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 In a White House meeting with the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras
and El Salvador, Obama had a tough-love message: his administration
had compassion for the children, but not many would qualify for
humanitarian relief or refugee status. Many of the migrants have
fled poverty and crime at home.
The meeting came as Obama struggles to contain a border crisis
triggered by the tens of thousands of children who have crossed the
Texas border with Mexico in recent months. They have overwhelmed
border resources and put election-year pressure on Obama to resolve
it. "There may be some narrow circumstances in which there is a
humanitarian or refugee status that a family might be eligible for,"
Obama said after talks with the leaders. "But I think it's important
to recognize that that would not necessarily accommodate a large
number."
Obama also said it is important to find solutions “that prevent
smugglers from making money on families that feel desperate” and
that make a dent in poverty in Central America. He would like to
improve the U.S. legal immigration system in a way that “makes this
underground migration system less necessary.” Obama and presidents
Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala, Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras
and Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador agreed to work together to
attack the problem.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Hernandez said the migrant
children with a parent in the United States had rights.
“They have rights, and we want them to be respected,” he said.
Washington needed to understand that the violence in Central America
stemming from drug trafficking had enormous costs, he added. Obama
acknowledged in the meeting that Washington had a responsibility to
counter the drug trade.
Obama's drive to tackle the migrant crisis with $3.7 billion in
emergency government funds is in trouble because the deeply divided
Congress leaves on a month-long recess late next week and is
increasingly unlikely to approve the money.
Republicans want Democrats to agree to a change in a 2008
anti-trafficking law to speed deportations before agreeing to a
pared-down version of Obama's request. Democrats do not want to
speed deportations of children with links to Hispanic-Americans, who
are an important Democratic voting bloc.
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One proposal under consideration at the White House is to start a
pilot program in Honduras to permit children seeking refugee status
in the United States to file a request while in their country.
"The idea here is that in order to deter them from making that
dangerous journey, we'd set up a system in coordination with these
host countries to allow those claims to be filed in that country
without them having to make that dangerous journey," said White
House spokesman Josh Earnest.
IMPEACHMENT THREAT
Immigration politics in the United States are historically divisive.
The child migrant surge has erupted amid a debate over immigration
reform. Since comprehensive legislation has stalled in Congress,
Obama plans some steps to ease the overall U.S. immigration problem
with a series of executive actions at the end of the summer.
Political divisions are so deep that a top White House adviser
warned that Republicans might seek the president's ouster through
impeachment when he announces the new actions aimed at getting
around congressional gridlock.
Republicans in the House of Representatives are expected to
authorize a lawsuit against Obama next week on charges he has
overstepped his constitutional authority by signing a series of
executive orders this year on issues such as raising the minimum
wage for federal contract workers.
Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer, speaking at a reporters' breakfast
organized by the Christian Science Monitor, said he could easily see
Republicans moving to impeachment proceedings.
"The president acting on immigration reform will certainly up the
likelihood that they would contemplate impeachment," he said.
He said it would be "foolish to discount the possibility" that
Republicans will at least consider it.
Many Republicans, however, see the lawsuit as a way of restraining
conservatives seeking impeachment, knowing a move that strong could
backfire as the party seeks to take over the Senate in November
congressional elections.
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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