The First Four Months: A Look at Trump Administration Policies Impacting Honduras
Executive Summary
The first four months of the Trump presidency has upended politics-as-usual both domestically and abroad, as Trump works aggressively to subordinate the world to "America First" objectives. Although Honduras has so far escaped the Trump Administration’s direct attention, the U.S’s broader foreign policy goals are set to have significant and wide-ranging impacts on Honduras and its people. For human rights defenders and for those engaged in liberatory political projects, major changes in the United States also present new risks and opportunities impacting the effectiveness of present tactics and strategy. This report is one modest attempt at beginning to dimension the emerging state of play and its implications for communities in resistance in Honduras and beyond.
The Players shaping U.S. policies impacting Hondurans largely consist of Trump loyalists with marked hostility towards China and Latin America’s leftist leaders. The region has been placed high on the Trump Administration’s priority list, with conservative Latin Americanist Marco Rubio appointed to the U.S.’s top foreign policy post of Secretary of State. Other notable appointments include Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem who, together with "Border Czar" Tom Homan, is charged with implementing Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are charged with similarly aggressive economic policy.
Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Honduras have been stable but distant. Secretary of State Rubio noticeably skipped Honduras in his February visit to Central America where he brokered immigration-based deals with Honduras’ neighbors. The Administration has also indicated no immediate plans to replace U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Laura Dogu, who announced her exit from the country in April. This noticeable distance may derive from simmering tensions between the countries that in January manifested in Honduran President Xiomara Castro’s threatening to terminate security cooperation with the U.S. in the event of a mass expulsion of Hondurans from the United States. Despite this, the relationship remains stable as security cooperation between the two countries continues and the Honduran state works actively to facilitate Trump's expulsion of immigrants from the United States.
Immigration is the Administration’s top priority, with its first four months largely consumed by its efforts to "seal the border" and carry out the "largest deportation program" in U.S. history. Upon taking office, Trump ordered the militarization of the southern border and suspension of humanitarian avenues of admittance, resulting in a precipitous drop in the number of Honduran and other asylum seekers arriving at the border. Inside the United States, the Trump Administration has expanded the scope of its deportation powers, carrying out ICE raids at homes, schools, and places of work while encouraging thousands to self-deport. The mass deportation of Hondurans would spell economic and humanitarian disaster for Honduras as an estimated 1.2 million Hondurans live in the United States, their remittances accounting for over 20% of Honduran GDP. Despite the Trump Administration’s aggressive efforts, the rate of deportation from the country’s interior has so far remained in line with the previous administration's deportation rates.
Foreign Assistance has historically been an important aspect of the U.S.-Honduras relationship, with Honduras as the second largest beneficiary of U.S. development assistance in Central America between 2001 and 2024. The Trump Administration’s abrupt freeze on all foreign assistance and subsequent dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), marked a significant shift in the United States’ approach to diplomacy and left vital humanitarian programs in Honduras without funding. In its place, the Trump Administration is expanding the role of private investment through the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC), signaling that it will prioritize investments that expand the United States critical mineral supply chain. This presents an existential threat to communities impacted by extractive industry, one that is only compounded by the Administration’s announced intention to push reforms through the World Bank and other multilaterals, that move those institutions away from climate change mitigation and towards investment in energy and mineral extraction.
The Trump Administration’s approach to Trade Relations has also affected Honduras who in April was slapped with a 10% tariff, along with the rest of the world, while an emerging trade war between the U.S. and China – Honduras’ two largest trading partners – further threatens the Honduran economy. With regard to Security Cooperation, the historically close U.S.-Honduras relationship remains stable, but may soon be impacted by the Trump Administration’s renewed war on drugs and gangs that on February 20 led the Administration to designate MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization. Under this designation, the Administration is authorized under U.S. law to expand criminal penalties against entities that provide "material support" to MS-13 and to carry out unilateral military strikes against the gang wherever it may operate, including in Honduras.
On Human Rights & Corruption, the United States under Trump has abandoned many of its commitments, as it withdraws from major multilateral human rights mechanisms, slashes the State Department’s human rights functions, and eliminates major aspects of its annual Human Rights Reports. The Administration's foreign assistance cuts have also impacted major institutions like the Organization of American States, home to the Inter-American System for Human Rights, while an announced pause on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement empowers U.S. companies to engage in unethical business practices abroad. The Administration’s planned expansion of oil and gas development and major cuts to Climate Change mitigation efforts further threatens communities across the world, including in Honduras, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change globally.