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CHILDREN MIGRATING FROM CENTRAL AMERICA:

SOLVING A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JUNE 25, 2014

Serial No. 113–182

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

MATT SALMON, Arizona, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

SEAN DUFFY, Wisconsin 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Francisco Palmieri, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central America and 

the Caribbean, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department 

of State .................................................................................................................. 9

Mr. Mark Lopes, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Latin America 

and the Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International Development ..................... 17

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. Francisco Palmieri: Prepared statement ........................................................ 11

Mr. Mark Lopes: Prepared statement .................................................................... 19

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 40

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 41

(1)

CHILDREN MIGRATING FROM CENTRAL 

AMERICA: SOLVING A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 o’clock p.m., in 

room 2255 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Matt Salmon 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SALMON. Quorum being present, the subcommittee will come 

to order and I will start by recognizing myself and Ranking Member Albio Sires to present our opening statements. 

Without objection the members of the subcommittee can submit 

their opening remarks for the record and now I yield myself as 

much time as I might consume. 

Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us today in convening this hearing on the humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding as a result of thousands of unoccupied children showing up 

at our border. 

President Obama’s political spin team and the White House are 

calling this a humanitarian situation. I visited a location where 

these children are being held in Nogales, Arizona. I saw children 

as young as four essentially warehoused and I can tell you it is not 

a situation. It is a crisis. 

Not only have relevant agencies been overwhelmed, but our national security has been put at risk as the border security resources 

have been diverted to deal with the crisis. Virtually all of the 140 

volunteers from the Customs and Border Patrol that are at this facility are volunteers who have basically left the border to take care 

of these children. In the last 8 months, over 47,000 unaccompanied 

minors have been apprehended at our border. 

In the first part of this fiscal year, Border Patrol has seen a 700 

percent increase in children coming from El Salvador alone and illegally, 930 percent increase in children coming from Guatemala, 

and a 1,200 percent in children coming illegally from Honduras, 

compared to all of 2009. 

When I toured the warehouses in Nogales, I couldn’t help but ask 

how many children didn’t make it, how many became ill, were sold 

into prostitution, or were murdered and never made it to the border. 

2

Since the magnitude of this crisis began hitting the airwaves, we 

have heard the administration scramble to describe all the push 

and the pull factors all of which are indeed contributing factors. 

What is missing from the administration is a clear statement repudiating the President’s own declaration in the Rose Garden back 

in 2012 the he would no longer enforce elements of our immigration laws, which has been the primary impetus for the massive increase in unaccompanied minors arriving illegally on our doorstep. 

President Obama’s decision to flout U.S. immigration law spread 

like wildfire through the region and very clearly prompted mothers 

and fathers in Central America to do the unthinkable—send their 

children on a dangerous voyage at the mercy of human traffic 

smugglers and criminals. 

These children were lured by rumors that they would receive 

permisos at the border allowing them to stay, rumors originating 

with the President’s own deferred action directive. 

The fact is President Obama’s unwillingness to enforce immigration law and secure our borders not only impacts the security of 

U.S. citizens, but has had the immoral effect of incentivizing young 

vulnerable children to risk their lives and suffer untold indignities 

rather than stay with their families where they belong. 

Encouraging children to make a dangerous trek and then 

warehousing them away from their families is definitely not compassionate. The right and moral thing to do is reunite these children with their families in their home countries while helping 

those countries create conditions for security and opportunity, and 

I think we have a responsibility to work with those countries to get 

that done. 

But the first step has to be taken by this administration. It is 

for President Obama to make a public appearance, to walk back his 

continued flouting of U.S. immigration and border security policy 

and tell the world that the United States will protect its borders 

while discouraging families from risking their lives and the lives of 

their children unnecessarily. 

Press releases and letters to regional heads of state are not going 

to be sufficient. Public diplomacy efforts have got to be robust. The 

President must own his substantial role in creating this crisis. 

It is the morally correct thing to do and I really hope he will. 

Second, we have got to take immediate steps to send those children 

to their country of origin to be reunited with their families. 

Failure to act quickly and return these kids is going to cause 

even more children to risk the perilous trip north. Right now they 

are paying about $5,000 to $8,000 apiece. 

Think of how much that represents of a person’s income that 

lives in Honduras or El Salvador. It probably represents an entire 

year for them. And if they are seeing, by our actions, that those 

efforts are going to be fruitless and that is going to be a waste of 

money, it is going to stop. 

Following these immediate steps we have to look at the conditions in our hemisphere that create this kind of abject desperation 

that would drive a parent to send their small children far away 

from home in search of a better life. 

We spend time on this subcommittee looking at the insecurity 

that plagues Central America, the criminality fused by 

3

transnational criminal organizations and gangs and the lack of economic opportunity that is made worse by these realities. 

I convened this hearing today because I want to work with State 

and USAID to find better and more effective ways to help the countries of Central America to combat this scourge of criminality and 

empower economic growth and opportunity. 

