RESEARCH STARTER

Honduran immigrants

Honduran immigrants represent a significant and growing demographic in the United States, with their numbers increasing from around 237,000 in 2000 to approximately 1.15 million by 2021. This surge, particularly notable during the first decade of the twenty-first century, has roots in a combination of historical, economic, and environmental factors. Many Hondurans emigrate due to dire economic conditions, with a large portion of the population living below the poverty line and facing high levels of illiteracy and chronic malnutrition. Natural disasters, notably Hurricane Mitch in 1998, exacerbated these issues, leading to widespread displacement and further prompting migration.

Hondurans often undertake perilous journeys through Guatemala and Mexico to reach the United States, facing risks such as violence and exploitation. Once in the U.S., they form transnational communities that maintain ties with their homeland while contributing economically through remittances, which significantly impact family livelihoods back in Honduras. However, this immigration pattern also correlates with challenges, including the rise of youth gangs and complex political narratives surrounding immigration policy. As of the 2020s, Honduran migration continues to be a focal point of political discourse, reflecting ongoing struggles for economic opportunity and safety.

Full Article

SIGNIFICANCE: Honduran immigration into the United States is a relatively recent phenomenon, but the 81 percent increase of Hondurans coming into the country during the first decade of the twenty-first century was the largest of any immigrant group. Their numbers rose from approximately 237,000 in 2000 to 940,000 in 2017, representing a 296 percent increase over those two decades.

Honduras, along with Guatemala and El Salvador, forms part of the "Northern Triangle" of Latin American countries. This region has a history of turbulence and population displacement. Uniting these countries are events that coalesced from the 1960s through the 1980s. Poor land distribution, particularly in El Salvador, led to overcrowding and migrants who squatted on Honduran territory. This contributed, in part, to a four-day conflict between the two countries in 1969. Other common events were civil wars, which pitted communist insurgencies against security forces, often with the United States backing right-wing governments. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, Nicaragua provided a sanctuary for communist guerrillas to operate against the government of El Salvador. Honduras likewise did so for insurgents fighting Nicaragua's government. Guatemala conducted a brutal, almost three-decade-long civil war that began in 1960 and concluded in 1996. Also in the 1990s, following the ostensible triumph of democratic movements in the region, narcotics trafficking intensified, and with it the rise of transnational gangs. The combination of these factors, along with endemic poverty, made immigration to the United States a viable option.

Until the fourth decade of the twentieth century, US Census data did not count immigrants from individual Central American nations. In any case, the number of Hondurans immigrating to the United States before 1930 was small, and even during the 1930s, only 679 Hondurans entered the country legally. The number of immigrants remained low into the 1960s, when a significant increase began. During that decade, 15,078 Hondurans were granted legal permanent resident status in the United States. By the last year of the twentieth century, an average of more than 7,100 new immigrants per year were coming from Honduras. By 2013, the American Community Survey recorded 781,000 residents of Honduran origin living in the United States; 21 percent of Honduran immigrants were US citizens. By 2021, that number had jumped to 1,148,209. However, these figures do not necessarily account for the large number of undocumented immigrants.

Many Honduran immigrants who entered the United States between the late 1990s and the mid-2020s were granted temporary protected status (TPS) because of the devastation in Central America left by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. TPS grants work authorization and protection from deportation, but does not assure permanent residency. As many as 80,000 Hondurans came to the United States under TPS. That status was extended several times until the Department of Homeland Security terminated TPS for Hondurans beginning September 2025.

Push-Pull Factors

A combination of economic hardship and natural disasters has led to an increase in Honduran immigration. Approximately 50 to 70 percent of the nation's population lived below the poverty line in the early and mid-2020s. Chronic malnutrition is common among children, and access to healthcare and education services remains limited in many areas.

The 1998 arrival of Hurricane Mitch in Central America proved to be one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit Honduras. The hurricane exacerbated economic hardship in a region already experiencing extreme poverty. Entire fruit fields were destroyed, resulting in the departure of many multinational fruit companies, which were major employers. Record rainfall triggered mudslides that destroyed entire villages. Back roads and bridges were destroyed, and as much as 70 to 80 percent of the national transportation infrastructure was ruined. Seven thousand people died, and more than 20 percent of the entire population was left homeless after the hurricane. During the months directly following the hurricane, the US Border Patrol reported a 61 percent increase in captures of Hondurans trying to cross the border into the United States.

