With an assist from Trump, stranded Kansas City-area teens get out of Guatemala
This story was updated as of 10 a.m. Monday to reflect new details.
Exhausted and thrilled to finally be home, 14 Northland teens and their five adult chaperones returned Sunday afternoon from a spring break mission trip to Guatemala that had turned into an ordeal seemingly without end in the midst of a global pandemic.
The group from Platte Woods United Methodist Church might still be stuck in Central America if not for a personal assist from President Donald Trump.
Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri sought Trump’s help after the State Department failed to come through with a plan for getting the group out of Guatemala, which closed its borders March 16 and remains locked down with very few flights in or out due to the novel coronavirus.
“We felt on Friday that we were not getting a proper response from the State Department,” Hawley’s chief of staff, Kyle Plotkin, told The Star. “So, Josh decided to call the president...The president said ‘absolutely, let’s do whatever we can to get them home.’”
It’s the department’s job to aid Americans stranded overseas. But the department led by former Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo has been overwhelmed with requests for help from thousands of Americans unable to make it home from countries where travel restrictions have been put in place to contain the COVID-19 virus.
Trump suggested another path, Plotkin said. He referred Hawley to the acting secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, who roped in one of his assistant secretaries. She put Plotkin in touch with the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala.
After many calls between Hawley’s office and the Department of Homeland Security Friday night, an unidentified woman handed one the mission group’s leaders a notice saying they could book seats for $1,000 each on an Eastern Airlines humanitarian flight out of Guatemala City late Saturday night.
It’s not clear whether one thing led to the other.
“We are not exactly sure how this came about,” mission trip leader Marty Kanne said Saturday. He believes media attention might have played a role.
But after a bit of a delay that night, the Platte Woods group strapped themselves into their seats and arrived early Sunday at Miami International Airport. After a long layover, they landed at 4:23 p.m. at KCI on American Airlines flight 4666.
In addition to Hawley, a church spokeswoman credited Missouri’s other senator, Roy Blunt, and Rep. Sam Graves for their staffers’ assistance over the past week. Both are Republicans.
“Sen. Hawley’s office, Blunt’s office and Graves’ office have been extremely helpful,” Platte Woods United Methodist director of communications Jennifer D. Simms said. “They’ve all been great.”
Graves said Sunday that he first became involved on Monday night. “I’m thrilled that they are coming home safely,” he said Sunday.
While pleased with this outcome, both Blunt and Hawley say they continue to pressure the state department to work harder at helping other Americans who haven’t been able to arrange transit home.
Hawley said in a Tweet last week that in addition to Guatemala, his office was working to help constituents stranded in Honduras, the Philippines, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Peru.
Republican and Democratic members of Congress alike across the country have been pressuring the U.S. government to make repatriation a higher priority
Said Blunt in a prepared statement: “We need to move quickly to help Missourians all over the world get home. Our congressional delegation is continuing to work together and with the State Department to get people back to the United States as soon as possible.”
With Trump at his side during a White House press conference on Friday, Pompeo announced the formation of what he called a repatriation task force, which is trying to arrange charter and military flights to repatriate Americans.
“We are trying to get Americans back from these places where air travel has been disrupted,” the secretary of state said. “We will get that done over time.”
On Monday, two charter flights sponsored by the State Department were set to depart Guatemala City.
The Platte Woods group left for Guatemala on March 12 on a mission trip to help build a kitchen at a school. They had planned to return on Friday, but cut their plans short when that country’s president announced he would be closing the borders.
Despite having enough time to make it out, flights were being canceled and they were holed up all week at the Westin Camino Real hotel in Guatemala City.
The quarters were pleasant, Kanne said. But by the end of the week the group feared they might be evicted.
“Our team in Guatemala had been told Friday night that the Westin Hotel where they were staying might close soon,” Simms said. “We immediately talked to our congressional office contacts who worked the phones on our behalf to ensure that the hotel would remain open.”
Worried that their sons and daughters would be too worn out to give interviews, the parents of the Platte Woods teens, who range in age from 14 to 17, asked that the news media not greet them at the airport.
The Star honored their request.
This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 4:37 PM.
