with deportees on board, according to the channel reported this Friday. NBCNewswhich at the same time reports on the arrival in Guatemala of two US Air Force planes.
According to the media, which cites two officials from the US Department of Defense and a third person familiar with the event, while two Air Force C-17 planes, each with about 80 people on board, left the United States Thursday night, a third flight bound for Mexico never took off.
NBCNews reported that a White House official indicated that in the case of the plane bound for Mexico it was “an administrative issue and was resolved quickly.”
The truth is that after the inauguration last Monday of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, relations between this country and Mexico have been strained, especially since the Republican threatened to impose a general tariff of 25% on the Latin American country in retaliation. for the crisis on the border.
This same Friday, according to sources from the Guatemalan Migration Institute (IGM), two military planes landed in the capital of the Central American country with dozens of migrants deported from El Paso (Texas) and Tucson (Arizona).
In addition to these two military aircraft, a third commercial aircraft also arrived in Guatemala City today. The three planes transported a total of 264 nationals of this country, according to IGM.
US military aircraft
President Trump’s Government published images of military aircraft on social media today to send a tough message on immigration policy, as White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt implied.
As reported to EFE An official from the Department of Defense, on the night of Thursday to Friday, the US authorities used two military aircraft for two repatriation flights to Guatemala.
On Friday, the White House indicated that deportations of migrants had “begun”in reference to Trump’s main campaign promise to carry out the largest mass expulsion operation of foreigners in US history.
However, deportation flights from the United States are not something new and were carried out constantly during the administration of Democrat Joe Biden (2021-2025).
Only between June and December of last year did they take place more than 860 repatriation flightsaccording to data provided last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). On these trips, more than 271,000 individuals from some 160 countries were expelled.
The Pentagon confirmed today in a statement that they began using military aircraft to carry out these deportation flights, which are normally carried out on civilian aircraft.
According to specialized media, the plan is to continue using C-130 and C-17 aircraft to transport troops and personnel to deport 5,400 people currently in the custody of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency.
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