Table 8 Number of Removals* from the United States and Mexico to the Northern Triangle, 2011
Number of FY 2011
involuntary removals
from the United States1
Percentage of all FY 2011 Number of removals from
United States involuntary
Mexico 20113
2
removals for FY 2011
Total number of
returnees for 2011‡
Guatemala
33,324
8
31,042
64,366
Honduras
23,822
6
18,746
42,586
El Salvador
18,870
5
8,809
27,679
Total
76,016
19
58,597
134,631
* “Removals” is a term used by the Department of Homeland Security and is similar to the more commonly used “deportation.”
‡
Includes involuntary removals from the United States and Mexico. Total numbers are an approximation because Mexico and the United States use different time measures
for number of removals (calendar year versus fiscal year).
Part 2: Repatriation
The socioeconomic disadvantages of living and working
as an unauthorized immigrant in the United States have
been shouldered by Central American newcomers for decades, but migrants continued to travel north. Today, however, unauthorized residents face new obstacles.
During fiscal year 2011, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations removed58 396,906 unauthorized immigrants from the United States—the largest number in the
agency’s modern history.59 Guatemala was the destination
of the largest number of air repatriations of any country in
the world (Mexico had more total repatriations, but many
deportees are sent back by land since there is an extended
border with the United States).
Under the Obama administration, deportations (or “removals” as they are termed by the Department of Homeland Security), have increased by 30 percent annually compared to the administration of President George W. Bush.60
After Mexico, which had 73 percent of all deportees in 2010,
the next largest sending countries of deportees were the
Northern Triangle nations: Guatemala, Honduras, and El
Salvador combined were the destinations of 19 percent of
all deportees.61 In 2011 there were 76,000 deportees from
the United States to the Northern Triangle.62 But many other would-be immigrants didn’t ev