For decades, undocumented immigrants from Guatemala have been excluded from any negotiations for temporary protection in the United States, and among them, day laborers in Los Angeles County who seek employment around Home Depot stores have become recurring victims of immigration agents.

“Right now, what we're experiencing is persecution,” he said Simon N., a Guatemalan day laborer who you have been going to a Home Depot every day for 15 years to look for work. “Here, we risk being arrested by ICE every day.” Those expelled from Guatemala directly or indirectly by the Civil War that raged between 1981 and 1983; those who fled the dictatorial regime of Efrain Rios Montt (1983-1986); those affected by the devastating Hurricane Mitch of 1998; or those later threatened by the scourge of gangs that claimed 54,000 lives in the Northern Triangle countries—El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—Guatemalan residents of Los Angeles say they feel defenseless in the face of the wave of arrests and deportations by the Trump administration. "Nobody defends us. Nobody helps us." “We're scared,” declared Hermenegildo A., a construction worker from the southwestern Department of San Marcos. “Imagine, if back in Guatemala we were escaping extortion by the gangs, now we're running from immigration.” Hermenegildo laments that the authorities in his country never did everything possible to appeal to the United States government to obtain Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for his compatriots, like the one who has protected Salvadorans from deportation since March 2001 after devastating earthquakes, and Hondurans and Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch. “There's a lot of corruption in Guatemala,” he said. “I used to sell garnachas, cakes and churrascos in a market, but I had to leave the country because the mareros [gang members] started extorting us, they threatened to beat us up and we also had to pay them fees.”

To the hardships faced by Guatemalan residents of Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles is included in the deportation from the United States.

However, this figure represented a 3% decrease compared to the same period in 2024, when 53,701 Guatemalans were deported under the administration of former President Joe Biden.

“Staying in the swamp”

“We have to keep a low profile,” says Simon N., a leader among the day laborers, born in the Department of Tiquisate, Department of Escuintla, Guatemala. "I see it as being in a swamp, and I don't have to leave if I see there's more danger outside. That's the season we're living in these days." In fact, Simon N. remains hidden in a car with a coworker. From there, he watches for any unusual movements to alert other farmworkers if he detects the presence of ICE agents. “Of all of us, I'm the one with the most courage to speak out,” he adds. "But right now we are all one, and my philosophy of life is that we will always get ahead because we know how to work. We have been here for years, and there are American citizens who defend us, support us, and we feel that we are not fighting our fight alone."

The problem of undocumented immigrants from Guatemala is aggravated by the practically nonexistent defense of their rights by their country's governments, at least for four and a half consecutive decades since 1980.

“I remember [former Guatemalan president] Jorge Serrano Elias, a very corrupt guy who is now an investor in Panama,” Simon added. Serrano Elias, who attempted a coup in 1993 and was granted asylum in Panama, was accused by his compatriots of corruption and of having gone from bankruptcy to power and then becoming a millionaire.

The man who stayed to live in Panama, but oh! he's the top investor. He's a thief.

And, I don't know, he's welcome in Guatemala. The son of a bitch is popular. It's for the same reason. That's how corruption works. They are corrupt.”

Another former president is singled out

Elio Alvarez points the finger at Alejandro Giammattei, who has been the subject of numerous corruption allegations during his presidency (2020-2024). 2006, an operation was carried out to regain control of the Pavon Prison Farm. Extrajudicial killings were later reported during the operation. Giammattei surrendered to the authorities, declared himself a “political prisoner,” and was ultimately released for lack of evidence

“The presidents of Guatemala are only interested in negotiating under the table. That's what they do," criticizes the Guatemalan day laborer. "They're always going to be sucking up to every US president. It's pure business what they do with us. That's part of the corruption, instability, and insecurity we experience in our country.”

“I was a merchant and was in a lot of danger,” said Elio, 32, a construction worker, who was completing paperwork for his five-month-old son, Elian, at the Guatemalan consulate general in Los Angeles. “I came fleeing the gangs. “They wanted to recruit all the young people.” Her compatriot Telma Osorio, 62, from the department of Nueva Santa Rosa, described the pain of having emigrated to the United States after being orphaned at age 10, suffering the murder of her nephew Jose Dante and her brother Felix de la Cruz Osorio, both 22, by guerrillas in the late 1970s, escaping domestic violence, and having to raise her seven children alone. “Thank God I obtained political asylum and became a resident, but I see that no one protects or helps my fellow countrymen,” she stated. For her part, Yomara de Leon, an employee at the “Don Shuco House” lunch counter, expressed that the 55,000 Guatemalans who returned from the United States were simply seeking an opportunity to get ahead and contribute. “something” to their country.

“It's truly sad to know that so many Guatemalans have been deported because we don't come here to do anything wrong. We only come here to work,” Yomara emphasized.

No representative from the Guatemalan Consulate General in Los Angeles could answer questions about the specific way they would be helping the day laborers who apply for jobs at Home Depot stores and who lack legal documents in the United States.

They stated that, “Ambassador Jose Rodriguez was transferred to another diplomatic mission effective January 1, 2026, and the new Consul General, who will assume his duties at the end of January 2026, will be informed.”