MCALLEN –Honduras is receiving a lot of citizens being deported back to the country, but it’s not necessarily a direct effect from the new immigration law in the United States.

That’s according to Marilyn Mendez; an investigative reporter who works immigration stories in the capital of Honduras.

In the first two months of this year, Honduras has received 4,676 of its citizens back from Mexico.

“What we believe here, in Honduras, is that those are people are not making it to the border with the United States because Mexico is detaining all these Honduran people and sending them back to Honduras,” she said.

Mendez said Mexico seems to be cracking down even on minors.

She said so far this year, more than 2,900 children and teenagers were deported back to Honduras from Mexico. Last year, it was 3,000 for the entire year.

“Of course the people who were deported last week, the first thing they said when they got here was that they were going to go back,” Mendez said.

She’s interviewed many of the deportees. She said most of them plan to attempt a trip to the United States again.

The changing immigration policy in the U.S. and Mexico doesn’t change their minds.

“It doesn’t matter for them if the politics are harsh, still they will go back,” she said.

The violent crime and poverty problems driving many Hondurans to leave their country hasn’t improved much. Mendez said the Honduran government is working with the U.S. to create jobs, education opportunities and safer cities.

She said the government is trying to keep children form making the dangerous journey north.

“Today we have a campaign in Honduras to keep all minors here. It’s in all the media telling minors the dangers of travelling to get the U.S. And I believes it’s really working there,” Mendez said.

She added it will take real change in Central America to stop people from trying to cross the border illegally.

According to Mendez, Honduras received $105 million from the U.S. for programs meant to keep Honduran citizens from leaving their country.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported last year that Congress approved more than $897 million for Central America and Mexico to help stop the flow of illegal immigration from those countries.