Immigration Policies of the United States are not Affected by Bilateral Relations

September 17, 2008

TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras and the United States have a strong tradition of cooperation and close ties.  Our two countries have enjoyed decades of friendship and this will continue.  Occasionally, we will have disagreements; this is normal in the relationship between any two friendly countries.  These disagreements will not affect the strength of the strong and solid relationship between Honduras and the United States nor will they affect U.S. policy towards Honduras.

After Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the government of the United States granted Temporary Protected Status to illegal Honduran immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after the disaster.  TPS has now been extended by the government of the United States more than eight times.  Approximately 72,000 Hondurans are living under TPS and almost 300,000 are living illegally in the United States.

The United States continues to maintain its policy of secure borders and open doors, since 1999 we have offered TPS as an exceptional program for Honduras because of the friendship between our two governments.  However, TPS is a temporary program that needs to be reviewed periodically.  The United States will review towards the end of this year the TPS program for Hondurans and determine whether it merits an extension beyond January 2009.

Hondurans need not be concerned that the immigration policy of the government of the United States will become more stringent because of differences between our two countries.

The United States is a country of laws and our foreign policy is not based on any decision or policy that friendly governments take.  The fact is that approximately 70% of illegal aliens are caught at the border or close to it.  The remaining 30% are detained in the interior working at different types of businesses or companies.  Our authorities follow specific procedures as well as investigations in order to get to those locations.  Illegal aliens are not sought by nationality, and no one is sought after because they are Honduran.

From January to June 2008 16,927 Hondurans were deported from the United States.  At the same time 16,482 Guatemalans and 12,618 Salvadorans were deported from the United States.  These numbers reflect the fact that the flow of persons from these countries that are entering the United States illegally is very high.

Millions of Hondurans depend on the remittances sent to them from relatives working in the U.S.  The recent economic downturn in the U.S. has reduced the number of jobs that Hondurans living in the U.S. are able to fill.  This then adversely affects the amount of remittances they are able to send to their families in Honduras.  This is not a result of U.S. policy be economic reality.

According to the Central Bank, the remittances these Hondurans send home are equivalent to approximately 20% of GDP, or more than US$ 2.6 billion annually.