VP Mike Pence tells Central America to do more to stop migrants
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told the leaders of three Central American nations Thursday that they must do more to stop the flow of migrants who enter the United States illegally. He made the comments to the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where economic struggles and violent crime have pushed many people to try to sneak into the U.S. in hopes of finding better lives. “This exodus must end,” Pence said. “It is a threat to the security to the United States, and just as we respect your borders and your sovereignty, we insist that you respect ours.” He said the Trump administration “will always welcome” immigrants who follow the rules in getting permission to enter the U.S. “In the last year alone, we welcomed more than 1.1 million legal immigrants into our country and our communities, including nearly 50,000 legal immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador last year,” he said. But, Pence added, the U.S. is determined to act strongly against those who don’t. “Tell your people that coming to the United States illegally will only result in a hard journey and a harder life,” Pence said. He spoke after discussing immigration issues with Presidents Jimmy Morales of Guatemala, Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador and Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras. Referring to the U.S. policies that led to the separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents, many of them from Central America, Pence noted President Donald Trump has reversed that approach. Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador said one of his ministers had confirmed that the minors in the shelters had their basic needs covered, but he emphasized that “it’s vital for their psychological health and their emotional health to reunite them immediately with their families.” Earlier in the day, Pence was in Ecuador, whose leader he praised for improving relations with the U.S. He also urged President Lenin Moreno to hold a firm line against neighboring Venezuela, which has been crumbling in economic and political crisis. “The Ecuadorean people have shown remarkable compassion,” Pence said, noting that 350,000 Venezuelans have fled to Ecuador, a country of a little more than 16 million people. “We must all take strong action to restore democracy in Venezuela.” Moreno said a solution to the Venezuela’s crisis is ultimately up to its own people, but added that he and Pence agreed to work together in coordination with the Organization of American States to promote citizen rights and fundamental freedoms throughout Latin America. Winning back trade privileges rejected by Ecuador’s former president, Rafael Correa, were a central part of the talks for Moreno. He was elected last year with Correa’s backing but has since broken with his mentor in adopting a more business- and press-friendly stance that has earned him bipartisan praise in Washington as something of a bridge builder in ideologically polarized Latin America. Pence said relations have improved under Moreno’s leadership and noted their shared fight against international drug traffickers. He credited the new president with reversing a decade of failed policy and rooting out corruption. During their private meeting, Pence raised the issue of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who Ecuador has granted asylum, U.S. officials said. Assange, whose leak of classified U.S. documents infuriated U.S. government officials, has been a sticking point between the two nations. He has been living under asylum inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012. Pence and Moreno did not mention Assange in their public comments. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
U.S. starts processing asylum seekers slammed by Donald Trump
U.S. border inspectors allowed some of the Central American asylum-seekers to enter the country for processing, ending a brief impasse over lack of space. But the migrants who crossed Mexico in a caravan may face a long legal path. Caravan organizers said eight members of the group criticized by President Donald Trump that traveled from southern Mexico to the border city of Tijuana were allowed in to be interviewed by asylum officers, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not provide a number. About 140 others were still waiting in Mexico to turn themselves in at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing, the nation’s busiest, said Alex Mensing, project organizer for Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which is leading the caravan. “The spirits are high, there was good news for everybody,” Mensing said on the Mexican side of the crossing, moments after learning that some were allowed in. U.S. attorneys who volunteered advice in Tijuana last week warned the Central Americans that parents may be separated from their children and be detained for many months while their asylum cases are pending. Asylum-seekers are typically held up to three days at the border and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If they pass initial screenings by asylum officers, they may be detained or released with ankle monitors while their cases wind through immigration court, which can take years. Nearly 80 percent of asylum-seekers passed the initial screening from October through December, but few are likely to win asylum. The denial rate for El Salvadorans seeking asylum was 79 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to asylum outcome information from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Action Clearinghouse. Hondurans were close behind with a 78 percent denial rate, followed Guatemalans at 75 percent. Trump administration officials have railed against what they call “legal loopholes” and “catch-and-release” policies that allow people seeking asylum to be freed while their cases are adjudicated. The president tweeted Monday that the caravan “shows how weak & ineffective U.S. immigration laws are.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions has pledged to send more immigration judges to the border if needed and threatened criminal prosecution. On Monday, the Justice Department said it filed illegal entry charges against 11 people identified as caravan members. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it processed hundreds of asylum-seekers in the previous week, many of them Mexican, which contributed to a bottleneck that led inspectors to turn away caravan members since they arrived late Sunday afternoon. Asylum-seekers did not appear to be thrown off the by the delay. Elin Orrellana, a 23-year-old pregnant woman from El Salvador, said she is fleeing the violent MS-13 street gang, a favorite target of both Sessions and Trump because of their brutal killings in communities in the United States. She said her older sister had been killed by the gang in El Salvador, so she is attempting to join other family members in the Kansas City area. “Fighting on is worth it,” she said. Customs and Border Protection has room for about 300 people at the San Diego border crossing. “As in the past when we’ve had to limit the number of people we can bring in for processing at a given time, we expect that this will be a temporary situation,” the agency said. During a surge of Haitian arrivals at the San Diego crossing in 2016, Customs and Border Protection required people to wait more than five weeks in Mexico. Since then, smaller upticks of Mexican asylum-seekers have caused delays of several hours. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