Hondurans in the United States

Honduran transnational communities strive to maintain ties with their hometowns while establishing new homes in the United States. The flow of migrants has a direct impact on Honduran communities in both countries, creating an exchange of cultures that changes both. Honduran residents of the United States account for 40 percent of Honduras's tourism revenue.

Many Hondurans work in the United States to send remittances to relatives in Honduras. In 2024, the World Bank reported that $9.5 billion in remittances were sent to Honduras by workers in the United States. Remittances directly affect the receiving families, lifting many of them out of poverty. They also add to the economic disparity in communities, creating a clear distinction between those who receive them and those who do not. However, some observers feel that remittances can create a dependence on charity that does little to improve the economic development of Honduras.

Hondurans seeking to travel to the United States to find work face difficult and dangerous journeys that require passage through Guatemala and Mexico. Perils and discomforts include rape, exposure to severe heat in desert areas, long separations from family, robbery, accidents, and even murder. Engaging professional guides known as “coyotes” can cost up to $5,000. It was estimated that only 25 percent of the approximately 80,000 Hondurans who tried to reach the United States each year from 1998 to the late 2010s had succeeded. In 2018, a caravan of about 6,000 Honduran migrants fleeing poverty and gang violence made its way from Honduras to the US border with Mexico, where some of them applied for asylum. Others, discouraged by the lengthy waiting list, remained in Mexico or returned to Honduras.

Many of the Hondurans who have immigrated to the United States have flourished. However, a less positive result of Honduran immigration has been the development of youth gangs. During the 1990s, the US government targeted undocumented residents in the penal system for deportation. Many of these former criminals were also gang members who recommenced their gangster lifestyle upon return to Honduras, creating transnational ties with gangs in the United States.

2020s: Immigration as a Political Football

In the 2020s, Hondurans continued to migrate to the United States in search of economic opportunities, a pattern that had persisted for decades. Although anti-immigrant sentiment had long existed in the United States, it proliferated with particular intensity in the early decades of the twenty-first century. By the mid-2020s, American public opinion and policy had increasingly turned against immigration. American policies and laws reflected this changed political environment. Media coverage reinforced this narrative, with "caravans" becoming a highly scrutinized symbol. For example, in January 2024, a reported caravan of approximately 300 people departed San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with the US southern border as its reported destination. Public attention and apprehension, similar to warnings issued for severe weather events, emerged before the caravan left Honduras, 1,500 miles (2,415 kilometers) from the US border. Other migrant journeys were similarly publicized throughout 2024. US policy shifts in 2025 resulted in the termination of the Family Reunification Parole programs and TPS for 72,000 Hondurans in September.


Bibliography

Bermeo, Sarah, and David Leblang. "Climate, Violence, and Honduran Migration to the United States." Brookings, 1 Apr. 2021, www.brookings.edu/articles/climate-violence-and-honduran-migration-to-the-united-states. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

Dasema, Rebecca, and Jeanne Batalova. "Central American Immigrants in the United States." Migration Policy Institute, 14 Aug. 2025, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

“Facts on Hispanics of Honduran Origin in the United States, 2021.” Pew Research Center, 16 Aug. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/us-hispanics-facts-on-honduran-origin-latinos. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

González, Juan. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. 2nd ed., Penguin Books , 2022.

"Migrant Caravan: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?" BBC News, 26 Nov. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45951782. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

“Migration and Remittances Data.” World Bank, 16 Nov. 2017, www.worldbank.org/en/topic/migrationremittancesdiasporaissues/brief/migration-remittances-data. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

Nazario, Sonia. Enrique’s Journey. Random House, 2006.

Paz, Christian. “3 Theories for America’s Anti-Immigrant Shift.” Vox, 12 July 2024, www.vox.com/politics/351535/3-theories-for-americas-anti-immigrant-shift. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025. 

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick Salgoda. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture, 2001.

Schmalzbauer, Leah. Striving and Surviving: A Daily Life Analysis of Honduran Transnational Families. Routledge, 2005.

