Central American migrants, mostly from Honduras, climb over a barrier as they try to reach the U.S.-Mexico border on Nov. 25, 2018, near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico.
Though Central Americans for years have accounted for an increasing percentage of overall migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally , their numbers grew dramatically in early 2019. In May 2019 alone, about 130,000 people were arrested trying to cross the border. The composition of migrant flows also shifted, with the number of individuals in families apprehended at the border by U.S. authorities growing from 105,000 during all of 2018 to almost 330,000 during the first five months of 2019. Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are currently the main sources of illegal immigration to the United States that pass illegally through Mexico. Honduras is the second-largest source of migrants entering the U.S. illegally.
