Denied asylum, migrants return to place they fear most: home
Associated PressSAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — By now, the young couple thought they’d be in the United States. He looked defeated: “It’s time to start paying taxes.” ___ The rules are clear for outsiders who enter the gang-controlled neighborhoods of San Pedro Sula: Roll your windows down so the spotters can see you’re not a threat; drive slowly; stay on main roads, leave before nightfall. “They told us they knew where to find my son,” said a middle-class San Pedro Sula mother after she and her husband ran out of money to pay their war tax. There’s only one way, he said, for people to stay safe in San Pedro Sula: “There are three rules you have to follow here: You listen and you watch. “The U.S. wants to shift the burden, and put that responsibility on other countries.” So Guatemala has begun accepting Honduran and El Salvadoran deportees from the U.S. with an invitation to seek asylum there instead, Mexico runs militarized highway checkpoints along migrant routes and Honduran bus companies are under pressure to ensure that Venezuelans and Cubans don’t even get on buses heading toward the United States.
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