The dangerous level of criminality is absolutely a contributing 

factor to the shocking uptick in unaccompanied minors making this 

dangerous trip to escape the growing violence in the Northern Triangle. Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world with El 

Salvador and Guatemala ranked fourth and fifth. 

Reports from Honduras and El Salvador reveal that children are 

increasingly forced to participate in gang and criminal activities. 

We need to take a hard look at specific CARSI programs to evaluate if they have been truly effective at combating the scourge of 

narcotics trafficking and criminal enterprises. 

Mexico is affected by the growing violence in Central America 

just as we are. We have got to find ways to get Mexico to take a 

bigger role in helping Central American nations in partnership 

with the United States, and to that end I would like to see an 

itemized accounting of the types of USAID programs being employed in the region and an honest assessment of whether or not 

they are working. This is a crisis. 

In addition, I would like to convey my frustration that over the 

last 18 months, we have conducted several hearings on the region 

and specifically the challenges and opportunities facing the Western Hemisphere. 

Yet not one of the individuals testifying before this committee 

mentioned the developing situation of dramatically increasing numbers of minors fleeing the Northern Triangle and crossing our border. 

While the media is now highlighting this crisis, the fact is the 

administration knew about this months ago and, frankly, failed to 

put in place adequate resources to address the flow or develop a 

comprehensive response to the growing crisis. 

Finally, earlier this year when Secretary Kerry was testifying before the full committee, I lamented the lack of action the Western 

Hemisphere was receiving from the administration. 

I went on to ask him if he believed, with all the crises around 

the globe, if spending scarce resources on solar panels and abortion 

pills in Guatemala were the best use of taxpayer dollars. 

To my utter surprise, the Secretary responded that climate 

change was the most significant crisis facing our country and the 

globe. 

With all due respect, this situation of unaccompanied minors 

fleeing their homeland is an immediate crisis that demands an immediate response that focuses on development and jobs over pet environmental projects. 

And to that end, when the money became available in the region 

from the closure of Ecuador and Bolivia missions those funds 

should have been retargeted toward addressing this UAC crisis, not 

spent on environmental intervention in Colombia, a middle-income 

nation. 

4

Now is the time for USAID and State to make judicious use of 

taxpayers’ hard earned money to help empower the people of these 

affected countries economically, to help them find ways to diversify 

their crops, to attract foreign investment, to encourage 

entrepreneurialism and economic freedom over a life of criminality 

and violence. 

I am honored that the speaker appointed me to the congressional 

task force he constituted to look for solutions for this humanitarian 

crisis. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the administration to craft a swift, fair, appropriate and compassionate response to the crisis so we can get these children home with their 

families on a path to a more prosperous and secure region. 

I am grateful to both Mr. Palmieri and Mr. Lopes for coming before this subcommittee today and I look forward to a constructive 

discussion on what we can do to mitigate the humanitarian crisis 

unfolding at our doorstep. 

And I will now recognize the ranking member for his opening remarks. 

Mr. SIRES. I am going to cede to the ranking member of the full 

committee, Congressman Engel. 

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, as 

I have to leave for another meeting. But I want to thank you, Mr. 

Chairman—Chairman Salmon—and Ranking Member Sires, for 

holding today’s hearing on this important topic. 

As the former chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, I always feel at home coming back here to this subcommittee. This is a subcommittee where I have done some of my 

best work on the Foreign Affairs Committee as chairman and as 

ranking member as well, and as ranking member of the entire Foreign Affairs Committee, we always talk about the collaborative effort and the bipartisan effort that we always have on this committee. 

I think it makes our committee stand up far behind any other 

committee in Congress in showing what Congress can do in working together, how much we can accomplish and I think of no better 

way than when it comes to foreign affairs that foreign policy, foreign relations should be done on a bipartisan basis because America is stronger when we have bipartisan support, and we obviously 

have very talented people on both sides of the aisle, and so it is 

a pleasure to see this being done again in a bipartisan fashion. 

As a father, my heart goes out to all of the unaccompanied children making the dangerous trek from Central America to the 

United States. I know that some have responded to the large influx 

of children arriving in our country by calling for harsher enforcement of our immigration laws. 

While we must continue to enforce our immigration statutes, 

cracking down on children is clearly not the answer. Last week, I 

sent a letter to the President which was signed by 61 of our House 

colleagues urging the administration to increase resources for programs that get at the root cause of unaccompanied children migrating here from Central America. 

My letter calls for significant investments in State Department 

and USAID initiatives in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras 

that focus on youth gang prevention and economic development. It 

5

also urges funding for efforts designed to integrate returning children into their home countries. 

This does not mean simply reprogramming existing funding, but 

instead means increasing the President’s Fiscal Year 2015 request 

for Central America. 

The administration justifiably increased the Department of 

Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement Fiscal 

Year 2015 request for its unaccompanied alien children program 

from $868 million to $2.28 billion. 

