(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Federal agents continue to arrest Guatemalans involved in human smuggling and trafficking operations, including of children, who are also involved in violating federal labor laws.
The latest arrest was of Guatemalan national Brayan Adiel Gramajo Reyes, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pocatello, Idaho, on multiple smuggling and labor law violations. They include “two counts of encouraging illegal entry of aliens to enter the United States, eight counts of using false statements for employment verification by attesting that Social Security numbers were genuine and that the employees were authorized to work in the United States, knowing that was false, and one count of unlawful employment of aliens.”
The indictment was returned after a multi-agency investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations special agents in Idaho.
According to the HSI investigation, Gramajo persuaded two “unaccompanied alien children” (UACs) to be smuggled to the U.S. from Guatemala only to subject them into a forced labor situation involving working long hours of physical labor.
“Rescuing unaccompanied children who are tragically exploited and trafficked is a top HSI priority,” HSI Seattle acting Special Agent in Charge April Miller said. “Our investigation underscores HSI’s resolve to enforce our U.S. law and safeguard every child. Additionally, worksite enforcement is central to protecting our communities – targeting illegal employment networks, rescuing victims and stopping fraudulent business practices that harm real Americans.”
Under the Biden administration, an estimated 450,000 UACs were smuggled into the country. The Trump administration claims to have located more than 132,000 of them.
The Idaho arrest comes after other Guatemalans were arrested in Arizona and California, charged with smuggling roughly 20,000 Guatemalans into the U.S. over a period of five years, The Center Square reported. It remains unclear how many of the 20,000 were apprehended or rescued from forced labor or sex trafficking schemes.
Forced labor and sex trafficking crimes are interconnected with human smuggling, where willing smuggling participants later become victims, authorities have found. Other crimes are often committed to facilitate these crimes, including money laundering, bank fraud, real estate fraud, among others, authorities say.
In one multi-state and multi-national investigation, members of the Lopez Human Smuggling Organization were charged for their role in a half a billion dollar Guatemalan human smuggling ring in California, Arizona, Florida and Texas, The Center Square reported. Crime ring leaders worked with Mexican cartel human smugglers to smuggle Guatemalans through Mexico into southern New Mexico, authorities allege.
In Nebraska, a multi-agency investigation into a fraudulent document ring involving Guatemalan meat processing plant employees led to the sentencing of several individuals. Prosecutions are ongoing for identity theft, document fraud, human smuggling and labor law violations, The Center Square reported.
The U.S. Department of Labor is regularly investigating allegations of child labor, including Guatemalan teenagers being hired to work in food processing facilities nationwide, The Center Square reported.
Due to federal law, which has yet to be amended, UACs smuggled into the U.S. and apprehended by federal authorities are placed into a UAC program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). ORR has been the focus of multiple congressional hearings into extensive evidence of abuse and negligence of UACs committed for decades, The Center Square reported.
Since 2015, the majority of UACs placed under ORR care are from Guatemala, with the majority during the Biden administration. In 2022, the most in recorded history of 61,207 Guatemalan UACs were under ORR care; in 2021, more than 58,000 were, in 2023 nearly 50,000 were, according to the data. The numbers dropped to 8,000 Guatemalan UACs in ORR care in 2025 under the Trump administration.
Last year, ICE began launching welfare checks on UACs after the Biden administration lost track of at least 100,000 children, The Center Square reported.
After the Biden administration implemented new parole programs, in three years’ time nearly one million Guatemalans deemed inadmissible under federal immigration law were released into the U.S., The Center Square reported.
According to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, at the height of the border crisis in 2022, Border Patrol and CBP officers apprehended 221,849 illegal border crossers from Guatemala. That number dropped to 40,617 in fiscal 2025 and 5,793 so far this fiscal year.
