A surge of children attempting to cross the US southern border without their parents has prompted an international crisis.
The influx of undocumented migrants has overwhelmed the US migration system and put renewed political pressure on President Barack Obama and Congress to address the country’s immigration laws.
More than 57,000 children have been apprehended in the last nine months along the US-Mexico border, primarily in Texas.
Authorities have struggled to provide physical accommodations for the wave of children. Processing them through US immigration courts has been slow due to a 2008 law, which gave added deportation protections to children from countries that do not border the US.
Children have been bused to facilities around the country, prompting anti-immigrant protests in some localities.
Presidents Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala, Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras and Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador yesterday held talks with Obama on what he had dubbed a “humanitarian crisis”.
Obama encouraged the Central American leaders to warn their citizens of the dangers of the journey, which includes a gauntlet of criminal gangs known to prey of migrants transiting Mexico, and that they will not be welcomed by US authorities.
Their discussions focused on “how the US and Central American governments are co-operating to promote safe, legal and orderly migration between our countries in a spirit of shared responsibility”.
Obama has asked Congress for $3.7bn in emergency money to provide more housing and care for the children, beef up border security and hire more judges and lawyers to speed up immigration court proceedings to return children to their home countries.
The issue has gained urgency after years-long efforts for broader immigration reform stalled in Congress.
But Obama’s request for emergency funding looks to be in trouble, with Senate Democrats offering less money and opposition Republicans in the lower House of Representatives rejecting more spending without changing immigration laws.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson urged Congress to work quickly to provide extra money. He warned earlier this week that border and immigration agencies within the department were on a pace to run out of money in August and September.
Johnson said that most if not all of the illegal migrants are coming into the US with the help of criminal smugglers.
Texas Governor Rick Perry took steps of his own against the flood of child migrants coming across the state’s border, saying he was deploying some 1,000 National Guard troops to patrol the border.
The Organisation of American States (OAS) this week joined the international chorus calling for action.
The countries of origin must “make genuine efforts to guarantee essential security conditions for their citizens, in particular children and adolescents, and respect their human rights, so they can develop and flourish in their own local communities within their countries of origin,” the Washington-based regional organisation declared on Wednesday.