Something similar can and should be done to provide funding 

that gets at the root causes of this migration pattern. I am pleased 

that Vice President Biden announced some added funding in Guatemala last Friday, and I was also pleased that the Senate Appropriations Committee increased funding for these programs. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you again for holding today’s hearing. As 

I have said at another forum previously, you have been a friend 

and partner of mine for many, many years and doing outstanding 

work as usual and as chairman of this subcommittee. 

Mr. Sires, we have also worked together on so many different 

things, and it is really great seeing the two of you working together. 

So I look forward to working with you and other members of this 

committee to increase foreign assistance to Central America to address the root causes of the current wave of child migration. Thank 

you. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. Mr. Duncan. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for the 

timeliness of this hearing. Some of the things I want to hear today, 

if you will take a look at that map right up there and you can’t 

make out Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, but I know where 

they are. 

I can see Mexico very, very clearly. That is a long way for these 

children to transit. It is hard for me to realize and comprehend 

that moms and dads would actually send children, and if you look 

at some of the pictures these kids are 3, 4, and 5 years old. 

The moms and dads actually send them off that far on that kind 

of a journey unaccompanied. So I would like to find out if brothers 

and sisters are traveling with them, older teenage brother and sisters, parents, possibly transiting all the way through Mexico to get 

to the RGV. 

I also want to hear today about this so-called aggressive public 

outreach campaign to counter false messages and accurately portray the dangers of the journey. Okay to accurately portray the 

danger of the journey, but I want to know what sort of counter 

false messages—I want to know what that means. 

Are you saying don’t come to America?—you will not get amnesty, you will not get citizenship—in fact, you will be deported 

back to your home country if you come—moms and dads, don’t send 

those children to this country because they are going to be returned 

to you. 

Chain migration is something that we should not allow. I want 

to hear what sort of message you are relaying into those countries 

because it has created a crisis situation on our border. We need a 

tourniquet down there. We need to stop the hemorrhaging of 

6

illegals flowing into this country. Not just the children. That is the 

topic of today—I realize that. 

But we have a crisis situation on our border with folks entering 

our country that will eventually put a strain on our social services 

and our budget. We are $18 trillion in debt. 

The President called for $1.8 billion humanitarian effort. Well, 

where does that money come from? It comes from taxpayers in 

South Carolina and Arizona to go to pay for unexpected folks that 

are coming into this country for a humanitarian effort, and so I 

want to talk a little bit about that today. 

I appreciate what the State Department and what DHS is trying 

to do, and I appreciate this hearing, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. SALMON. Thanks. Mr. Sires. 

Mr. SIRES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. 

I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Over the past 

months we have been witness to an unprecedented number of child 

migrants coming to the U.S. from Central America, in particular 

the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and 

Honduras. 

It is clear that the groundswell of unaccompanied child migrants 

arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border have resulted in a humanitarian 

crisis. This crisis will not be resolved overnight or with quick short 

fixes. 

It will require dedicated shared responsibilities and regional response. For its part, the Congress must ensure that the U.S. authorities manage the processing of detained child migrants as humanely and transparently as possible while respecting their basic 

human rights and legal protection. 

In turn, Northern Triangle governments must acknowledge common factors driving unaccompanied child migrants, specifically, the 

lack of economic opportunities and high levels of criminal violence 

in their home countries. 

More importantly, it is incumbent upon the regions’ governments 

to inform potential migrants and their families of the life-threatening dangers involved in the migratory journey and dispel any 

misgiving regarding current U.S. immigration policies, a status quo 

that remains unchanged. 

Pronouncements that deny or implicitly ignore these factors exacerbate the unfolding crisis, do a disservice to the families that endure these stark realities every day and debilitate efforts in the 

Congress to provide further assistance that address the root causes 

of Central American child migration, let alone comprehensive immigration reform. 

The Northern Triangle region in Central America is amongst the 

most violent in the world. According to the United Nations, Honduras is ranked first, El Salvador is ranked fourth, Guatemala is 

ranked fifth in terms of the highest murder rates in the country. 

Since 2005, murders of men and boys increased 292 percent 

while the murders of women and girls increased 346 percent. In 

Honduras and El Salvador, in particular, child advocates reported 

increasing accounts of children being forcibly recruited to participate in gang activities. 

7

Consequently, the number of Central American migrants comprising of a rising number of children from the Northern Triangle 

region have steadily increased. 

In 2013, for the first time more than a third of the migrants 

whom the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended near the U.S.-Mexican 

border were other than Mexican—migrants comprised mainly of 

Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Mexican child migrants accounted for 82 percent of the nearly 20,000 unaccompanied child 

apprehension in 2014 compared to 17 percent from the other three 

Northern Triangle countries. 

Astonishingly, these proportions reversed within the first 8 

months of 2014, with Mexican child migrants comprising only 25 

percent of the roughly 47,000 unaccompanied child migrants apprehensions and child migrants from the northern region of the countries comprising an overwhelming 73 percent. 

