Ms. Alonzo said her father and a sister migrated to the United States with help from smugglers. Her father returned to Guatemala eight years ago, after spending seven years in the United States. Her sister lives in South Carolina, she said.

She would not name the smugglers. But she said the American government’s plea for Guatemalans to remain at home is unlikely to be effective. The promise of a good life in the United States, she said, overrides the risk of the trip.

“That is the way to have a house and a car,” she said.

Mr. McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said it was too early to judge whether the new messaging campaign — in Spanish and indigenous languages — had worked.

“We have to give it some time to see whether it’s effective in reaching that audience and creating that deterrence,” he said.

Back in Concepción Chiquirichapa, Liset Juárez said her husband finally made it to the United States after nearly a half-dozen tries.

He plans to stay three years. With the money he makes as a laborer, she said they plan to pay back their debt, and save up to open another business.

Asked if she plans to join her husband in the United States, she shook her head no.

“I can’t abandon my children,” she said. “I have three children I have to sustain here.”