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Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, walk together after meeting with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno on Thursday in Quito, Ecuador. Pence then went to Guatemala to meet with Central American leaders. (Daniel Tapia / Reuters)
GUATEMALA CITY – Vice President Pence arrived in Guatemala Thursday for a meeting with Central American leaders on the growing number of Detained migrants at the US border, a situation that has provoked a political and humanitarian crisis for the Trump administration.
Pence's visit came at the end of a movement across Latin America during which he warned migrants risking their lives by trying to illegally enter states -United. Pence, accompanied by Secretary of the Homeland Security Department, Kirstjen Nielsen, met Thursday evening with leaders of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, the home country of the majority of detained migrants on the southern border. West of the United States. criticized at the national level for its initial mixed responses to the crisis, migrant parents having been separated from their children as part of the Trump Administration's "zero tolerance" policy. While Trump has since suspended family separations, at least 2,500 children are still being held in shelters while their parents are desperately trying to find them.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales fired his spokesman. tolerance policy, which aims to prosecute people who cross the border illegally. Salvador's deputy foreign minister, Liduvina Magarin, publicly called on citizens not to cross the US border illegally and complained that the conditions in the shelters were "totally inadequate".
Pence told the nation's migrants to "build their lives in their country of origin."
[The chaotic effort to reunite immigrant parents with their separated kids]
At least 465 of the more than 2,500 children separated from their parents at the border come from Guatemala. However, this figure is not supposed to include those of the Border Guard, which could add a lot more to the total.
Fernando Carrera, former Guatemalan Foreign Minister, said the simple warning to migrants not to travel illegally in the United States
"You need to massively increase resources to reduce poverty and violence" that are pushing people to leave their homes, he said. But he added that many kids are looking to reach the United States because they have family members.
Morales hopes that the Trump administration will offer temporary legal status to Guatemalans living in the United States following the eruption this month. the Fuego volcano, which left at least 109 dead and hundreds of missing. However, the Trump administration recently ended similar programs established years ago for Salvadorians and Hondurans, making it unlikely the approval of a new government.
The US government has provided billions of dollars of aid to the three countries of Central America. the last decade. But they suffer from extreme violence, poverty and political instability.
In the past two months, violence has increased in Guatemala, with signs that gangs have even infiltrated the Guatemalan army. This can help explain a migration spike. Other experts report that traffickers tell their clients that they are more likely to be allowed to stay in the United States when they arrive with children.
There was a 71% increase in US deportations to the United States. Guatemala in the first five months of 2018.
"Many small communities in rural areas of Guatemala have already migrated to the United States and this will always lead to the desire of many people to travel and meet whatever the conditions of the country of origin, "said Pedro Pablo Solares, who works for Puente Norte, a non-profit organization that helps Guatemalan migrants
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