From Mexico, a country whose unaccompanied child migration 

numbers have declined but still serve as a primary thoroughfare 

for migrants from Central America, reports indicate that the migrants are increasingly citing widespread incident of extortion, kidnapping and other abuses committed by both criminal groups and 

Mexican federal, state and local police officials. 

Mexico must work together with the Central American neighbors 

to address security concerns along the southern border, in addition 

to initiatives that strengthen institutions, sustaining the rule of 

law, and protect human rights. 

This crisis has emerged within the backdrop of increasing foreign 

policy challenges, limited resources and a stalled effort to enact 

comprehensive immigration reform. 

This crisis has not emerged halfway across the globe. It has unfolded at our own doorsteps, and underscores the need to pay appropriate attention to our own hemisphere. 

Now more than ever, the U.S. should support the region in a concerted regional strategic strategy to increase economic opportunity, 

strengthen the rule of law, improve the integrity and effectiveness 

of police and security forces, and undermine the conditions that 

give way to gang and family-related violence. 

These measures are futile, however, if not accompanied with a 

concerted effort to reintegrate these children back into their respective communities. Moreover, U.S. regional security aid programs 

like the Central American Regional Security Initiative must be dynamic enough to address ongoing citizen security concerns with the 

complementary programs designed to address underlying economic, 

social conditions that have communities vulnerable to criminal 

threats and ultimately result in immigration. 

Vice President Biden visited the region’s leaders and the administrations’ announced plan to address the ongoing crisis are positive 

first steps. 

However, with the Fiscal Year 2014 budget that has been reduced 20 percent to $130 million the U.S. must do more. This includes addressing the issues of millions of undocumented immigrants and their families. 

I call upon the region’s government to work with the United 

States and do their part to find solutions to this government—to 

this growing humanitarian crisis, provide a safe environment for 

8

the children and address the underpinning of what is compelling 

these young children to abandon their homeland to risk their lives 

to come to the U.S. 

I look forward to hearing from our panelists and their assessment of how we can address this unfortunate crisis. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. I understand Mr. Duffy does not have 

an opening statement. Is that correct? Mr. Castro, you are recognized. 

Mr. CASTRO. First of all, thank you, Chairman and Ranking 

Member, for allowing me to join you today. Although I serve on the 

Foreign Affairs Committee, I am not on this subcommittee, so 

thank you. 

The tragedy that is going on at our border is a direct result of 

the U.S. House of Representative’s failure to pass comprehensive 

immigration reform. The fact is if we had passed either the Senate 

or the House bill, there were resources for both border security, 

international cooperation and it would have outlined a path for 

clear legal migration this country. 

And yet as this has unfolded, everybody has been pointing fingers at each other—at the President, at the different parties—and 

the fact is that this body has failed the American people. We need 

to make sure, and the best thing that we can do is solve this situation, which is a humanitarian crisis. 

I had a chance to visit Lackland Air Force Base, which is one of 

the emergency shelters that is housing the kids in San Antonio. I 

was told the story of a 6-year-old boy who traveled from I think it 

was Honduras with his 2-year-old sister, and during the journey 

they were separated and this kid was torn up because he thought 

his sister had died. 

And they reunited them when they were both in custody and 

they were still held, and you all are right that there are rumors 

that the coyotes and the cartels are pitching to very desperate people. But the reason that those rumors are successful is because this 

Congress has failed to take real action on immigration reform. 

So the very best thing that we can do to dispel those rumors and 

to create real change and fix this is to pass comprehensive reform, 

and I hope that we can do that this year. Thank you, Chair. 

Mr. SALMON. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7, the members of the 

subcommittee will be permitted to submit written statements to be 

included in the official hearing record. Without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 7 days to allow statements, questions and extraneous materials for the record subject to the length 

limitation in the rules. 

And now I am going to introduce the panel. First, we have Mr. 

Palmieri. He is the Deputy Secretary for Central America and Caribbean for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and at the 

Department of State. 

Prior to his current assignment, he served in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and as the senior desk officer for 

Venezuela. He has also led INL’s Latin America and Caribbean 

Programs Office. Mr. Palmieri holds an M.S. in international strategic studies from the National War College and a B.A. in politics 

from Princeton University. 

9

Mr. Lopes is the deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau 

of Latin America and Caribbean at USAID. Prior to joining USAID, 

he worked for the House Appropriations State Foreign Operations 

Subcommittee. He holds a B.M. from Berkeley College of Music and 

an M.P.P. from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. 

You all understand the lighting system. When it goes amber you 

got a minute, and when it goes red it is time to stop. And so let 

us go ahead and begin. 

Mr. Palmieri, we recognize you first. 

STATEMENT OF MR. FRANCISCO PALMIERI, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, BUREAU OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Mr. PALMIERI. Chairman Salmon, Ranking Member Sires, members of the subcommittee, I am very pleased to speak with you 

about the Department of State’s role in addressing the migration 

of unaccompanied children to the United States, particularly from 

Central America. 

