Vice President Pence told Central American leaders in a face-to-face meeting in Guatemala Thursday night the decadelong surge of migrants leaving for the U.S. must stop.
“This exodus must end,” Pence told the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in Guatemala City, Guatemala. “Just as we respect your borders and your sovereignty, we insist that you respect ours.”
“Our nation needs your nations to do more,” Pence added in his remarks to Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador, Jimmy Morales of Guatemala, and Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras.
Pence, who made the trip with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, demanded the Northern Triangle governments renew efforts to counter gangs, transnational criminal organizations and political corruption. He also said the countries should “strengthen” security along their own borders to prevent people from being able to leave so easily.
The vice president, tasked with representing President Trump’s immigration agenda, asked Ceren, Morales, and Hernandez to tell “your people that coming to the United States illegally will only result in a hard journey and a harder life” and asked their governments to ban “public advertisements for human traffickers.”
“If you want to come to the United States, come legally, or don’t come at all,” he said to Central Americans. “If someone tells you they can bring you or your children to America outside the law don’t believe them … Hold on to your homes and hold on to your children. Build your lives in your homes.”
Pence’s remarks were similar to comments U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan made to the Washington Examiner earlier this week regarding DHS’s plan to deal with the third migration surge in four years.
In 2014, primarily single male adults from Mexico made up illegal border-crossers. Now, the majority come from south of Mexico — an area referred to as the Northern Triangle because of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador’s northern placement in the Central American region.
McAleenan met with members of all three countries governments over the past two weeks and said the seeds have been planted to bring about long-term change by helping those nations with security, governance, and economic development.
“We’re going to keep working on this on all angles. it’s just not a border issue, it’s a regional migration phenomenon,” the top border official said. “We’ve got to partner with other governments to address it.”
“What we’re trying to do is take that forward with an even renewed sense of urgency given the continued challenging conditions there,” he added.
Later this summer, McAleenan will travel to the other countries to show security officials how CBP carries out those efforts, but also its system for customs operations.
