GUATEMALA CITY _ Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Guatemala on Thursday to discuss immigration policy and other issues with leaders of Central American countries amid calls that Washington focus more on the conditions that propel migrants north rather than on ways to keep people out.
Pence was scheduled to meet in the Guatemalan capital with the presidents of Guatemala and Honduras and the vice president of El Salvador, officials said.
The contentious issue of immigration was expected to dominate Pence's agenda here.
Pence and his wife were greeted here at the airport by Kirstjen Nielsen, the U.S. homeland security secretary; Pablo Garcia, Guatemala's vice foreign minister; and Luis Arreaga, U.S. ambassador to Guatemala.
Central America, once a crucial Cold War battleground, has lately figured in U.S. policy mostly because it is a source of immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally and a transshipment point for cocaine destined for the United States.
Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador _ the so-called Northern Triangle nations, all suffering from poverty and high crime rates _ are home to the bulk of Central American asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Central American migrants, including many minors, have increasingly begun to outnumber Mexican nationals illegally crossing into the U.S. Most make a long and dangerous trek through Mexico to reach the border.
Pence's visit here comes amid a global outcry about the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, which has resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 minors _ mostly Central Americans _ from their parents.
President Donald Trump reversed the policy last week, but numerous questions remain about how divided families will be reunited.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in California ordered a halt to most family separations and mandated that most children under age 5 be reunited with their parents in 14 days and older children in 30 days.
The vice president's stop here continues a Latin American swing for Pence, who, while in Brazil, publicly discouraged Central Americans from making the journey through Mexico and to the U.S. border.
"To the people of Central America, I have a message for you," Pence said in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital. "Don't risk your lives or the lives of your children by trying to come to the United States on a road run by drug smugglers and human traffickers. If you can't come legally, don't come at all."
But critics say that is unlikely to stem the flow of people seeking to escape violence in their homelands.
"I think the president and the vice president should go read what's on the Statue of Liberty again," said Mike Donovan, president of Nexus Services, which has funded lawsuits and other efforts on behalf of children separated from their parents.
Immigration advocates argue that Pence should use his meeting with Central American leaders to focus on what they called a long-neglected issue: the root causes driving so many migrants to flee their home countries.
"The administration has been concentrating too long on how to stop people from entering rather than why they're coming," said Maureen Meyer, director for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America, an advocacy and research group.
Those factors include gang violence, drug-related slayings, political killings and abysmal economic conditions.
The Trump administration, however, is more likely to heed so-called immigration restrictionists, who want to reduce the number of immigrants in the U.S. and represent an important segment of the president's base of supporters.
Under the Obama administration, Vice President Joe Biden spearheaded a nearly $1 billion program for Central America that helped finance police reform and development projects. But the Trump administration is seeking to slash aid to Central America by at least a third.
Trump has frequently complained that "Mexico is doing nothing" to help the U.S. immigration problem.
But migrants fleeing the Northern Triangle countries are often stopped in Mexico and sent home. Mexico has detained nearly 140,000 migrants from January 2017 to April of this year, according to the Mexican government. The vast majority were Central Americans.
The practice has been criticized by human rights activists who say many of the migrants are mistreated by Mexican immigration authorities and denied a proper opportunity to apply for asylum.
Julissa Reynoso, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Central America and the Caribbean in the Obama administration, said that harsh penalties for crossing illegally into the United States cannot stop the flow.
"We have to do a much better job reinforcing institutions and opportunities" in the Northern Triangle countries, she said. "Unless we emphasize economic development ... migrants will continue to take the risk to come."
While the vice president meets with Central American leaders, Karen Pence was scheduled to visit a zone devastated by recent eruptions of the Volcano of Fire, outside the colonial-era Guatemalan town of Antigua.
