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Desperate young Guatemalans try to reach the US even after horrific deaths of migrating relatives
COMITANCILLO, Guatemala (AP) — Every night for nearly two years, Glendy Aracely Ramírez has prayed by the altar in her parents’ mud-brick bedroom where, under a large crucifix, is a picture of her sister Blanca. The 23-year-old died alongside 50 other migrants in a smuggler’s tractor-trailer in Texas.
«I ask God for my family’s health and that I might get to the United States one day. My mom asks God that she won’t have to see another accident,» said Glendy, 17, who has already packed a small backpack for her own journey from the family’s home 8,900 feet (2,700 meters) up in Guatemala’s highlands.
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Her «coyote» postponed it for a few days because of a flare-up in violence among Mexican drug cartels that control migrants’ routes to the United States, but she is undeterred.
Olivia Orozco Lopez cries as she holds a portrait of her late daughter Celestina Carolina during an interview in the Culvilla hamlet of Tejutla, Guatemala, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Carolina died asphyxiated alongside 50 other migrants in a smugglers’ trailer truck in San Antonio, Texas in June 2022. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Tens of thousands of youths from this region would rather take deadly risks — even repeatedly — than stay behind where they see no future. Blanca’s fatal journey was her third attempt to reach the U.S.
«I want to go there, because here there are no opportunities, even though Mom says that I’ll suffer what Blanca did,» Glendy said as she sat with her mother, Filomena Crisóstomo, in their tidy dirt-floor courtyard. «I’d like to have a house, help my family and get ahead.»
The record-high numbers of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border have made migration a top concern in this U.S. presidential election year. Among those migrants, the largest group of unaccompanied minors has been from Guatemala — nearly 50,000 of the 137,000 encounters recorded by border authorities in the last fiscal year.
Most come from tiny hamlets in the predominantly Indigenous Western Highlands. Daily wages top out around the equivalent of $9, far below the supposed legal minimum. In tiny plots of brittle clay soil — often the only collateral for loans to pay smugglers’ fees that can reach $20,000 — many families grow corn and beans to eat.
Little else sprouts from the steep mountainsides except for the exuberantly decorated, multi-story concrete homes built with remittances from loved ones in the United States — constant reminders of what’s possible if only one makes it «to the north.»
In the small town of Comitancillo, two murals serve as a different reminder — they’re memorials to the nearly two dozen local migrants who died in recent mass tragedies. They either asphyxiated in the trailer in San Antonio, Texas, in June 2022, or were shot and set afire by rogue police officers in Camargo, Mexico, in January 2021.
It took less than a week after the remains from the Camargo massacre were returned to Comitancillo for burial before the first surviving family member left for the U.S.
And with a 17-year-old boy who made it to Florida this winter, now at least one relative has migrated from nearly all of the families since the massacre, said the Rev. José Luis González, a priest with the Jesuit Migration Network. The lone exception was an older man whose family was already north of the border; he died trying to make it back after being deported, González said.
«It’s an evident sign that the fear to stay is bigger than the fear to go,» said González, who started ministering to the affected families when they traveled some six hours to Guatemala’s capital for DNA tests to identify the remains.
Many families credit the Jesuit group for being the only institution that has stayed by their side, regularly traveling to Comitancillo to provide legal updates — nearly a dozen police officers were sentenced last fall in the Camargo case — as well psychological, humanitarian and pastoral assistance.
On a recent morning, about 50 relatives of those lost either in Camargo or San Antonio gathered for a meeting with the Jesuit group that included workshops to process depression and grief. Most were women and children speaking Mam, one of Guatemala’s two dozen Mayan languages.
One of the handful of fathers at the meeting was Virgilio Ambrocio. The eldest of his eight children, Celestina Carolina, was making less than $90 a month as a housekeeper in Guatemala City and sending half of that back home to help feed her siblings. So she decided to try her luck in the United States, and died at 23 in the trailer.
«The hardest part is, who’s going to help us now,» Ambrocio said as dust swirled around his home. His wife, Olivia Orozco, wept silently, while holding a framed photo of a smiling Celestina.
