Reuters
By Patricia Zengerle
July 1, 2014
(Reuters)
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday Washington would
work with Central America to address the root causes of an immigration
crisis, but kept
up the Obama administration's tough message that undocumented children
would be deported.
"We
obviously understand people who want to do better, and who look for a
better life," Kerry said as he met leaders from Honduras, El Salvador
and Guatemala, countries
from which tens of thousands of children have fled to the United States
in recent months.
"But
at the same time, there are rules of law, and there is a process and
there is false information that is being spread about benefits that
might be available to these
young people who are looking for that better life," he added.
Kerry
was in Panama for the inauguration of the country's new president, Juan
Carlos Varela, and he combined the trip with meetings to address a
crisis that is straining
U.S. resources and roiling partisan tensions in Washington over
immigration.
Kerry
met with Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Guatemalan
President Otto Perez Molina. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez
did not attend, sending
his Foreign Minister Mireya Aguero Trejo de Corrales instead.
President
Barack Obama said on Monday he was sending Kerry to Central America to
address the problem, in a speech pledging to act alone to revamp the
U.S. immigration
system and protect the border after hopes of persuading congressional
Republicans to pass broad reform legislation officially died.
Kerry's
visit followed one by Vice President Joe Biden to Guatemala on June 20
to discuss the exodus of children that is also threatening to complicate
Washington's ties
with its allies in Mexico and Central America.
The
absence of Hernandez raised some eyebrows after the new Honduran
president also skipped the meeting with Biden while on a trip to the
World Cup in Brazil. That followed
criticism of the United States in his inaugural address in January,
when he said Central America was suffering from U.S. drug consumption.
Asked
about the Panama talks, Honduran deputy foreign minister Roberto Ochoa
told Reuters that protocol dictated that Aguero meet Kerry and that
Hernandez wanted an "informal
private meeting" with the U.S. secretary of state to discuss migration.
"There's a way of communicating among equals, and this is an old practice in relations between countries," Ochoa said.
Tens
of thousands of children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are
showing up illegally, often without parents, at the Texas border. Their
numbers could reach
90,000 this year and 150,000 next - up from only about 6,000 in 2011.
U.S.
officials stressed that they consider the crisis humanitarian, citing
the danger facing children traveling thousands of miles in the hands of
smugglers. "The lives
of children cannot be put at risk this way," Kerry said.
However,
Washington also wants Central American countries to do more to fix
their economies, for example by integrating their trade, State
Department officials said.
"Until
the Central Americans really get past some of the arguing among
themselves and focusing on going it alone ... they're not going to
overcome these problems," one
said.
U.S.
Republicans blame lax border security and Obama's moves toward easing
immigration rules for encouraging Central Americans to risk the long
journey north to escape
poverty, crime and violence at home.
Obama
blames Republicans for refusing to pass legislation that would address
broader immigration issues, such as whether to provide a path to
citizenship for millions
of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Activists and some of Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress say many of the children would be eligible for asylum.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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