U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a promise of carrying out mass deportations, leaving Honduras and other Central American countries bracing for a potential influx of vulnerable migrants — a situation they are ill-prepared to handle.
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — 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 had never imagined leaving her Central American country. But then came the anonymous death threats to her and her children and the armed men who showed up at her doorstep threatening to kill her, just like they had killed one of her relatives days earlier.
Norma, who requested anonymity out of concern for her safety, spent her life savings of $10,000 on a one-way trip north at the end of October with her daughter and granddaughter.
But after her asylum petitions to the U.S. were rejected, they were loaded onto a deportation flight. Now, she’s back in Honduras within reach of the same gang, stuck in a cycle of violence and economic precarity that haunts deportees like her.
“They can find us in every corner of Honduras,” she said in the migrant processing facility. “We’re praying for God’s protection, because we don’t expect anything from the government.”
Now, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office in January with a promise of carrying out mass deportations, Honduras and other Central American countries people have fled for generations are bracing for a potential influx of vulnerable migrants — a situation they are ill-prepared to handle.
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, which have the largest number of people living illegally in the U.S., after Mexico, could be among the first and most heavily impacted by mass deportations, said Jason Houser, former Immigration & Customs Enforcement chief of staff in the Biden administration.
Because countries like Venezuela refuse to accept deportation flights from the U.S., Houser suggests that the Trump administration may prioritize the deportation of “the most vulnerable” migrants from those countries who have removal orders but no criminal record, in an effort to rapidly increase deportation numbers.
“Hondurans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans need to be very, very nervous because (Trump officials) are going to press the bounds of the law,” said Houser.
Migrants and networks aiding deportees in those Northern Triangle countries worry their return could thrust them into even deeper economic and humanitarian crises, fueling migration down the line.
“We don’t have the capacity” to take so many people, said Antonio García, Honduras’ deputy foreign minister. “There’s very little here for deportees.” People who return, he said, “are the last to be taken care of.”
Since 2015, Honduras has received around half a million deportees. They climb down from planes and buses to be greeted with coffee, small plates of food and bags of toothpaste and deodorant. While some breathe a sigh of relief, free from harsh conditions in U.S. detention facilities, others cry, gripped with panic.
“We don’t know what we’ll do, what comes next,” said one woman in a cluster of deportees waiting for their names to be called by a man clacking at a keyboard.
Approximately 560,000 Hondurans, about 5% of the country’s population, live in the U.S. without legal status, according to U.S. government figures. Of those, migration experts estimate about 150,000 can be tracked down and rapidly expelled.
While García said the government offers services to help returnees, most are released with little aid into a country gripped by gangs. They have few options for work to pay off crippling debts. Others like Norma have nowhere to go, unable to return home because of the gang members circling her home.
Norma said she’s unsure of why they were targeted, but she believes it was because the relative who was killed had problems with a gang.
Despite the crackdown, García estimates up to 40% of Honduran deportees make their way back to the U.S.
Larissa Martínez, 31, is among those who have struggled to reintegrate into Honduran society after being deported from the U.S. in 2021 with her three children. Driven by economic desperation and the absence of her husband, who had migrated and left her for another woman, the single mother sought a better life in the U.S.
Since her return to Honduras, Martínez has spent the past three years searching for a job, not just to support her kids, but also to pay off the $5,000 she owes to relatives for the trip north.
Her efforts have been unsuccessful. She built a wobbly wooden home tucked away in the hilly fringes of San Pedro Sula, where she sells meat and cheese to get by, but sales have been slim and tropical rains have eaten away at the flimsy walls where they sleep.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=6760e6688e1143d2b0ae805176a5dab5&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressdemocrat.com%2Farticle%2Fnews%2Fas-trump-threatens-mass-deportations-central-america-braces-for-an-influx%2F&c=1400139316099395262&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-12-15 15:15:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
