Report: US agents working in Guatemala violated agreement

Posted: Oct 13, 2020 / 05:09 PM GMT-0600 / Updated: Oct 13, 2020 / 05:11 PM GMT-0600

FILE – In this Jan. 15, 2020 file photo, an agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, far right, accompanies Guatemalan police at the checkpoint where they detain Honduran migrants before deporting them, in Morales, Guatemala. In a report released Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020, by the Democratic staff of a U.S. Senate committee says U.S. immigration agents assigned to Guatemala to advise local authorities violated terms of their funding by helping officials deport Hondurans traveling in a migrant caravan early this year. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A report by the Democratic staff of a U.S. Senate committee says U.S. immigration agents assigned to Guatemala to advise local authorities violated terms of their funding by helping officials deport Hondurans traveling in a migrant caravan early this year.

Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) commissioned the report released Tuesday, which says the U.S. agents rented three 12-passenger vans and hired drivers to shuttle Hondurans back to the border last January.

The funding agreement had specified that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Guatemala could not conduct immigration or law enforcement operations. The report calls for an investigation.