The primary driver of migration over the past 10 years is the inability to get jobs to pay for the most basic necessities, said Ursula Roldán, a researcher at Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala City. That’s exacerbated by the debts families incur to pay the smugglers, which would take 10 years’ worth of in-country wages to repay — making it crucial to get to the U.S. and send back remittances from far higher wages.
Rising violence in the Mexican regions bordering Guatemala is also pushing more migrants to head to the U.S. instead of working seasonal agricultural jobs there. Climate change is affecting even subsistence farming.
In their one-room home near Comitancillo, Reina Coronado tried to convince the eight children she had since she married at 16 that they didn’t have to risk their lives.
Some went north anyway, including Aracely Florentina Marroquín, 21, who had completed high school like Blanca and, like her, felt she had wasted her family’s money in studying since she still couldn’t get a professional job.
The last thing she told Coronado was that she’d go only for four years and send money to build a kitchen, so she wouldn’t have to cook tortillas over an open fire. Next came the call from Texas that made Coronado cry for months. Today, she finds some comfort caring for two young daughters still living with her and the animals she raises.
«Even though it’s a struggle, one has to fight, to try to keep going,» Coronado said. «I go to work and that way the day, and the hard moments, pass. Sometimes I do it crying, but I trust in our Father, the Lord.»
Marcelina Tomás has also been praying for strength since her oldest son, Anderson Pablo, was murdered in Camargo — and especially in recent months since his younger brother Emerson, 17, also went to the U.S.
Anderson was in 9th grade when the pandemic hit and he started working in the fields alongside his father. Their wages of around $6 a day were enough to afford tortillas each day for the family of 11, but not something to go with them, Tomás said. So she and her husband agreed to help Anderson get loans for the $16,000 smuggling fee.
Twelve days after Anderson, 16, left their home near Comitancillo, news of the Camargo massacre arrived via social media. Pregnant with her tenth child, Tomás, 37, had to leave her children with family members and spend a night away from home for the first time to undergo DNA tests in the capital that allowed Anderson’s partial remains to be identified and buried.
«Only God knows what happened. And all for wanting to get ahead,» Tomás said. «I relied on him, and he treated his little siblings so well.»
Anderson had dissuaded Emerson from going along, saying he should stay in school a bit longer. According to Tomás, Emerson was heartbroken after his brother’s death; he enrolled in high school, but soon quit to work in a potato field.
Around the third anniversary of Anderson’s death, Emerson said he wanted to migrate, because many other youths had gone too. Tomás reminded him of Anderson’s fate, the tragedy in San Antonio, the neighbors’ children who died in the border deserts or in work accidents in the U.S.
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«‘No,’ he told me, ‘I’m going.’ And he went,» Tomás said by the altar where three pictures of Anderson stand by a crucifix, with a lit candle and a vase of calla lilies.
Anderson’s dream was to earn enough to move the family from their one-room, mud-brick house to a concrete one with separate spaces for his parents, his brothers and his sisters. They live in such a house now, built with donations received after his death.
But nobody sleeps in the room with the altar. They’re keeping it as Anderson’s room.
Chaos erupted in Serbia’s parliament on Tuesday with opposition lawmakers setting off smoke grenades and tear gas to protest the government and support demonstrating students.
At least three lawmakers were injured, with one in critical condition after suffering a stroke, further fueling political tensions in the landlocked Balkan country, which is located at the crossroads of Southeast and Central Europe.
Video footage from the assembly hall showed a clash first between lawmakers and later flares and smoke bombs being thrown. Serbian media said eggs and water bottles were also hurled. Hundreds of opposition supporters rallied outside the parliament building during the session.
Serbian opposition lawmakers let off smoke grenades inside the Serbian parliament in Belgrade, on March 4, 2025. (SERBIAN PARLIAMENT POOL / VIDEOPLUS/Handout via REUTERS)
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The ugly scenes stem from a fatal collapse of a canopy at a railway station in November. The incident sparked mass protests as demonstrators demanded justice and accountability for the tragedy.
Many in Serbia believe the fatal canopy collapse was the result of sloppy work and a disregard for safety regulations because of government corruption. The canopy at the railway station collapsed after renovations led by two Chinese companies.
