Obama, Central America discuss key migration issues in Trinidad

Apr 19, 2009, 16:57 GMT

US President Barack Obama (R) talks with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet during the official dinner at the 5th Summit of the Americas at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 18 April 2009. Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America\'s hemispheric neighbors at the summit, listening to complaints about past US meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela\'s leftist leader Hugo Chavez. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

Port of Spain - US President Barack Obama and his colleagues from Central America met Sunday in Port of Spain to discuss migration reform.

As he left the meeting - on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas which was set to end Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago - Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said that they also discussed the possibility that Washington gives the relevant countries information in advance of deporting criminals.

Drug trafficking and security in general were also discussed, Colom said.

'We are very satisfied with the attitude that (Obama) has towards these problems of security, of migration, and also of cooperation aspects,' said Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

El Salvador's outgoing President Antonio Saca said the Merida Initiative - through which the United States assists Mexico and Central America in the fight against drugs - was also a central issue of discussions.

The leaders of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama were present at the meeting with Obama.

'I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to meet with the leaders of Central America,' Obama told his peers.

The US president sat next to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega at the Hyatt Regency hotel, as he continued to evaluate 'how the United States can be an effective partner' for all portions of Latin America and the Caribbean.

'What we ourselves asked for is that we all fight drug trafficking together and that we all contribute resources and strength to get this curse out of our society,' Colom noted.

Ortega, who has been a critic of the United States for decades, said he hoped for a change in relations with Washington, although he noted that it is hard to change the rules within 'an empire.'

'I want to believe that (Obama) has the disposition, that he has the will,' he said.

However, he stressed that Obama is 'the president of an empire and that empire has its rules, he cannot change them.'

Some 11 per cent of around 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States are Central American.

Colom said that work is ongoing on the possibility of broadening the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) to all Central American nations. It has so far been granted to around 250,000 Salvadorans, 75,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans in the wake of a series of earthquakes and natural disasters in Central America.

The TPS initially allowed those people to reside and work in the United States for a year, although it has since been prolonged several times. Central American nations proposed that this is the basis for an immediate permanent legalization of migrants' status.

'We saw President Obama very open,' Saca said.

The TPS expires in May 2010 for Honduras and Nicaragua and in September 2010 for El Salvador.