Solis, Gustavo. "More Hondurans Prepare to Return Home: 'The Caravan Is Over. Everyone Is on Their Own Now.'" San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Dec. 2018, www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/migrant-caravan/sd-me-where-are-the-caravan-members-20181206-story.html. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

"Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Honduras." US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 25 Aug. 2025, www.uscis.gov/archive/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-honduras. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

"Temporary Protected Status (TPS): Fact Sheet." Forum Together, National Immigration Forum, 10 Dec. 2025, forumtogether.org/article/temporary-protected-status-fact-sheet. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

“2024: ACS 1-Year Estimates Selected Population Profiles.” US Census Bureau, data.census.gov/table?q=honduran+ancestry. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

Full Article

SIGNIFICANCE: Honduran immigration into the United States is a relatively recent phenomenon, but the 81 percent increase of Hondurans coming into the country during the first decade of the twenty-first century was the largest of any immigrant group. Their numbers rose from approximately 237,000 in 2000 to 940,000 in 2017, representing a 296 percent increase over those two decades.

Honduras, along with Guatemala and El Salvador, forms part of the "Northern Triangle" of Latin American countries. This region has a history of turbulence and population displacement. Uniting these countries are events that coalesced from the 1960s through the 1980s. Poor land distribution, particularly in El Salvador, led to overcrowding and migrants who squatted on Honduran territory. This contributed, in part, to a four-day conflict between the two countries in 1969. Other common events were civil wars, which pitted communist insurgencies against security forces, often with the United States backing right-wing governments. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, Nicaragua provided a sanctuary for communist guerrillas to operate against the government of El Salvador. Honduras likewise did so for insurgents fighting Nicaragua's government. Guatemala conducted a brutal, almost three-decade-long civil war that began in 1960 and concluded in 1996. Also in the 1990s, following the ostensible triumph of democratic movements in the region, narcotics trafficking intensified, and with it the rise of transnational gangs. The combination of these factors, along with endemic poverty, made immigration to the United States a viable option.

Until the fourth decade of the twentieth century, US Census data did not count immigrants from individual Central American nations. In any case, the number of Hondurans immigrating to the United States before 1930 was small, and even during the 1930s, only 679 Hondurans entered the country legally. The number of immigrants remained low into the 1960s, when a significant increase began. During that decade, 15,078 Hondurans were granted legal permanent resident status in the United States. By the last year of the twentieth century, an average of more than 7,100 new immigrants per year were coming from Honduras. By 2013, the American Community Survey recorded 781,000 residents of Honduran origin living in the United States; 21 percent of Honduran immigrants were US citizens. By 2021, that number had jumped to 1,148,209. However, these figures do not necessarily account for the large number of undocumented immigrants.

Many Honduran immigrants who entered the United States between the late 1990s and the mid-2020s were granted temporary protected status (TPS) because of the devastation in Central America left by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. TPS grants work authorization and protection from deportation, but does not assure permanent residency. As many as 80,000 Hondurans came to the United States under TPS. That status was extended several times until the Department of Homeland Security terminated TPS for Hondurans beginning September 2025.

Push-Pull Factors

A combination of economic hardship and natural disasters has led to an increase in Honduran immigration. Approximately 50 to 70 percent of the nation's population lived below the poverty line in the early and mid-2020s. Chronic malnutrition is common among children, and access to healthcare and education services remains limited in many areas.

The 1998 arrival of Hurricane Mitch in Central America proved to be one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit Honduras. The hurricane exacerbated economic hardship in a region already experiencing extreme poverty. Entire fruit fields were destroyed, resulting in the departure of many multinational fruit companies, which were major employers. Record rainfall triggered mudslides that destroyed entire villages. Back roads and bridges were destroyed, and as much as 70 to 80 percent of the national transportation infrastructure was ruined. Seven thousand people died, and more than 20 percent of the entire population was left homeless after the hurricane. During the months directly following the hurricane, the US Border Patrol reported a 61 percent increase in captures of Hondurans trying to cross the border into the United States.

Hondurans in the United States

Honduran transnational communities strive to maintain ties with their hometowns while establishing new homes in the United States. The flow of migrants has a direct impact on Honduran communities in both countries, creating an exchange of cultures that changes both. Honduran residents of the United States account for 40 percent of Honduras's tourism revenue.

