Obama meets with Central American leaders on immigration crisis

President Barack Obama has called on Friday to colleagues of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in the Oval Office to talk face to face the crisis created by the tens of thousands of children who in recent months have arrived, alone, to U.S. border. Obama has also involved in the search for solution to Mexico, whose president, Enrique Peña Nieto, he had a telephone conversation on Thursday, a day before the meeting.

The Obama administration plans to let these children and young people seek refugee status in Honduras, a way that highly mobile children is reduced from Central America to the U.S. through Mexico, as published by The New York Times. The plan would be tested in Honduras and, if successful, would extend to El Salvador and Guatemala.

The meeting between Obama and his Central American colleagues celebrates after persistent appeals from the White House to countries of origin in order to curb the flow of this child migration, fraught with danger for the long journey and his full legal term uncertainties.

And has as a prelude frustration expressed by visiting presidents, Salvador Sanchez Ceren Salvadoran, Guatemalan Otto Pérez Molina and Juan Orlando Hernández Honduras, for what they consider a breach of promises of support for the fight against transnational crime and the socioeconomic development through the Regional Security Initiative Central (CARSI).

As “almost a joke,” the Honduran president on Thursday, the first day of his official visit to Washington of the leaders, the initiative that since 2008 has committed the White House says $ 651 million, but that the governments concerned ensure that no qualified are being released.

“Unfortunately CARSI did not work, did not get the resources committed,” Pérez Molina who confirmed during his speech Thursday to the Organization of American States (OAS), asked that “as Plan Colombia was promoted a Merida Plan, you can also achieve a boost for Central Plan seeking peace and prosperity of our countries. “

But Obama has little new to offer on their own responses to Central American counterparts on Friday, an event that the White House has called merely “follow-up ” after Vice President Joe Biden travel to Guatemala in June, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, the same country the past few weeks and the high-level meeting made by the secretary of state, John Kerry, in Panama for the inauguration of President Juan Carlos Varela July 1.

Obama’s request to Congress of $ 3,700 million to meet challenges of influx of the minor undocumented children has very little chance like so many of his initiatives before a Republican opposition that refuses to give him a “blank check” in the words of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner.

Republicans who dominate the House and have refused to call a vote on immigration reform bill passed by the Senate a year ago, have harsh conditions to release of funds.

Among the most controversial issues: the requirement that the bipartisan 2008 law against human trafficking which provides for special safeguards for children from non- neighboring countries with the U.S. is amended.

Democrat  lawmakers reject any change to the law. Something that also has strong opposition from the Central American presidents.

“It’s time to tell the decision makers in Washington: children are not criminals, they are vulnerable human beings and the primary interest of the child must prevail, is a human rights issue” has settled Chairman Hernandez.

“I asked  America to respect rights of these children, provide due process, and have the possibility of recourse to corresponding legal actions”, declared shortly before Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez.

Central American governments, have in this respect also the explicit support of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday, adopted a declaration which stresses the need for immigration policies that are applied to minors ” humanitarian contemplate as main objective of the welfare of children and unaccompanied migrant and full respect for their human rights. “

The big question therefore is what Obama tells to his Central American colleagues when they meet behind closed doors and if he can convince them of their commitment to achieve together with the Central American countries, as pointed out by the Salvadoran Foreign Minister Martinez, “creating opportunities in places of origin of the migrant population “in order that” migration is an option, not an obligation.”

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Posted by Khalil Khan on Jul 27 2014. Filed under USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.