The protests led to the resignation of Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic in January. The prime minister’s resignation made him the highest regime official to step down, but it hasn’t quelled the uprising and mass protests have continued in Belgrade and across the country.
Parliament must still confirm the prime minister’s resignation for it to take effect.
At the legislative session on Tuesday, lawmakers were scheduled to vote on a law that would increase funding for university education, a key demand by student protesters.
Chaos erupted in Serbia’s parliament on Tuesday with opposition lawmakers setting off smoke grenades and tear gas to protest the government and support demonstrating students. (SERBIAN PARLIAMENT POOL / VIDEOPLUS/Handout via REUTERS)
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But opposition parties said the ruling majority was also planning to approve dozens of other decisions. They said this was illegal and that lawmakers should first confirm the resignation of Vucevic and his government.
After the ruling coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) approved the agenda, some opposition politicians ran out of their seats towards the parliamentary speaker and scuffled with security guards.
Others tossed smoke grenades and tear gas, with black and pink smoke rising inside the parliament, which has also witnessed brawls and the throwing of water in the decades since the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1990.
As the session continued, ruling coalition politicians debated while opposition lawmakers whistled and blew horns.
Opposition deputies also held signs reading «general strike,» and «justice for the killed,» while outside the building protesters stood in silence to honor 15 people killed by a railway station roof collapse.
Parliament speaker Ana Brnabic accused the opposition of being a «terrorist gang.» The ruling coalition says Western intelligence agencies are trying to destabilize Serbia and topple the government by backing the protests.
Students walk on the road towards the northern city of Novi Sad on Jan. 30 to protest the deaths of 15 people killed in the November collapse of a train station canopy, near the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica, Serbia. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
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The government has tried to evade scrutiny by downplaying the government’s culpability in the collapse at the station. At first, the government tried to ignore the protests, then began to use force and accused the protests of being infiltrated by foreign agitators.
Some observers complained that the Vucic government’s failure to act and provide clear answers to the public is endemic to Serbia’s core institutional corruption.
Meanwhile, protest leaders called for a major rally in the capital Belgrade on March 15.
Fox News’ Chris Massaro, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Department of Education clarifies school DEI guidelines, saying Black History Month doesn’t violate order
The Department of Education clarified that observances such as Black History Month are not in violation of an order warning state education departments that they must remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies or risk losing federal funding.
The guidance came after the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to the departments of education in all 50 states in mid-February notifying them of a Feb. 28 deadline to comply with the order.
«Title VI prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin,» the guidance reads, adding «Schools may not operate policies or programs under any name that treat students differently based on race, engage in racial stereotyping, or create hostile environments for students of particular races.
«For example, schools with programs focused on interests in particular cultures, heritages, and areas of the world would not in and of themselves violate Title VI, assuming they are open to all students regardless of race,» the guidance continued. «Nor would educational, cultural, or historical observances – such as Black History Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or similar events – that celebrate or recognize historical events and contributions, and promote awareness, so long as they do not engage in racial exclusion or discrimination.»
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U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Eric Scott Turner, center, speaks next to President Donald Trump, left, and Tiger Woods during a reception honoring Black History Month in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 20. (Reuters/Kent Nishimura)
«Whether a policy or program violates Title VI does not depend on the use of specific terminology such as ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’» the guidance, dated Feb. 28, also said.
The letter in February from Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education, said, «Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.»
«Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them—particularly during the last four years—under the banner of «diversity, equity, and inclusion» («DEI»), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline,» he wrote.
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The U.S. Department of Education headquarters building in Washington, D.C. (J. David Ake/Getty Images)
«All educational institutions are advised to: (1) ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law; (2) cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends; and (3) cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race,» Trainor concluded. «Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.»
The letter comes after President Donald Trump signed executive orders directing agencies to provide a plan to eliminate federal funding for «illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.» He also signed orders to end DEI programs in federal agencies.
An American flag and a U.S. Department of Education flag fly outside the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 1. (Reuters/Annabelle Gordon)
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The Department of Education previously announced the removal of mention of DEI from documents and websites. The department also placed employees who led DEI initiatives on leave and dissolved its Diversity & Inclusion Council.
Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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