Will Grant
BBC
Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondent in Honduras
BBC
Elías Padilla stopped his plans to move to the US because he fears detention and deportation
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."
US President Donald Trump has ordered a massive crackdown on illegal immigration
Elías's change of heart will doubtless be welcome news to the architects of US President Donald Trump's immigration policies including border czar Tom Homan and homeland security adviser Stephen 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.
With many undocumented Hondurans sharing the sense of a looming threat or deadline over their futures, many are trying to send every spare dollar back to their families before it is too late.
Between January and October this year, there was a 26% rise in remittances to Honduras compared with the same period the previous year.
In fact, even though their numbers are dwindling in the US, Hondurans increased the amount they sent home from $9.7bn (£7.2bn) in all of 2024 to more than $10.1bn (£7.5bn) in just the first nine months of this year.
The BBC spoke to one, Marcos (not his real name), on the phone from a major US city where he has lived for five years, working in construction.
"Most of the money I send home is for the family to cover their basics like food. But also, so they can put something to one side to buy a little land on which we can eventually build a house, maybe buy a car," he says.
Since Trump took office, Marcos says he only keeps the very minimum he needs for rent and food in the US. Everything else goes to Honduras.
Elías Padilla stopped his plans to move to the US because he fears detention and deportation
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."
US President Donald Trump has ordered a massive crackdown on illegal immigration
Elías's change of heart will doubtless be welcome news to the architects of US President Donald Trump's immigration policies including border czar Tom Homan and homeland security adviser Stephen 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.
With many undocumented Hondurans sharing the sense of a looming threat or deadline over their futures, many are trying to send every spare dollar back to their families before it is too late.
Between January and October this year, there was a 26% rise in remittances to Honduras compared with the same period the previous year.
In fact, even though their numbers are dwindling in the US, Hondurans increased the amount they sent home from $9.7bn (£7.2bn) in all of 2024 to more than $10.1bn (£7.5bn) in just the first nine months of this year.
The BBC spoke to one, Marcos (not his real name), on the phone from a major US city where he has lived for five years, working in construction.
"Most of the money I send home is for the family to cover their basics like food. But also, so they can put something to one side to buy a little land on which we can eventually build a house, maybe buy a car," he says.
Since Trump took office, Marcos says he only keeps the very minimum he needs for rent and food in the US. Everything else goes to Honduras.
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