I appreciate your attention to this important issue, and look forward to working with you. The administration is deeply concerned 

by the substantial increase over the past year in the number of 

children who are leaving their countries and attempting to migrate 

illegally to the United States. 

We know that they are primarily arriving from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The number of children from those countries 

arriving at the southwest border has overwhelmed existing facilities. 

The U.S. Government is working nonstop to arrange humane 

care for these children, consistent with U.S. legal requirements 

once they have arrived in the United States. 

The Department of State in coordination with other agencies, 

with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the lead, is 

working on a rapid government-wide response in the short-term 

while realigning our long-term efforts to address the systemic challenges in the region that drive migration. 

Most importantly, at the senior levels of this administration, including the President, Vice President, Secretaries of State, Homeland Security and our Ambassadors in the region, we are engaging 

every day with our foreign government counterparts to help stem 

the flow of children leaving their countries. 

We are doing this not just because it is part of enforcing our 

laws, but because it is the right thing to do to help these vulnerable children. Our first concern must be these children’s safety. 

Not only are these children exposed to life-threatening risks on 

the journey to the United States, but they are being misled about 

potential immigration benefits available in the United States. 

For that reason, we are taking concrete steps to stop the spread 

of misinformation through criminal networks, which encourage 

these hazardous journeys. 

To counter these messages, we and the Department of Homeland 

Security with Central American governments and Mexico, are developing new targeted public service announcements that will betVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:22 Sep 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_WH\062514\88460 SHIRL
10

ter reach the population centers that are the source of many of 

these vulnerable child migrants. 

Our Embassies in all of these countries and in Mexico have 

launched aggressive public outreach campaigns to counter false 

messages and to accurately portray the dangers of the journey. 

Our Ambassadors constantly engage with the media in these 

countries on this issue. Again, we are working hard to dispel the 

misguided notion that these children will not face deportation proceedings. 

Our Mexican and Central American partners are cooperating 

fully in this messaging and deploying complementary information 

campaigns in their respective countries. 

It is our goal that these information campaigns will better inform 

people in the region in order to prevent more children from making 

this incredibly dangerous journey. 

The Vice President also announced last week in Guatemala that 

the administration will spend an additional $10 million in support 

of increased repatriation capacity and specialized training on procedures for receiving returned citizens. 

In addition, the department continues to focus on a longer-term 

approach to address the systemic issue Central American countries 

face and are creating the push factors behind this phenomenon—

lack of economic, educational and employment opportunities, weak 

institutions and high levels of violence and insecurity. 

We are seeking to better balance our regional approach to 

prioritize and integrate prosperity, security and governance. We 

aim to address the need for job creation, attack insecurity and promote greater government accountability, all issues that are driving 

migrants, including these vulnerable children, to the United States. 

Mexico also plays an important role in addressing this humanitarian situation, and we are working closely with the Government 

of Mexico on short and long-term solutions, given our shared responsibility for promoting security in both countries and in the region. 

We are working to enhance our cooperation with Mexico to disrupt the organized criminal networks facilitating smuggling and 

strengthen their enforcement at Mexico’s southern border with 

Guatemala. In addition, we are working with Mexico to increase 

enforcement along the dangerous La Bestia train route, which 

many of these most vulnerable migrants travel through Mexico. 

From a foreign affairs perspective, we are using our existing resources to both manage the near-term surge in unaccompanied 

children, and to implement programs to address the long-term 

challenges that constitute the complex and systemic factors driving 

migration. 

It is clear, however, that substantial transformative change in 

Central America requires greater efforts by all the actors involved, 

and we must work with Congress on this issue. 

It is equally clear that a whole government approach and greater 

collaboration with international partners is required to control the 

extremely high cost of the domestic, humanitarian and law enforcement response. 

Thank you, and I look forward to answering your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Palmieri follows:]

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STATEMENT OF MR. MARK LOPES, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Mr. LOPES. Thank you, Chairman Salmon, Ranking Member 

Sires and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss what the U.S. Agency for International Development is doing and can do to help curb the migration of unaccompanied children from Central America. 

For several years, USAID programs in Guatemala, Honduras and 

El Salvador have worked to prevent violence and criminality and 

prevent youth from entering into gangs. USAID currently supports 

over 120 outreach centers across the region. 

These centers are part of the portfolio of programs that make up 

USAID’s contribution to the Central American Regional Security 

Initiative, which is a subset of programs that make up the overall 

$150 million USAID will invest in Guatemala, Honduras and El 

Salvador this year. 

This broader investment includes programs in education, health, 

agriculture as well as the environment, and we see this integral 

approach to programming as the right way to carry out USAID’s 

mission, which is to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient 

democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity. 

As Vice President Biden announced last Friday, USAID is launching a new 5-year $40 million program in Guatemala to improve citizen security to target particular communities and reduce 

the risk factors for young people to enter into violence. In El Salvador, USAID recently announced a 5-year $25 million 

program that will open 77 new youth outreach centers, in addition 

to the 30 already in place there. 

