Honduras Among 9 Nations Eligible for US Migrant Aid

HONDURAS · MIGRATION

A one-page notice puts Honduras on a short State Department list of countries where Washington can fund help for migrants.

The US State Department has made migrants in Honduras eligible for US migrant aid. The decision appeared in the Federal Register, the official US government gazette, on Wednesday, 7 October.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau signed the Honduras determination on 14 September. It matters for US readers because Honduras now also receives people deported from the United States who are not Honduran.

What the State Department Notice Says

The notice lists nine determinations that Landau signed between 3 October 2025 and 21 September 2026. Each one designates migrants in a single country as eligible for assistance under a 1962 law.

The countries are Equatorial Guinea, Palau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Guatemala. Guatemala’s determination, dated 21 September, is the newest.

Each text says the assistance “will contribute to the foreign policy interests of the United States.” Only the texts for Equatorial Guinea, Palau and Liberia describe the migrants as “vulnerable.”

The notice, filed on Tuesday, 6 October, is signed by Adam Zerbinopoulos of the State Department’s refugee and migration bureau. It names no dollar amount, no aid agency and no start date.

The new US Embassy building in Tegucigalpa while under construction, pictured in September 2021. Photo: Luis Alfredo Romero / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What the 1962 Law Allows

The Migration and Refugee Assistance Act authorises US funding for refugee and migration aid abroad. Section 2(b)(2) lets the President fund help for designated groups outside the United States when it serves US foreign policy.

The law also authorises payments to the International Organization for Migration, UN refugee agency and International Committee of the Red Cross. Landau acted under a 1998 presidential determination and an internal State Department delegation, the notice says.

He used the same clause in May 2025 for migrants without legal status in the United States. That earlier determination covered help for them to return voluntarily to their home countries.

Honduras and Third-Country Deportations

Honduras signed an asylum cooperation agreement with the United States on 10 March 2025, under then-President Xiomara Castro. The Department of Homeland Security published the text on 8 July 2025.

Under that deal, the US can send some non-Honduran asylum seekers to Honduras to seek protection there instead. A joint plan set a pace of 10 people a month, up to 240 over two years, Tu Nota reported.

Third Country Deportation Watch is a joint project of two US groups, Refugees International and Human Rights First. It counts 113 transfers under the deal from October 2025 to August 2026.

The monitor counts at least 568 non-Hondurans removed to Honduras by early September through all channels. It says a second arrangement on such transfers followed in late April 2026.

Honduras’ National Migration Institute said in August that it had received 365 Mexicans deported from the United States. It said they land at San Pedro Sula airport and are taken to the Guatemalan border on their third day.

Between August 2025 and June 2026, US immigration courts ended 7,606 non-Honduran asylum cases naming Honduras as destination, Tu Nota reported. It cited court data analysed by Mobile Pathways and stressed that not all of those people were sent.

All nine countries on the State Department list appear on the monitor’s roster of US third-country transfer partners. The notice itself does not mention deportations.

President Nasry Asfura, leader of the conservative National Party, took office on 27 January 2026, replacing Castro of the left-wing Libre party. Monthly transfers under the asylum deal continued under his government, the monitor’s records show.

What It Means for You

For US taxpayers, the notice opens a legal channel for US migrant aid to reach Honduras. What that costs depends on spending decisions that have not been published.

For families of asylum seekers in US custody, cases can end in transfer to Honduras even for non-Hondurans. Immigration lawyers may want to check whether the Honduras agreement applies to a client.

For travellers and investors, nothing changes now. The US Embassy in Tegucigalpa is closed for holidays and reopens on Tuesday, 13 October, La Prensa reported.

What Is Not Known

The notice gives no budget, timeline or implementing partner for US migrant aid in Honduras. It does not say whether the money will help deportees, returning Hondurans or migrants in transit.

It is unclear why the notice was published weeks or months after the signatures. No public comment from the Honduran government on the designation could be found by early Thursday.

What Comes Next

Each determination is to be sent to the President, and any US migrant aid would run through State Department programmes. The 1962 law leaves it to Congress to appropriate the money.

The designation does not by itself send anyone to Honduras. It also does not change visa or entry rules for Hondurans travelling to the United States.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did the State Department decide about Honduras?

Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau designated migrants in Honduras as eligible for US assistance under a 1962 law. He signed the decision on 14 September, and it was published on 7 October.

Does this mean more deportations to Honduras?

The notice does not say so. Honduras already receives some non-Honduran deportees under a 2025 asylum agreement and later arrangements, a US monitoring project says.

Which other countries are on the list?

Equatorial Guinea, Palau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. Each got its own determination between October 2025 and September 2026.

How much money is involved?

No amount has been published. The notice only makes migrants in Honduras eligible for assistance.

Who is the president of Honduras?

Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party, who took office on 27 January 2026. The asylum agreement with the US was signed under his predecessor, Xiomara Castro.

Sources: US Department of State, Federal Register notice 2026-20550; US Department of State, Federal Register notice 2025-09808; US Department of Homeland Security, US-Honduras asylum agreement; 22 US Code 2601; Instituto Nacional de Migración, Honduras; Third Country Deportation Watch; Tu Nota; Proceso Digital; La Prensa (all accessed 8 October 2026).