What is going on in Honduras and Guatemala that the people from there can be granted asylum in the United States?

The CIA Fact Book says:

Honduras:
“Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 190,000 (violence, extortion, threats, forced recruitment by urban gangs) (2017)”

Guatemala:
“Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 242,000 (more than three decades of internal conflict that ended in 1996 displaced mainly the indigenous Maya population and rural peasants; ongoing drug cartel and gang violence) (2017)

Guatemala also recently had some deadly volcanic eruptions near Guatemala City, though I don’t know that there are refugees to the USA as a result.

Here’s and article that explains it a bit better. Today I saw an interview with a lady and her two children who tried to enter legally seeking asylum and she was sent back across the border. Her asylum was denied. The reporter asked her would she try again legal or illegally even knowing that her children could be taken from her. She said yes. She said if she goes back, her whole family will be killed. She had two small boys. The gangs are giving families impossible choices. Either your children join us or we kill you. and them. What would any mother do? So I guess for them, they would rather be sent back alone and know their children are alive, then to have them killed or become murderers themselves. They are using the same tactics that guerrillas terrorist use.

This is horrifying.

Central American countries (specifically El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) are among the most violent countries in the world. They are essentially lawless hellholes. They make Mexico look like a walk in the park.

And unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much progress made in improving those countries. More people are joining the gangs and more people are leaving and coming here.

Good God. Why don’t we talk more about these countries in the news? We talked about many of the horrors in Syria. Is it because this has been going on a long time in Central America.

I just feel like every time we hear people complain about Latin Americans coming into America we overlook what is happening in parts of the world. It breaks my heart.

@JLeslie I personally think we do not discuss it because the conditions in these countries are what they are in large part because of former, and many times, ongoing US policies implemented regarding their governments and the people of the region.
US Latin American policy has had and continues to have a devastating effect on the entire region.

@JLeslie – This is a huge subject that requires some discussion of history. But most important and relevant to those of us in the US is the fact that we contribute to the violence and horrors that go on in these countries. It’s not just a lack of empathy that some people feel regarding immigrants and asylum seekers. We (you and I) are contributing to the fact that these people need to flee their countries in the first place.

@JLeslie: “Good God. Why don’t we talk more about these countries in the news? We talked about many of the horrors in Syria. Is it because this has been going on a long time in Central America.”

Honduras, in particular, has generated quite a bit of discussion in the past few years due to Clinton supporting the coup and justifying turning Honduran children away. Read up on Zelaya, the coup, Berta Cáceres and other activists in Hondura.

And Guatemala, while dealing with volcanic activity currently, is not immune from the hand of the US, including the CIA coup.

People like to talk about these Latin American countries as though the economic and human rights realities were inevitable, just happened, or are all self-induced. The US needs to take in anyone who flees these countries not just because it would be the right (and human) thing to do. We need to bring them in because we helped do this to them. They have more of a right to be here than natural born citizens, who have blood on their hands.

I wonder how many stay in Mexico? Do they have papers from their countries?