The flow of remittances from the United States to other countries has surged for countries outside the Western Hemisphere. In 2000 remittances to India was 3.1 billion, in 2010 $20 billion, and in 2024 $33 billion. India today receives more remittance income from the U.S. than from its traditional source, the Persian Gulf.

Notwithstanding that, the Western Hemisphere countries remain as receiving the highest amount of US remittances as a percentage of their gross domestic product. The five highest dependent on remittances or Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, with the share of GDP ranging from 15% to 25%. (Go here and here).

Latin American and Caribbean countries are economically dependent on their citizens who work in the United States, and constitute a labor pool for the U.S.  Let’s call these countries the American Basin of foreign labor. Since 1960, they make up 20 million or 45% of all immigrants today. They include 4 of the top 10 countries of origin of American immigration since 1960.

The American Basin has a blended average per capita income of $17,000. 21% of the citizens live outside their country. Remittances back to the Basin counties are equivalent to 8% of GDP. (Go here).

To Honduras, for example, about $10 billion was remitted in 2024. The average formal annual wage in Honduras is about $5,500 — in the U.S. Hondurans likely have annual work income of $35,000 or higher.  A fifth of Honduran households receive remittances. And, some businesses are funded in part by remittances and by persons returning to Honduras and starting enterprises. These remittances come from the roughly 1.3 million Hondurans in the U.S., of whom about 800,000 are legally here and 500,000 unauthorized. The total population of Honduras being about 11 million, this means that working Hondurans in the U.S. – say 70% of 1.3 million, or 900,000 – are generating as much income to Honduran households as 2 million workers in Honduras.  This estimate, however rough, shows now emigration can be a work income multiplier.

The impact of the Trump Administration

Removal: Unauthorized Hondurans are affected as are all other unauthorized persons. The Administration has promoted voluntary removal, and in May a contingent of Hondurans were flown by the government and given $1000 as part of the voluntary removal program. (Go here.)

Some 75,000 Hondurans are in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status. This statue ends on July 5, 2025; at this time the administration has not publicly addressed this issue. There are a minimal number of Hondurans covered by Humanitarian Parole

A tax on remittances: the House version of the One Big Beautiful Bill has a 5% tax, and the Senate version of 3.5%. Remittances from U.S. citizens are exempt from taxation. Currently, charges for remittances are about 6% and have not been brought down to a 3% level as targeted by the World Bank.