President Obama will host the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador next week to discuss ways to “stem the flow” of illegal immigration, as the White House said Friday the U.S. began to return families from all three countries this week.
Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden will speak with the Central American leaders at the White House next Friday about ways “to promote safe, legal, and orderly migration between our countries in a spirit of shared responsibility, including with respect to the return of family units, which began this week for all three countries.”
President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala, President Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, and President Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador also will discuss “how we can work together with other members of the international community to foster development, economic growth, and security in the region and address the factors that are causing Central American citizens to undertake the dangerous journey to the United States,” the White House said.
Mr. Biden will host a lunch for the leaders; he met with representatives of the three nations on June 20 in Guatemala City.
The administration has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending to speed up deportations and address security and other concerns tied to the surge of illegal immigrants from Central America, including many unaccompanied children.
Earlier this week, a plane carrying about 40 single mothers and children arrived in Honduras in what is to be a series of deportations of Central American migrants from the U.S. They had been held in a federal detention center in New Mexico after being apprehended for entering the U.S. without documentation.
SEE ALSO: Two-thirds of illegal immigrant children approved for asylum: report
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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