These centers, like those mentioned above, offer at-risk youth the 

chance to get help with their homework, get mentoring, computer 

training, or better yet, training on how to fix a computer so they 

can later get a job doing so. 

USAID programs announced by Vice President Biden are part of 

a scaling up of prevention programs which reflect a recognition by 

our Government as well as by governments in the region that more 

financial and intellectual resources are required, to have a lasting 

impact on the root causes of violence and criminality. 

In the last 5 years, this recognition is visible. Many governments 

in the region now have prevention-oriented strategies in place. This 

was not always the case. 

USAID programs are designed to support those strategies and 

provide examples of that work so that the region’s governments can 

expand and scale up in order to have a nationwide impact. 

Recently, President Hernandez of Honduras publically committed 

to allocating 30 percent of the funds collected through their security tax to support programs in violence prevention. Six hundred thousand dollars of the $1 million pledge from these 

Honduran resources has already been provided to expand the network of youth outreach centers across Honduras. This specific prevention-related programming by USAID is supported and integrated with our broader portfolio of work. For example, in Guatemala, USAID will invest $25 million in a 

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served populations, including indigenous children in 900 schools 

and vocational training for 2,000 out of school youth. 

As part of our Feed the Future work, in Honduras USAID aims 

to lift 50,000 families out of extreme poverty, reduce stunting of 

children under 5 by 20 percent and improve more than 280 kilometers of rural roads, providing market access to thousands and 

thus improving economic prosperity. 

In addition, the private sector has a role and USAID is aggressively pursuing partnerships with the private sector both here in 

the United States as well as in the region, as civil society organizations bring more resources and more creativity to bear. 

In the last several years, USAID has leveraged approximately 

$40 million for partnerships with companies, local organizations 

and local governments in the region. For example, in El Salvador 

we are partnering with Microsoft to provide computer software and 

training to outreach centers to reach 25,000 youth in 13 high-risk 

municipalities. 

Our prevention efforts are designed both to have an immediate 

and measurable impact, but more importantly, to prove concepts 

and demonstrate that such investments can provide dividends beyond their cost. 

Preliminary findings from a 3-year impact evaluation provides 

statistically significant evidence that crime rates are lower and 

public perception of security is higher in the areas in which we 

work. This is good news, but the efforts need to be scaled up to see 

an impact on national level statistics. 

Mr. Chairman, USAID is well positioned when done in partnership with governments and the private sector in the region, and 

when successful programs are taken to scale to help improve economic and social well being in the region. 

By working together to keep children in school, train out of 

school youth for jobs and connect small farmers to markets as well 

as creating entry points for historically marginalized groups, the 

region can become more secure and prosperous for the long-term. 

This has been, and will continue to be, a principal focus for 

USAID and these efforts will continue to benefit citizens throughout the Americas. Thank you, and I look forward to answering any 

questions you may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lopes follows:]

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Mr. SALMON. Thank you. I thank the witnesses for their testimonies. I will yield myself 5 minutes, and then will proceed with 

the ranking member and thank the witnesses. 

Mr. Lopes, thank you for your testimony and for outlining the 

various ways USAID has been working to improve the situation in 

Central America. 

Unfortunately, I have seen many of your colleagues come up to 

the Hill to deliver notifications on one program or another, but always lacking in specificity. The American people are, as you know, 

exceedingly generous in providing aid to countries in need to improve the lives of their citizens. 

Indeed, USAID efforts in Mexico and Central America can have 

a direct impact on our own security and lives, as this current crisis 

reflects. Enforced immigration laws combined with economic opportunity and security in Central America would have kept young children in their countries with their families. 

What I am saying is that I am supportive of USAID’s efforts to 

help empower the nations of Central America as long as the money 

that we are spending is effective and efficient. 

I would like to see a comprehensive list country by country, 

project by project, including costs, implementing partner details 

and how specifically the said project directly helps the crisis level 

in security and lack of economic opportunity we are seeing in some 

Central American countries today, namely, the three that we have 

talked about. Can you provide me with those details? 

This level of specificity would go a long way in helping us to 

evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts there while being truly accountable to the taxpayer, and I think you would agree that we 

owe the taxpayer at least that. 

Mr. LOPES. Absolutely, Congressman. Yes, we can provide that 

information and certainly willing to work with your office and 

happy to come up and make sure that you have——

Mr. SALMON. That would be great. 

Mr. LOPES [continuing]. A comprehensive set. 

Mr. SALMON. And I will share it with the committee when I get 

that. 

Mr. LOPES. Absolutely, and I also referenced in my opening statement one of the efforts that we have done to do a scientific analysis 

of the impact of our programs. This was an effort with Vanderbilt 

University to look at control groups and treatment groups——

Mr. SALMON. Right. 

Mr. LOPES [continuing]. In communities where we had an impact, and we have seen statistically significant progress in the 

areas in which we work. 

Mr. SALMON. Can we get those reports too? That would be great. 

