DHS Secretary Nielsen meets with Central American leaders to discuss immigration, border security

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen met this week with senior officials from Mexico and other central American nations to discuss border security and immigration.

On March 26, Nielsen met with Mexican Secretary of the Interior Olga Sanchez Cordero and other senior Mexican government officials in Miami to discuss ways the United States and Mexico can work together to address irregular migration and illegal entries at the U.S. Southern Border. They also discussed combating human trafficking and smuggling, security cooperation, and U.S. plans to bolster the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a DHS initiative to return migrants to Mexico and provide humanitarian protections while they await U.S. immigration processing.

On March 27, Nielsen traveled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to participate in a meeting with officials from the governments of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The meeting marks a continuation of talks aimed at stemming the flood of irregular migration and address humanitarian and security issues at the U.S. Southern Border. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández will lead the meetings.

Representatives of these nations are working on a regional compact with the United States. The accord will focus on stemming the migration crisis at its source and preventing the formation of new migrant caravans that set out to reach the United States. Specifically, it would combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling, counter organized crime and gangs, expand information and intelligence sharing, and strengthen border security.