Leaders of some Central American countries claim they don't have the "capacity" to take back their nationals that are currently in the United States illegally.
President-Elect Donald Trump is planning a historic and massive deportation program once he takes office in January. Incoming Border Czar Tom Homan said there's anywhere from 11 to 22 million illegal aliens that could be deported.
However, officials in countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are trying to say they don't have the space for them for when they return. Those three countries have the largest number of people living illegally in the U.S., after Mexico.
“We don’t have the capacity,” said Antonio García, Honduras’ deputy foreign minister. “There’s very little here for deportees.”
There are approximately 560,000 Hondurans, about 5% of the country’s population, currently in the U.S. illegally.
Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies Jessica Vaughan said even if the capacity claims from the other countries were true, U.S. officials shouldn't even take it into consideration.
"The self-described capacity, or lack thereof, is not something that should be a consideration for our immigration enforcement authorities," Vaughan said.
Vaughan said these countries are just trying to use excuses to prevent their own people from coming back.
"This is really not our problem and it's not really even true," she said.
According to Vaughan, the United States has been seen and used as a 'safety valve' of economic policy and quality of life for these other countries that have sent their people to the U.S. to live here illegally. In other words, the U.S. has been taken advantage of and the Biden administration has welcomed this behavior.
"What the governments of these countries really crave is the remittances that are sent back by people working in the United States, sometimes legally but often illegally," said Vaughan. "These countries have been enabled to get away with not having to make hard decisions on how to boost their economies or not having to do more with public safety."
The leaders of some of these countries should consider the economic impact that could be had if their nationals in the U.S. are returned. Vaughan said the ones that were exposed to a more vibrant economy and were able to develop skills in the workplace should be welcomed back.
"These countries really could use entrepreneurial, hard working people that are coming back with some savings," she explained.
Nonetheless, criminal illegals will be removed from the U.S. first, as explained by Homan. After that, it won't be the problem of the U.S. on what happens to the more dangerous people in the country illegally once they are returned to their home country.