Loan Sharks, Gangsters, and Paltry Job Prospects Greet Guatemalan Deportees
ByMigrants expelled from the U.S. often have little choice but to head north again.
Ramón Salas left Guatemala in June, accompanied by his 13-year-old grandson. He returned alone.
This month he followed a line of deportees filing from an airfield tarmac into a room at a Guatemalan air force base, where government functionaries recorded his name and the date he headed to the U.S. and handed him a brown bag with two sandwiches, juice, corn chips, and cookies. Walking outside, he was greeted by a tumultuous scene. Smugglers offered to take him back to the border, currency traders waved sheaves of quetzales, and loan sharks circled, looking for customers. The crowd also contained relatives hoping to be reunited with loved ones. But the face Salas wanted to see most wasn’t there. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t do anything,” says Salas, 59. “I just want to know where my grandson is, and no one is telling me anything.”…
Loan Sharks, Gangsters, and Paltry Job Prospects Greet Guatemalan Deportees
