Central American migrants currently living in the United States sent home around 20% more in remittances in the first quarter of 2025, according to official data released this week.
Economists have claimed this reflects their fear of deportation by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Almost one-quarter of the GDP of countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador is made up of money sent from US-based migrants to their relatives.
This week, Guatemala’s central bank revealed it had recorded $5.64 billion in remittances in the first quarter, a 20.5% jump over the same period in 2024.
Honduras’s central bank also disclosed that they received $2.6 billion, which is a 24% increase from the first quarter of 2024.
El Salvador and Nicaragua do not have complete data for the first quarter yet, but in January and February, remittances to both countries increased by 14.2% and 22.6% respectively, compared to the same months in 2024.
El Salvador received $1.4 billion and Nicaragua $909 million in the first two months of 2025, according to their central banks.
The president of Guatemala’s central bank, Alvaro Gonzalez, has attributed the increase in remittances to migrants’ fear of being deported from the United States.
Guatemalan economic analyst Erick Coyoy took a similar view, telling local media that the surge was “an anticipated reaction by migrants to the perceived risk of deportation.”;