Mr. LOPES. I’d be happy to share that with you. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you very much. And then I am going to ask 

one last question, and then I am going to ask Mr. Duncan to take 

over the chair for just a few minutes. I have got another thing I 

have got to attend to. 

But with both of you—with the USAID mission in Ecuador closing and our mission in the diplomatic environment in Bolivia it 

continues to present difficulties for our officers since the closing of 

USAID and the expulsion of our Ambassador there. 

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Have State and USAID been looking for ways to redirect funding 

otherwise intended for Ecuador and Bolivia potentially going to address this crisis and working with Central America? I understand 

that some of the Ecuador USAID money is now going to environmental projects in Colombia and Jamaica. 

While I don’t intend to denigrate the potential long-term benefits 

of sensitizing our neighbors to environmental stewardship, I would 

submit to you that this is maybe a far more immediate crisis and 

maybe we should try to direct some of that money to this crisis as 

well. 

Is that something that could be within the realm of possibility? 

Mr. LOPES. I can speak to that, Congressman. Happy to outline. 

With respect to the Ecuador money, that money was already designated to go to environment programs, particularly in the Andean 

Amazon. So we did not have the flexibility to divert those resources 

toward crime prevention programs in Central America. 

But that is the kind of flexibility that certainly we benefit from 

and our ability to have fully funded accounts as well as the flexibility to move those resources accordingly certainly helps us pivot 

quickly and direct resources toward where they are needed. 

Over the last several years, we have seen a shift in budgetary 

priorities from South America to Central America. In these budget 

times, a flatline is the new increase and that is where we have preserved resources for Central America, particularly focused on Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, to make sure that those countries, and particularly the efforts on crime prevention, were the 

overarching focus of USAID’s work there combined with a series of 

other economic prosperity programs that we see as a part of the entire package toward having real jobs and real opportunities over 

the long run. 

So certainly the flexibility to provide those resources is useful, 

and we are happy to work with you to figure out what kind of 

things can be freed up looking——

Mr. SALMON. Well, if there is anything that we can do to maximize that flexibility so that we can get the money to where we 

have actually got the problems—the most immediate problems—

then I think we are all interested in a bipartisan way to get that 

done. 

I am going to yield back and ask the gentleman. He is next. 

Mr. DUNCAN. The Chair recognizes Mr. Sires from New Jersey. 

Mr. SIRES. Thank you very much. This past week the Hispanic 

Caucus called a number of members to meet with some of the Ambassadors of these countries because of this crisis, and it was very 

disappointing to me that we had 13 members and only one——

Mr. DUNCAN. If we could start the clock back at 5 minutes just 

due to the interruption in the back. 

Mr. SIRES. Thank you. It was very disappointing to me that only 

one Ambassador showed up, and I let him know that we were all 

very disappointed because we all have our schedule. 

So my question to you basically is how serious or seriously are 

these countries taking the effort to deal with this humanitarian crisis? 

Because that to me was a sign that all they are looking for is 

they have a pressure cooker in their own country and this is one 

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way of releasing some of that pressure and, you know, I am here 

to work—I have been here 8 years. 

I try to work as much as I can on a bipartisan basis to try to 

deal with some of these problems in the Western Hemisphere, especially these countries. 

But to have a situation like this and not have the decency to 

show up where 13 members who are their best supporters just 

makes it more difficult for us to assist them and more difficult for 

us to come up with some sort of immigration reform. 

So I am asking you in your dealings with some of these Ambassadors, some of these countries, give me a perception—your perception of how seriously do they take this, or they are saying just send 

them to America and the pressure is off us. 

Mr. PALMIERI. Thank you, Mr. Sires. The three Ambassadors 

from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are all working very 

hard and have had extensive engagements with the administration. 

But more importantly than their engagements with us is the real 

work that they are doing to get additional consular personnel from 

their Embassies to the border region to facilitate the processing of 

these arrivals and ensuring the documents that they need to be 

able to identify these children——

Mr. SIRES. You know, that is all well and good. But I want to 

know what they are doing in their country to stymie this exodus, 

because this is a humanitarian crisis. You have kids as young as 

5, young as 6. 

Just give me your opinion on what they are doing—what are 

they actually doing in their own country. And I must say that I am 

very proud of the way this country has handled those children because we have provided to them on a humanitarian basis. We have 

taken care of them. But I want to know what is going on in their 

own country. 

Mr. PALMIERI. In Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, senior 

leaders across the spectrum—the Presidents, the foreign ministries—have been very active in echoing the messages about the 

dangers of the journey, about the real vulnerability these children 

suffer as they make that journey and are taking steps in Honduras. 

The President of Honduras has redirected their border enforcement units to focus on alien smuggling networks, and to try to 

make a more effective interdiction of children leaving the San 

Pedro Sula area. 

He is dedicated and called together an inter-institutional committee to address children’s issues in the country with a direct 

focus on trying to stop the children from leaving. 

They all realize—all three countries’ leaders realize how vulnerable and exploited these children can be on this dangerous journey. 

