U.S. Legal Pathways for Mexican and Central American Immigrants, by the Numbers
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Highlights
Family ties, H-2 seasonal work visas, and humanitarian parole are the main U.S. legal pathways for Mexican and Central American immigrants.
- Mexicans and Central Americans together account for about one in five new U.S. lawful permanent residents each year, primarily through family sponsorship.
- Mexicans dominate H-2A agricultural visas, at 92 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2023, and H-2B nonagricultural visas at 64 percent. Central Americans’ H-2B share rose from 5 percent in FY 2020 to 18 percent three years later after targeted allocations.
- Humanitarian parole via the CBP One app has become a significant pathway: from January 2023 to March 2024, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans scheduled about 154,000 appointments, around 28 percent of the total.
- Relatively few Mexican and Central American students use F-1 visas, H-1B uptake is minimal at about 1 percent, and TN visas for Mexicans, while growing, are underused in shortage occupations.
Increasingly, research suggests that providing legal pathways for migration may reduce unauthorized migration pressures, especially when coupled with targeted enforcement. As policymakers across the Americas assess whether and how to expand legal mobility pathways, understanding the pathways that exist currently and how they are used is a vital starting point.
This fact sheet examines the U.S. legal pathways that exist for nationals of Mexico and the northern Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, which have long been among the top sources of unauthorized migration to the United States. By analyzing U.S. government data, the fact sheet provides an overview of the extent to which migrants from these countries are issued immigrant visas, for those who intend to live permanently in the country; nonimmigrant visas, for those who seek to enter temporarily for seasonal work, study, or business; and humanitarian forms of admission, including refugee resettlement and humanitarian parole.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Immigrant Visas
3 Nonimmigrant Visas
4 Humanitarian Pathways
5 Implications and Opportunities
Latin America and Caribbean Initiative
The Initiative combines rigorous research with direct engagement of governments, institutions, and stakeholders to help build orderly, rights-respecting migration systems across one of the world's most dynamic migration regions.
About the U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides analysis of U.S. immigration pathways, the impacts of enforcement and other policies, and the characteristics of immigrant populations.
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