Hundreds
of Hondurans head for US border in mass migration 'march': report, By Paulina
Dedaj, 10/13/18, Fox News
Hundreds of Honduran
migrants are headed for the United States border, just days after Vice
President Pence sat down with the Central American country’s leader, urging him
to take a tougher stance on mass migrations.
At least 1,300 people,
including young children, left San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras on Saturday,
in what some are calling the “March of the Migrant,” Reuters reported.
Bartolo Fuentes, the organizer, told the news
agency that the group plans to march through Guatemala and into Mexico. From
there, participants will request refugee status, which would allow them to
stay in the country, or they will apply for a visa to pass through into the
U.S.
The development came
just days after Pence met with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez,
President Jimmy Morales of Guatemala and Vice President Oscar Ortiz of El
Salvador, asking them to step up and help combat illegal immigration in return
for help from the U.S.
Pence addressed the
three leaders on Thursday in Washington, at the Conference for Prosperity and
Security in Central America. "If you do more, I'm here to say on behalf of
the president of the United States and the American people, we'll do
more," he said.
Pence said that flows
of illegal immigrants from Honduras and Guatemala are up 61 percent and 75
percent, respectively.
According to the Reuters
report, 64 percent of Honduran households live in poverty. Many of the migrants are
fleeing a poor economy and some of the highest crime rates in
the world.
Hernandez told Pence he
would like more certainty about what to expect from the United States, because
the funds requested by the Trump administration are below allocations from
previous years.
The Trump administration
proposed $460 million in assistance last year, 30 percent less than what
Congress approved in 2016 under President Barack Obama.
Mass migrations have
become a growing problem at the border. In May, almost 200 migrants from
Central America attempted to seek asylum in the U.S. after traveling with a
caravan of over 1,000 migrants.
The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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