Many Hondurans work in the United States to send remittances to relatives in Honduras. In 2024, the World Bank reported that $9.5 billion in remittances were sent to Honduras by workers in the United States. Remittances directly affect the receiving families, lifting many of them out of poverty. They also add to the economic disparity in communities, creating a clear distinction between those who receive them and those who do not. However, some observers feel that remittances can create a dependence on charity that does little to improve the economic development of Honduras.

Hondurans seeking to travel to the United States to find work face difficult and dangerous journeys that require passage through Guatemala and Mexico. Perils and discomforts include rape, exposure to severe heat in desert areas, long separations from family, robbery, accidents, and even murder. Engaging professional guides known as “coyotes” can cost up to $5,000. It was estimated that only 25 percent of the approximately 80,000 Hondurans who tried to reach the United States each year from 1998 to the late 2010s had succeeded. In 2018, a caravan of about 6,000 Honduran migrants fleeing poverty and gang violence made its way from Honduras to the US border with Mexico, where some of them applied for asylum. Others, discouraged by the lengthy waiting list, remained in Mexico or returned to Honduras.

Many of the Hondurans who have immigrated to the United States have flourished. However, a less positive result of Honduran immigration has been the development of youth gangs. During the 1990s, the US government targeted undocumented residents in the penal system for deportation. Many of these former criminals were also gang members who recommenced their gangster lifestyle upon return to Honduras, creating transnational ties with gangs in the United States.

2020s: Immigration as a Political Football

In the 2020s, Hondurans continued to migrate to the United States in search of economic opportunities, a pattern that had persisted for decades. Although anti-immigrant sentiment had long existed in the United States, it proliferated with particular intensity in the early decades of the twenty-first century. By the mid-2020s, American public opinion and policy had increasingly turned against immigration. American policies and laws reflected this changed political environment. Media coverage reinforced this narrative, with "caravans" becoming a highly scrutinized symbol. For example, in January 2024, a reported caravan of approximately 300 people departed San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with the US southern border as its reported destination. Public attention and apprehension, similar to warnings issued for severe weather events, emerged before the caravan left Honduras, 1,500 miles (2,415 kilometers) from the US border. Other migrant journeys were similarly publicized throughout 2024. US policy shifts in 2025 resulted in the termination of the Family Reunification Parole programs and TPS for 72,000 Hondurans in September.


Bibliography

Bermeo, Sarah, and David Leblang. "Climate, Violence, and Honduran Migration to the United States." Brookings, 1 Apr. 2021, www.brookings.edu/articles/climate-violence-and-honduran-migration-to-the-united-states. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

Dasema, Rebecca, and Jeanne Batalova. "Central American Immigrants in the United States." Migration Policy Institute, 14 Aug. 2025, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

“Facts on Hispanics of Honduran Origin in the United States, 2021.” Pew Research Center, 16 Aug. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/us-hispanics-facts-on-honduran-origin-latinos. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

González, Juan. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. 2nd ed., Penguin Books , 2022.

"Migrant Caravan: What Is It and Why Does It Matter?" BBC News, 26 Nov. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45951782. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

“Migration and Remittances Data.” World Bank, 16 Nov. 2017, www.worldbank.org/en/topic/migrationremittancesdiasporaissues/brief/migration-remittances-data. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

Nazario, Sonia. Enrique’s Journey. Random House, 2006.

Paz, Christian. “3 Theories for America’s Anti-Immigrant Shift.” Vox, 12 July 2024, www.vox.com/politics/351535/3-theories-for-americas-anti-immigrant-shift. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025. 

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick Salgoda. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture, 2001.

Schmalzbauer, Leah. Striving and Surviving: A Daily Life Analysis of Honduran Transnational Families. Routledge, 2005.

Solis, Gustavo. "More Hondurans Prepare to Return Home: 'The Caravan Is Over. Everyone Is on Their Own Now.'" San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Dec. 2018, www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/migrant-caravan/sd-me-where-are-the-caravan-members-20181206-story.html. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

"Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Honduras." US Citizenship and Immigration Services, 25 Aug. 2025, www.uscis.gov/archive/temporary-protected-status-designated-country-honduras. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

"Temporary Protected Status (TPS): Fact Sheet." Forum Together, National Immigration Forum, 10 Dec. 2025, forumtogether.org/article/temporary-protected-status-fact-sheet. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

“2024: ACS 1-Year Estimates Selected Population Profiles.” US Census Bureau, data.census.gov/table?q=honduran+ancestry. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.

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