Elaine Denny, David Dow, Jose Ordoñez, Wayne Pitts, Diego Romero, Juan Tellez, Mateo Villamizar Chaparro, Erik Wibbels, and Pamela Zabala
To discourage migration, the Obama and Trump administrations deported hundreds of thousands of Central Americans during the last decade. But little was known about what happens to deportees. Eighteen months ago, we decided to find out. We interviewed 1,357 deportees as they entered Guatemala and followed up with 340 of them over subsequent months. Our data provide unique and systematic information about the forces driving migration in Central America—factors that the Biden administration should heed as it reformulates policy.
