Honduran president links border crisis to U.S. policy divide

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Honduran president links border crisis to U.S. policy divide
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:11pm EDT


(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers' inability to reach an agreement on immigration policy is at least partly to blame for a crisis that has seen thousands of children flee Honduras for the U.S. border, Honduran President Juan Hernandez said on Thursday.

Human and drug traffickers are "perversely" exploiting confusion about U.S. immigration policy, Hernandez told reporters on Capitol Hill, flanked by Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina and U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, before a meeting with House Democrats.

Traffickers encourage Central Americans to risk the dangerous journey north by telling them that U.S. policy allows them to stay in the United States.

Hernandez, Perez Molina and El Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren are scheduled to meet on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to discuss ways to stop the flow of children migrating from the three Central American countries.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/us-usa-immigration-congress-idUSKBN0FT2AC20140724?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=401

[SharonAnn]

1. I lived in Honduras in 1981. during the last days of the military government.

The country was run by the military and the oligarchy.

After "democracy", it was run by the oligarchy and the military.

The military wrote their constitution which gives limited powers to the President and legislature and leaves the military and the oligarchy effectively in control.

[MisterP]

2. ayup--and the PN and the remnant PL no doubt know quite a bit about how traffickers operate ...

[Judi Lynn]

3. Not even Honduras' people can alter that corrupt, unwholesome, feudal formula.

It's a shame to know there is nothing whatsoever the people can do, that the criminals are completely in charge of their country. So unbearably sad.

[candelista]

4. Hernandez is right.

Honduras could be run by drug smugglers from Mars, and Hernandez would still be right. US immigration policy confusion is the main problem.