The number of immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in the US increased by as much as 25% between 2007 and 2015. This contrasts with the more modest rise in the foreign-born population of the nation, as well as a fall in those coming from Mexico.
During the same period, the immigration population of the US rose by 10%, while there was a decrease of 6% in the number of Mexican immigrants in the country, according to an analysis of data from the US Census Bureau, by the Pew Research Center. Immigration trends from the three Central American countries and Mexico have diverged in the last few years, with 115,000 new Central American immigrants arriving in 2014, almost twice the 60,000 in 2011. The number of Mexican immigrant newcomers fell to 165,000 in 2014, from 175,000 in 2011.
An increasing number of legal as well as undocumented immigrants have made their way to the US from the Central American nations as the US economy recovers from the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. Estimates from the Pew Research Center show that 55% of the three million immigrants from those Central American countries were undocumented immigrants. This is a sharp contrast to the 24% of US immigrants in general.
High murder rates, as well as gang activity and other violence in their home nations, are explanations for the increase, according to a survey of regional immigrants.