Washington faces heat over migration

MEXICO CITY — Latin American leaders holding a summit on Sunday called on the United States to change the way it deals with the flood of illegal migration heading to its border.

For Washington, this is a red-hot issue with political fallout on the scale of the conflicts in the Middle East and in Ukraine.

Without explicitly naming the US, the presidents of Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela and other leaders of the region called on destination countries to end "inconsistent and selective policies" such as granting entry to certain nationalities but not others.

They also called on such countries to broaden aboveboard, legal and safe paths by which migrants can travel to such wealthier countries — a nod to enhancing mobility for workers seeking a better life as they flee countries with gang violence, corruption and poverty.

The statement after the meeting, held in the southern city of Palenque, was read out by Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena.

The leaders also called for an end to "unilateral, coercive measures" imposed on countries — a reference to Cuba and the US trade embargo in effect against it for decades.

The International Organization for Migration has said the US-Mexico border lies on one of the most dangerous migratory treks anywhere in the world.

It said that last year 686 people died or went missing making that journey, for which travelers pay a small fortune to traffickers.

This year alone, 1.7 million migrants arrived at the Mexican-US border. And the migration is becoming a political hot potato in both North American countries, which each have presidential elections next year.

Last month alone saw 60,000 migrants arrive in Mexico from Venezuela, along with 35,000 Guatemalans and 27,000 Hondurans, the Mexican government said.

At the summit, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador welcomed his counterparts Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez of Cuba, and Gustavo Petro of Colombia, among others, including several foreign ministers.

They met in Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas, which has become the entry point for thousands of people coming from South America, Central America, the Caribbean and elsewhere, to try to make it across sprawling Mexico and into the US.

Agencies Via Xinhua