GUATEMALA CITY(National times)- Guatemala’s IGM migration authority said that it had received a first flight from the US carrying foreign migrants returned from the United States, as well as Guatemalan citizens. The flight carried three Hondurans and 56 Guatemalans, it said. It said the Hondurans had been taken to a migration center before they are to be transported to neighboring Honduras. Reuters reported in December that Guatemala’s government was open to receiving citizens of other Central American nations who are deported from the US, as the country looks to build a positive relationship with the Trump administration. “There has to be a regional response,” a Guatemalan official who requested anonymity told Reuters. “And we want to be part of the solution.” The US has earlier struggled to deport nationals from places such as Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti due to strained relations. President Trump had reached out to the governments of several countries to test their willingness to take deportees from third countries. In 2022, more than 40% of immigrants living in the US illegally came from Mexico, amounting to 4.8 million of 11 million overall, according to a US Department of Homeland Security report. That was followed by Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which together accounted for over one-fifth of the total.