Central America braces for influx of vulnerable migrants as Trump threatens mass deportations

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — As dozens of deported migrants pack into a sweltering airport facility in San Pedro Sula, Norma sits under fluorescent lights clutching a foam cup of coffee and a small plate of eggs – all that was waiting for her in Honduras.

The 69-year-old Honduran mother never wanted to leave her Central American country. But then she and her children received anonymous death threats, and armed men showed up at her door and threatened to kill her, just as they had killed one of her relatives days earlier.

Norma, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, spent $10,000 of her life savings on a one-way trip north with her daughter and granddaughter in late October.

But after her asylum application to the United States was rejected, they were put on a deportation flight. Now she’s back in Honduras, under the control of the same gangs, trapped in the cycle of violence and economic instability that plagues deportees like her.

“They can find us in every corner of Honduras,” she said at the immigration processing facility. “We pray for God’s protection because we don’t expect any help from the government.”

Now, with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in January and promising mass deportations, Honduras and other Central American countries where people have fled for generations are bracing for a potential influx of vulnerable migrants — —They are unprepared for this situation.

“We don’t have the ability”

Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador have the largest number of people living illegally in the United States after Mexico and could be among the first to be affected by mass deportations, said former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief of staff Jason Houser express. .

With countries such as Venezuela refusing to accept deportation flights from the United States, Hauser suggested the Trump administration may prioritize deportations of the “most vulnerable” immigrants from countries with deportation orders but no criminal records to rapidly increase deportations.

“Honduras, Guatemalans and Salvadorans need to be very, very nervous because (Trump officials) are going to be violating the boundaries of the law,” Houser said.

Migration and networks assisting deportees in Northern Triangle countries fear their return could plunge them into a deeper economic and humanitarian crisis, exacerbating further migration.

Honduras Deputy Foreign Minister Antonio Garcia said “we do not have the capacity” to accommodate so many people. “There is very little offered here for deportees,” he said, and those who return “are the last to be taken care of.”

Returning to the United States

Since 2015, Honduras has received approximately 500,000 deportees. They get off planes and buses and are greeted with coffee, small plates of food, bags of toothpaste and deodorant. While some are relieved to be out of the harsh conditions of U.S. detention facilities, others are crying out of panic.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do, what’s going to happen next,” said one woman in a group of deportees as they waited for their names to be called by a man tapping on a keyboard.

According to U.S. government data, approximately 560,000 Hondurans (about 5% of the country’s population) live in the United States without legal status. Immigration experts estimate that about 150,000 of them could be traced and quickly deported.

Garcia said the government offers services to help returnees, but most receive little if any assistance when returning to the gang-controlled country. They have few options to repay their heavy debts through work. Others, like Norma, have nowhere to go, unable to return home as gang members surround her home.

Norma said she wasn’t sure why they were targeted, but she believed it was because the slain relative had issues with gangs.

Despite crackdown, Garcia estimates up to 40% of Honduran deportees return to U.S.

looming humanitarian crisis

Larissa Martínez, 31, and her three children have been trying to reintegrate into Honduran society after being deported from the United States in 2021. Due to financial difficulties and the absence of her husband (who emigrated abroad and left her for another woman), the single mother seeks a better life in the United States

Since returning to Honduras, Martinez has spent the past three years looking for work, not only to support her children but also to repay the $5,000 she owes relatives for the trip north.

Her efforts were unsuccessful. She built a ramshackle wooden house on the edge of the hills of San Pedro Sula and made a living selling meat and cheese, but sales were low and tropical rains eroded the fragile walls where they slept.

So she started repeating a mantra in her head: “If I can’t find a job in December, I’ll be gone in January.”

Cesar Muñoz, leader of the Mennonite Social Action Committee, said Honduran authorities had given up on deportees like Martinez, leaving groups like his to step in but with deportation flights arriving three times a week. , the aid network is already stretched thin.

A sharp rise could strain aid networks, migrants and their families. Meanwhile, countries such as Honduras that rely heavily on U.S. remittances could face serious economic consequences if this vital lifeline is cut off.

“We are on the brink of a new humanitarian crisis,” Muñoz said.

Trump’s return triggered a range of reactions from Latin American countries linked to the United States through immigration and trade.

Guatemala, which has more than 750,000 citizens living in the United States without authorization, announced in November that it was developing a strategy to deal with potential mass deportations. Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum said Mexico has stepped up legal services at U.S. consulates and she will ask Trump to deport non-Mexicans directly to their countries of origin.

Honduras Deputy Foreign Minister Garcia expressed skepticism about Trump’s threats, pointing to the economic benefits immigrants bring to the U.S. economy and the logistical challenges posed by mass deportations. Aid leaders like Muñoz say Honduras is not fully prepared for a potential surge in deportations.

Garcia said it would be “impossible” to stop people from immigrating even if Trump cracks down. Driven by poverty, violence and hope for a better life, groups of deportees board buses back to the United States

As deportations surge by U.S. and Mexican authorities, smugglers are offering packages to migrants to make three attempts to make their way north. Immigrants still have two chances to enter the United States if they are caught during their journey and sent home

Kimberly Orellana, 26, who had just returned to Honduras, said she was detained in a Texas facility for three months before being returned to San Pedro Sula, where she There she waited at a bus stop for her mother to pick her up.

However, she already plans to return and says she has no choice: her 4-year-old daughter Marcelle is waiting for her, being cared for by a friend in North Carolina.

Smugglers crossing the Rio Grande separated the two men, hoping to increase their chances of a successful crossing. Orellana vowed to her daughter that they would be reunited.

“Mom, are you sure you want to come?” Marcel asked her over the phone.

“Right now, it’s hard to know if I can fulfill that promise,” Orellana said, clutching her Honduran passport. “I have to try again. … My daughter is everything to me.

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