The Trump administration is to remove a special status that allows Honduran immigrants to remain in the US legally. The protection was introduced after Hurricane Mitch devastated the Central American country.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. R. Smith
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The White House said on Friday it will end a scheme that gives temporary protection to immigrants from Honduras, which will leave some 57,000 people at risk of deportation.
The temporary protected status (TPS) is granted to immigrants after natural disasters or violent conflicts that would prevent them from safely returning to their home countries.
Status introduced after hurricane
More than 100,000 Hondurans were allowed to enter the US following the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The status was also granted to Nicaragua for the same reason.
Most migrants to the United States from the so-called "Northern Triangle" of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are staying in Mexico for now — because of Donald Trump's new immigration policies.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
No longer first choice
In a migrant shelter in the southern Mexican city of Tenosique, near the Guatemalan border, a refugee from Honduras says he originally planned to move to the United States with his family. Trump's election has changed everything. "I wanted to go to the United States with my family, but we've seen that the new government there has made things harder."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Lingering in Mexico
Concepcion Bautista from Guatemala cradles her newborn son in the same migrant shelter. She says she plans to head for the United States, but will linger in Mexico to see how US President Donald Trump's immigration policies play out. Her goal is to reunite with her family up north...
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A mere transit country?
…but for the time being, she believes applying for asylum in Mexico is a smarter move. Mexican asylum data and testimony from migrants in Tenosique suggest that although fewer Central Americans are trying to enter the US, plenty are still fleeing their poor, violent home countries, with many deciding to stay longer in Mexico, which has traditionally been a transit country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Tough immigration policies
The Trump administration has pointed out a sharp decline in immigrant detentions in the first few months of this year as a vindication for the president's tough immigration policies. The measures are already having another effect. In California, where farmers usually rely on workers from Mexico to bring in the harvest, many Mexicans are staying away, preferring to find work in their own country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Asylum applications on the rise
Migrants from Central America play football in the migrant shelter in Tenosique. The number of people applying for asylum in Mexico has soared by more than 150 percent since Trump was elected president. These days, Mexican immigrants would rather set up in Canada than the United States.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Human smugglers up the price
One man from Guatemala says the prices charged by people smugglers have risen sharply since Trump took office, now hovering around $10,000 (9,100 euros), up from about $6,000 a few years ago. Migrants sit below a mural in Mexico with the words: "Our demand is minimal: justice."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A new home
With Mexico's immigration authorities controlling migration more assiduously, Central Americans were forced to take more isolated, dangerous routes where the chances of being mugged were higher. "We've gone north several times, but every time it's got harder," says one man, who was deported from the United States in December. "Now, it's better if we travel alone, along new routes."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
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They now have until January 2020, to either return home or find alternative ways of remaining in the US, through marriage or sponsorship.
The Department of Homeland Security "determined that the disruption of living conditions in Honduras from Hurricane Mitch … has decreased to a degree that it should no longer be regarded as substantial."
While expressing its disappointment over the decision, Honduras' foreign relations ministry said in a statement that returnees "are and always will be welcome in their homeland, where they will be received with open arms," and "their reintegration into our society will be facilitated."
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Honduras 'can't cope' with returnees
But those remarks were contradicted by Marlon Tabora, Honduras' ambassador to the US, who warned that the poverty-stricken country would struggle to repatriate tens of thousands of people.
"These families have lived in the United States for 20 years and re-integrating them into the country will not be easy if they decide to return," he said.
Since taking office in January 2017, US President Donald Trump has tightened immigration rules, especially for those coming from Latin America over the US southern border with Mexico.
Trump has denounced the 'caravan' of migrants from Central America, which is heading to the US border.Image: Reuters/J. Duenes
Trump has also taken to social media several times in recent weeks to criticize a "caravan" of migrants, mostly from Central America, that has crossed Mexico seeking entry into the US. Many say they are fleeing violence and political unrest at home and hope to claim asylum.
De factor residency
Critics of the protection scheme complain that the beneficiaries are given de facto US residency, due to repeated extensions of the status.
TPS advocates said the withdrawal of the status would force many people to close businesses, give up well-paid jobs, and leave families to return home.
The 57,000 figure represents a small fraction of the estimated 1.1 million-plus Hondurans living in the US, who each year send home remittances totaling some $4.2 billion (€3.5 billion), or nearly one-sixth of Honduras' $26 billion gross domestic product.
