Fearing deportation, Hondurans in the US send more cash home than ever before [View all]
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Source: BBC
11 hours ago
For over a year, Elías Padilla had been saving up to make the journey from Honduras to the United States as an undocumented immigrant. As an Uber driver in the snarled streets of the capital, Tegucigalpa, it hasn't been easy for him to put money aside. On bad days he makes as little as $12 (£9) in 12 hours. Now, though, his plans are on hold.
The images of undocumented immigrants in major US cities being dragged away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, their wrists in zip-ties, have deterred at least one would-be immigrant in Central America from travelling north. "I want to improve my life conditions because we earn very little here," Elías explains as we drive around the city. "Take this line of work, for example: an Uber driver in the US makes in an hour what I'd make in a day."
Like most Honduran immigrants, Elías says the main aim of reaching the US would be to send remittances home. "But I see what Trump is doing, and it's made me think twice," he admits. "I'm going to wait to see what the change in government here brings," he says, referring to the recent presidential election. "Hopefully things will improve." Elías's change of heart will doubtless be welcome news to the architects of President Donald Trump's immigration policies including border czar Tom Homan and homeland security adviser Steven Miller.
As well as removing undocumented immigrants from US soil, the controversial ICE operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis were always intended also to dissuade people like Elías from even attempting to leave Honduras. However, the policies have brought an unexpected windfall to the Honduran economy: the thousands of Hondurans who live undocumented and under the radar in those cities are sending home more remittances than ever.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93wjn1y72vo
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