AUTHOR
Jo Ann Van Engen
Donor Liaison, ASJ-US
Doing Justice in Immigration
July 1, 2025
How U.S. Policy Shapes Honduran Families’ Futures
by Jo Ann Van Engen
For the past 25 years I have lived in the same neighborhood in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The friends I made when I was 35 are still my friends today, and a lot of our conversations center on how our adult children are doing.
Paula is one of those friends. She is ridiculously proud of her kids: Mari, Ricardo, Gabriel, Sofia, Kati, and Alexa. They are smart, funny, and kind. They love to tease each other, and they each talk to their mom every day. This is astonishing to me for the obvious reasons, but especially because all but one of Paula’s children live outside of Honduras. Three live together in Spain, where they work in home health care and construction. Two live and work in the US. Only her daughter Sofia lives in Honduras with her husband and two children.
Paula is just one of many friends who have children in the US. There’s also Magda’s son, Andres; Lourdes’ daughter, Sindy; and Priscilla’s granddaughter, Rebecca. I could keep going.
These young people have a lot in common. They work hard and don’t drink or get in trouble. They are often lonely, and their families miss them and worry about them every single day.
My friendship with these women and their kids has made me deeply aware of how immigration impacts Honduran families–in both good ways and bad.
The US needs willing workers like Gabriel, Alexa, and Andres, and they need the work so they can support their families in Honduras. And they are working hard! Check out this astonishing statistic: Hondurans in the US currently send six billion dollars a year back to their families in Honduras. It is the #1 source of income for the country.
But many of my friends’ children go to the US without a work visa because those visas are almost impossible to get. They plead asylum at the border or pay someone to help them cross the border illegally; not because that is their first choice, but because, despite knowing jobs are waiting to be filled, they can’t get a visa that allows them to go do that job. The immigration system is pretty broken.
If you know a dairy farmer, orchard owner, or landscaper, ask them how hard it is to get workers through work visa programs. Most give up. It is just too much red tape, too expensive, and too uncertain. Some might admit that they hire workers without legal status–not because they want to, but because they don't feel they have a choice.
My friend, Johny, is a rare exception. He is an elder in our little neighborhood church. His wife, Digna, is in charge of the Sunday school. Two years ago, Johny was approved for an H-2B visa to work in Tennessee doing landscaping. He works there for six months of the year and the other six months he is back in Honduras with his family, active in our community and in our church. Everyone in our church is jealous of his good luck. His H-2B visa means he can legally and safely go to the US each year and then return to Honduras without fear of being arrested.
Last Sunday I talked to Digna to see how she felt about Johny’s job. She admitted that when her husband told her that a friend had given his name to a recruiter, she was sure it was a scam–everyone knows someone who has lost money to people pretending to offer work visas. But, now she is thrilled. “The visa has been such a blessing. Johny is treated well at his workplace. He works regular hours, and they pay him a decent wage.” And most importantly for Digna: “He comes back to us every six months.”
Making work visas easier to get would go a long way toward fixing the problem of undocumented immigration and would be welcomed by hardworking people like my friends’ kids.
President Trump’s back and forth on whether to deport undocumented immigrants working on farms, meat packing plants, and other industries is one more indication of the urgent need to figure out how to make work visas available.
In April, the President mentioned in a cabinet meeting that he was working on creating better legal channels for immigrant workers.
"We're going to work with farmers that, if they have strong recommendations for their farms, for certain people, that we're going to let them stay in for a while and work with the farmers and then come back and go through a process, a legal process. We have to take care of our farmers and hotels and various places where they need the people," Trump said.
Work visas would allow people like my friends’ children to work part of the year in the US while still staying connected to their families, communities, churches, and country.
Because the truth is that while Honduras’ unemployment rate is high and salaries are low, Honduras needs these young people, with their work ethic, creativity, and intelligence.
And their families need them. Losing so many young people is tearing apart the strong fabric of Honduran families–children are growing up without their parents, grandparents are raising grandchildren. In a country where adult children seldom left home until they started their own family, many households today are empty of young adults. It is painful to watch.
I pray that President Trump and his advisors will follow through on making work visas attainable, so that the thousands of jobs that need doing in the US can be filled by willing, hardworking people like my friends’ children who would jump at the chance to earn money abroad and to continue to be part of the countries they call home.
Win-win.
Honduras’s Institutional Crisis Deepens Ahead of the 2025 Elections
Dear friend, I couldn’t stop looking at the picture. Of course, there had been plenty of inspiring photos from this summer’s Prayer Walk for Peace and Democracy. The sea of blue and white rising and falling as hundreds of thousands walked the Honduran hills through Tegucigalpa, flowing like a never-ending stream. Catholic nuns praying their rosaries alongside Pentecostals dancing in the streets. But the picture that still knocks me flat is the closeup. The one of the two men standing side by side (picture enclosed). They are exhausted, and the shorter collapses into the taller. The tears mostly hold joy and relief, but they are mingled with something darker. After all, there had been threats—promises of harm done to themselves and their loved ones if they led their followers through the streets of Honduras in prayer. Despite the fear and intimidation, Pastor Gerardo Irías and Monsignor José Vicente Nácher forged ahead. They knew Honduras needed unity and, above all, prayer before the looming November 2025 presidential elections. As an ASJ supporter, you know that these kinds of threats aren’t out of the ordinary, and your support has helped slow and reverse violence in Honduras. Today, I am writing to share a way you can continue standing with brave Hondurans like Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José in hope. The Evangelical pastor and the Catholic archbishop put the word out as widely as they could to their churches, hoping to mobilize 20,000 to walk and pray. Instead, an estimated 230,000 walked in the capital of Tegucigalpa alone. It was a historic moment. And without your past support for ASJ, it may have never happened. After all, two years prior, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José didn’t even know each other’s names. They first met in 2023 at ASJ’s offices. They were two of many civil society leaders convened by ASJ to discuss safeguarding democracy– especially before the election in 2025. It was at that meeting that they shook each other’s hand and learned each other’s name. It was at that meeting–and many subsequent meetings–where old religious prejudices began to be replaced by trust and mutual affection. So, when the moment came this summer to act, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José knew what they had to do. And they knew that they had to do it together.
Calvin alums turn faith into action through nonprofit
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Thank You for Moving Forward With Us this Summer!
When Policies Shift, Families Pay the Price * by Jo Ann Van Engen
Inspiring civil society in the US with a vision of a more just society
Dear Friend, On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Hondurans flooded their streets with prayer and peaceful demonstration. Reports from our team members who attended said it was like an inspirational sea of people all wanting the same thing for their country: peace. One of our ASJ-US colleagues said he walked past Pentecostals dancing and playing music, a woman praying the rosary, nuns walking, and priests and altar boys in full robes–all walking in the same space together for peace.
Love, Labor, and the Price of Leaving By Jo Ann Van Engen
Prayer Update (JUL 16- Election Process Turmoil)
