Vice President Joseph R. Biden called on Congress Tuesday to approve the administration’s request for $1 billion for Central America to help discourage illegal immigrants who surged into the U.S. in 2014.
In an op-ed in The Hill, Mr. Biden said the aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will “put the region on a more stable and sustainable path.”
“This level of support is nearly three times what we have provided to Central America in the recent past,” Mr. Biden said. “But the cost of investing now in a Central America where young people can thrive in their own communities pales in comparison to the costs of another generation of violence, poverty, desperation and emigration.”
Last year, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the region crossed into the U.S., many of them unaccompanied children. Administration officials said they were driven by chronic poverty and crime, and that the solution is to improve economic opportunity and security in those countries.
Mr. Biden held meetings with Central American officials in Guatemala earlier this month and praised the leaders for their commitment to a plan called the Alliance for Prosperity.
With aid from the Inter-American Development Bank, Mr. Biden said, the plan will “create the conditions we know prevent migration, measures to reduce poverty, steps to attract foreign investment and the continuation of our successful efforts to target smuggling networks.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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