Latin American nations seek strategy on US immigration bill
Representatives from 11 Latin American nations met Monday in Colombia to seek a resolution with the United States on the issue of migration, especially the planned wall between Mexico and the U.S., local media said.

The meeting in Cartagena, Northern Colombia, brought together foreign ministers from Mexico, Central American nations, and Colombia, with Ecuador and the Dominican Republic as observers.

Carolina Barco, Colombia's foreign minister, said the meeting would decide what action to take against the planned wall, and "we will find a compromise with the United States."

The meeting seeks a "constructive dialogue between all governments to achieve a better understanding of the migration phenomenon," Barco said.

"The point we have made with clarity is that (the border wall) does not seem to us to be the solution," said Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the immigration bill last December, and the Senate will consider a version of the law next month.

Press reports said that some 15 million migrants from the northern Latin American region live in the U.S., mostly from Mexico, but also countries as far away as Colombia and Ecuador.

The meeting followed the Jan. 9 gathering in Mexico City, wherethe ministers agreed that the migrant population, no matter what its legal status is, must receive full human rights protection.