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May 15, 2025

The Impact of U.S. Migration Policy Shifts and Funding Cuts on Displaced Children and Families: Focus on Guatemala

RSVP Required
A woman in a pink and red traditional dress sits on the floor in Guatemala.

Amid recent shifts in U.S. cooperation funding and regional migration management policies, organizations in Guatemala continue their holistic and collaborative efforts to protect the rights of displaced children and families. In this webinar, grassroots, national, and global organizations will share how the new U.S. migration and funding policies are impacting displaced children and families—particularly those of Indigenous origin—as well as the work of the entities that support them.

The webinar will highlight the responses of civil society organizations working to protect the rights of displaced children and families. These efforts range from safeguarding the rights of displaced children within the Northern Triangle and Mexico, the safe return and reintegration of unaccompanied Guatemalan children, community development, the support of the Indigenous Guatemalan diaspora in the United States, and the search for historical justice for displaced Guatemalans.

This event is co-sponsored by the Georgetown University Collaborative on Global Children's Issues and the Georgetown Americas Institute.

The webinar will be held in English and Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation. We encourage participants to submit their questions for the speakers in advance, in either English or Spanish, to globalchildren@georgetown.edu.

Participants

Delia Catú

Delia Catú

Delia Catú is the multidisciplinary coordinator of the migration program at Asociación Pop No’j. She is a young Maya Kaqchikel leader with experience supporting migrant children deported from Mexico and the United States with their reintegration into their communities of origin. She has expertise in migration and Indigenous peoples, and is a defender of the rights of Maya women in the face of gender-based violence. She holds a degree in social work and has pursued graduate-level studies.

Mónica José García

Mónica José García

Mónica José García is a Guatemalan professional with extensive experience in child protection, project management, and the defense of the rights of children and people in situations of mobility in Mesoamerica. She currently serves as the technical coordinator for the implementation of the regional strategy on human mobility in Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador, led by CIPRODENI.

Geronimo Ramirez

Geronimo Ramirez

Geronimo Ramirez, born in Iximulew, Guatemala, focuses on strengthening Maya youth leadership in the diaspora and provides Maya Ixil–Spanish interpretation in courts, medical appointments, and other matters. He is influenced by the teachings of his grandmother, who was one of the first Maya Ixil interpreters from 1980 to 1998, a survivor of the internal armed conflict, a human rights defender, and a current leader of the Ixil Ancestral Council. He is the executive director of Comunidad SOL, a grassroots organization in northeast Ohio, United States, formed by displaced Indigenous peoples from the ancestral lands of the K’iche’, Ixil, and Awakateko (Guatemala).

Amy Schaltegger Escoto

Amy Schaltegger Escoto

Amy Schaltegger Escoto has over 25 years of experience in child protection, program development, and nonprofit leadership. As the director of reintegration programs at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Schaltegger Escoto oversees initiatives ensuring the safe return and reintegration of unaccompanied migrant children in Northern Central America. Her extensive background includes leading a child protection organization in rural Honduras, where she managed a multidisciplinary team and developed programs in residential care, violence prevention, family support, and education.

Mara Tissera Luna

Mara Tissera Luna

Mara Tissera Luna (moderator) is a fellow at the Georgetown University Collaborative on Global Children's Issues and an independent consultant focusing on child protection, gender-based violence, forced migration, participation, and localization. She is the author of the Collaborative Insights report “Localization for Early Childhood Development and Child Protection in Guatemala," which gathers perspectives on strengthening Early Childhood Development efforts from Guatemalan grassroots practitioners, national social movements, community-based organizations, international non-governmental organizations, donors, and the Guatemalan government.

Accessibility

Accommodation requests should be sent to globalchildren@georgetown.edu by May 9. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests.