Extreme Poverty And Violent Crime Fuel Hondurans Desire To Immigrate To U.S.

SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS - AUGUST 20: Issac Morales, 30, sits with his son Jose Issac, 11, in their one-room home on August 20, 2017 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The father of three said he tried to immigrate to the U.S. in 2016 to work but was captured and held for ransom by drug cartel members for a week in Nogales, Mexico. He said he was released when the kidnappers realized he had no money. He then crossed into Arizona where he became dehydrated and lost in the desert. He said he was relieved when U.S. Border Patrol agents captured him and later deported him back to Honduras. Honduras has one of the highest murder rates in the world for countries not at war and is consistently ranked one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. The violence and poverty have driven immigration to the U.S. and more recently Mexico, although the numbers of U.S.-bound immigrants has dropped greatly during the first months of the Trump Presidency. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)