USA Arrives In Poor Honduran Immigrant Group, Trump Deploys Soldiers

JAKARTA - Hundreds of citizens of Honduras fled their country. Their goal is the United States (US). They came to the US to improve living conditions after the corona virus that killed more than two thousand people and crippled the economy of the country in Central America.

Honduran migrants, mostly young men and women carrying backpacks and children, departed from the bus terminal in the northern city of San Pedro Sula for the Guatemalan border. The news was conveyed by local television news, Hoy Mismo, Wednesday, September 30.

"I am leaving with my husband and two children. There is no work here. Nothing can be done, and even if we do get a job, we will only get four US dollars - about Rp. 59,400 - a day," said a woman who claiming to be named Cristina, quoted Thursday, October 1.

The group of citizens departing on Wednesday is the first motorcade to leave Honduras in 2020, when the country is suffering from its worst economic downturn in history. Six months of tight kuncitara had such devastating effects.

In October 2018, US President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of troops to the US-Mexico border to stem the convoy of Central American migrants moving north toward the US. Trump, who denounced illegal immigration in his successful 2016 presidential campaign, claimed soldiers were needed to secure US borders from migrants.

However, critics said the move was a political move ahead of US congressional elections in November that year.