Migrant Shelters in Guatemala Under Threat 

Fear that recent immigration reform laws could criminalize religious groups who work with migrants and asylum seekers 

Migrants and asylum seekers in Guatemala are under new threats, as new reforms are at risk to criminalize the work done by faith-based groups and other shelters- work that could harm the journey many make as they travel through Central America toward the United States. As of January, the government began implementing new regulations that will require non-governmental affiliated migrant shelters to submit biometric information data such as identification details, fingerprints, biographical material- and other personal data for migrants that use the facilities. Leaders from the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala and other organizations have expressed outrage at the prospect of enforcing this new policy- German Tax, a friar working in Colonia Mezquital had a say on the matter, “If we did that, we would be losing the trust that migrants have in us because here migrants come and speak and tell their stories”. However, if shelters like Friar Tax failure to comply with the regulations, local authorities could use certain elements of the reforms made to Guatemala’s immigration laws to pursue criminal charges against shelter personnel. These reforms are meant to target human smugglers, better known locally as “coyotes”, but due to the ambiguity in the law’s language, the reforms could also be used to target and punish people who support migrants- thereby labeling anyone who facilitates a migrant’s stay and transits a “trafficker”. 

Across Guatemala, the Catholic Church operates nine migrant shelters, each serving thousands a month, and a two-story house in Colonia Mezquital. However, during a conference in Guatemala City, the bishops of the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference warned that they may close all nine entirely, rather than be forced to submit personal information on the migrants and other asylum seekers who use their humanitarian services. 

These heightened measures come as a result of Guatemala increasingly cracking down on the migrants who pass through the country, seeing as though in January alone more than 200- primarily from Ecuador, India, Haiti, and Venezuela- were deported by immigration officials. Guatemala has only implemented new visa requirements for Dominican migrants after it saw an increase in people arriving from the Caribbean. Stricter measures have been a trend across Central America, as President Joe Biden has pressured the region to stump the flow of migrants traveling north to its southern border in Mexico.

Ligia Hernandez, the congressional representative of the centrist Semilla party, spoke on how her office will be holding hearings alongside church authorities to clarify how the reforms can be implemented with no harm to the shelters. 

“Migrant shelters exist not to promote migration but to care for people who have not been cared for in their countries”.