LatAm Officials to Discuss Immigration
Ministers and deputy ministers of Foreign Relations from 10 Latin American countries are attending a meeting in Guatemala to discuss immigration issues, in the wake of a US decision to declare immigrants as criminals and build a wall to contain them.

The representatives from Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic who gathered in the city of Antigua Guatemala, about 28 miles from the capital, are expected to discuss joint action policies to face the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act currently under discussion in the US Senate.

The US law will have a serious impact on the Guatemalan people's survival, as 17 percent of households receive remittances from families abroad.

There are more than 1.1 million Guatemalans living in the US, 700,000 of them without legal documents.

Meeting host, Foreign Minister Jorge Briz, said recently it would be very unfortunate and serious for the region that illegal immigrants are considered as criminals.

He stressed regional countries' willingness to continue working so that the role played by immigrants in the US is fully recognized.

The meeting in Antigua Guatemala is a follow-up of the ones held in Mexico and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on Jan 9 and Feb 13, respectively.