President Barack Obama has declared that he remains completely committed to both a thorough overhaul of the immigration system in the United States and to promoting prosperity and security in Central America. His comments were made during an exclusive interview with news agency EFE.
Obama noted that throughout his current trip to Jamaica and Panama City’s Summit of the Americas, which runs over two days today and tomorrow, he will continue to argue the case for Congress to provide $1bn to help fund the Plan of the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras). The plan was created in response to last year’s humanitarian crisis that saw tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants from Central America crossing the border into the United States.
The request for funding is included in the 2016 fiscal year budget proposal created by the Obama administration; however, it requires approval from Congress, which is controlled by the Republican Party. Obama says that the plan is not just in response to last year’s illegal immigration spike, or concerns about security, but is also designed to form a partnership with countries in Central America to help them to deal with the factors that cause mass immigration, such as poverty and violence.
The funding request for $1bn would “help Central America’s leaders make the difficult reforms and investments required to address the region’s interlocking security, governance and economic challenges,” Obama insists, adding that he remains committed to fixing his own country’s “broken” immigration system.