Honduras, Gangs, and Asylum Law

Decision-makers within the US immigration system have long looked skeptically on asylum claims based on persecution by street gangs. We draw on ethnographic research conducted in San Pedro Sula, Honduras to argue that this skepticism and the corresponding legal precedents rely on an incorrect understanding of the issues at stake. Our evidence, considered in light of recent scholarship on violence in Latin America, contradicts three assumptions that underly asylum decisions: 1) that gang violence in Honduras is indiscriminate; 2) that gang violence is motivated purely by instrumental motives (often described as “criminal” motives)—such as financial gain or competition for market share between criminal enterprises—rather than ideological motives; and 3) that gang members and society at large are not able to recognize which groups are likely targets.