fesamericacentral.org ANALYSIS N O 4/2018 Labor migration and social struggle in the Trump Era The case of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras A lberto F ernández F ebruary 2018 In the past four decades, the immigrant population from Central America, mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, has grown from being a small part of the migrant population in the United States to a significant presence, and one with its own characteristics and challenges. Currently, 7% of immigrants in the United States come from Central America. In Washington DC, one out of every seven immigrants is Salvadoran. Nearly half of the Central American immigrant population in the United States does not have legal documented status. Through November 2017, Temporary Protected Status(TPS) offered protection from deportation and provided work permits to 204,000 Salvadorans and 61,000 Hondurans, although it was not provided for immigrants from Guatemala. Migrant workers from Central America mainly hold low-paying jobs in the service sector. The presence of Central Americans in the U.S. labor movement is growing by the day. Some of the union leaders are Central Americans, espe­cially in the service-sector and construction unions. As a result, several labor unions such as the SEIU(services), UFCW(food and commercial workers), and IUPAT(painters and allied trades) are implementing legal support pro­grams for immigrant workers. Nonetheless, the challenges during the Trump administration are immense. As a first order of business, immigrant workers and their allies seek to defend sanctuary cities from budget attacks from the federal government and protect themselves from immigration raids. The United States labor movement must continue to be a bastion to defend the rights of all workers, including immi­grants.