Top officials from Mexico and Central America are planning to meet on Jan. 9 to formulate a plan in response to an anti-immigrant bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. The U.S. congressional initiative, which still must be approved by the Senate, proposes walling off the U.S.-Mexico border in its entirety to curb illegal immigration. Mexico has since been looking for Latin American allies for support against the measure.
"We are coordinating a meeting for Jan. 9, which was originally planned before the end of the year, but we postponed it in order to include other countries," said Guatemalan Foreign Secretary Jorge Briz on Wednesday.
Briz said he was working with Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez to get other Central American nations to take part in a proposal that would include the approval of Temporary Protection Status (TPS) visas in the United States for all participating countries.
TPS STATUS
TPS is a status given to immigrants, legal or not, from specific countries who cannot return home safely because of armed conflict or environmental damage. TPS holders can apply for legal status in the United States.
Honduran, Salvadoran, and Nicaraguan citizens in the United States already have access to TPS, which protects them from deportation and allows them to apply for official documents such as driver´s licenses. Furthermore, it gives them access to Social Security, which is currently prohibited to undocumented immigrants.
Guatemala would like its citizens to have access to TPS in the United States, although U.S. authorities have said the request is unlikely to be approved under current conditions.
Remittances sent home by foreign workers in the United States are the principal source of income for Mexcio and Central America.
