By now, we all know that - for the next year at least - Belizeans will not be eligible for US "H2" workers visas. And while much has been made of US President Donald Trump's closed immigration policies, since he was elected fewer Belizeans have been deported.
Statistics from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement show, first, that our Central American neighbors lead the list for number of deportations. Positions one through four for the most deportees are held by our neighbors, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Our other Central American neighbor, Nicaragua is at number 11.
And while those Central American Nations have hundreds of thousands of deportees - Belize is way down the list at #47 wth just 82 deportees in 2017 - which is down 30% from the previous year's total of 120.
And, there's another interesting statistic, this one from the US Border Patrol. It says that in financial year 2017, 56 Belizeans were intercepted at the US/Mexico border.
This is compared to 66 thousand Guatemalans, 47 thousand Hondurans and 50 thousand Salvadorians and 130 thousand Mexicans.
Interestingly, 35 of those 56 illegal border crossers were caught in this area the Rio Grande border crossing near Reynosa, Mexico.
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