In Guatemala, President Perez Molina has issued statements as 

well, and in one province along the migration route through Guatemala there was a recent arrest of a police official who apparently 

was facilitating some of this type of smuggling. 

In El Salvador, likewise, the Foreign Minister and the President 

have been equally vocal about the real threat that their children 

are suffering when they make this journey and complementing the 

messages that we are saying, that there are no immigration benefits when these children arrive at the border. 

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Mr. SIRES. Do they recognize how difficult they make it on this 

Congress to come up with a comprehensive immigration reform 

when these things happen? Mr. Lopes, do you know? 

Mr. PALMIERI. I think all three countries understand that the arrival of these unaccompanied children at the border will complicate 

and is complicating efforts to promote comprehensive immigration 

reform. 

Mr. LOPES. I think just a couple of examples from our side, one 

that I mentioned in my testimony in terms of the 30 percent—I am 

sorry, the $600,000 of the $1 million pledge of Honduran resources, 

that is part of a commitment to use funds from a new security 

tax—30 percent of those for prevention activities. 

I am persuaded when governments put forward real money and 

they put forward that money toward backing prevention programs. 

So that is a positive. In addition, there is an asset seizure law 

where the proceeds from those seized assets end up going back to 

municipalities where those assets receive to help work on prevention programs in those municipalities, so that there is incentive for 

those municipalities to seize those assets, to then see those resources coming back around to help on the prevention side. 

Those are the kinds of partnerships beyond strategies which all 

free countries have which we see as new. The days of recognizing 

that prevention is an important piece of this are relatively new. 

Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have been talking about the governments in the region being so acutely oriented toward the importance of social programs of economic opportunity, but rather focused more on law enforcement and efforts to punish people for a 

deviation from laws. 

Mr. SIRES. My time is up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. DUNCAN. I thank the gentleman. I recognize myself for 5 

minutes. 

This is a screen shot. This is one of the children. We are not talking about teenagers here. We are talking about very, very young—

don’t you love an iPad? You touch it in the wrong place and it goes 

away. 

It is a little girl. I would say she was probably, what, Sean, you 

got small children. Three? Three years old? She’s coloring. All 

right. 

So what we are talking about if you look at that map, that area 

right there where that dot is dancing is the Guatemala-Honduras 

area, the Mexican border. Brownsville, Texas is right here, the Rio 

Grande Valley. 

From the capital city of Honduras to Brownsville is well over 

1,000 miles. Sean, could your 3-year-old travel 1,000 miles without 

you, without your adult children, your older children accompanying 

them? I don’t think so. 

The question I have is this. Historically, this border right here 

between Guatemala and Mexico has been one of the hardest places 

in the world to get through. What is Mexico doing to help us in this 

issue? 

What has changed within the country of Mexico that it has allowed 60,0000 children to transit that area? Whether they are Honduran or Guatemalan or El Salvadorean, they crossed that border 

and they came through Mexico to get to the United States. 

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They didn’t get on an airplane. They walked or they rode a train 

or in a car or something and we are talking about, what, 3-yearolds? So what has changed within Mexico and that border situation? Mr. Palmieri. 

Mr. PALMIERI. Thank you, Mr. Duncan. Mexico is working very 

hard with us to address these conditions, particularly on their 

southern border. 

We are looking at redirecting some of our foreign assistance 

through the Merida initiative to help strengthen Mexican interdiction efforts along their southern border. They have a southern border strategy that they have been executing. I think they are working very hard with us to try to have an impact on this flow and——

Mr. DUNCAN. But what has changed? Because historically it is a 

tough border to cross. What has changed? What has changed in 

Mexico? 

Mr. PALMIERI. I think that the alien smuggling networks have 

begun to prey on families’ willingness to send these children, and 

they are using some of their other established smuggling routes to 

move these children through the region. 

But the Mexican Government’s commitment to work with us on 

this has been reaffirmed and they are working closely with us because they understand the true human costs to these children and 

the need for better border enforcement and to work with the three 

countries in Central America to help stem this flow. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Let me shift gears for just a minute, because we 

have talked a lot about funding today. The administration has 

promised a series of new foreign assistance programs for Central 

American countries. 

However, according to a 2013—January of 2013 GAO report less 

than 28 percent of the funds appropriated from the year 2008 

through the Fiscal Year 2011 have been disbursed. Why is this? 

And hold that question. 

Why is it necessary to make additional foreign assistance commitments when you have not even used all the money that Congress have given you? And Mr. Lopes, you are fine to answer 

that—one of you. 

Mr. LOPES. Sure. Thank you. I think what was referenced in the 

GAO report is what we call pipeline, which is a build-up of resources that have yet to go out the door. My understanding is that 

pipeline is significantly diminished. 

We are happy to provide you an updated set of information with 

respect to those figures but also to say that, you know, the efforts 

that we have undertaken as USAID to ramp up our spending in 

these prevention efforts there is an absorptive capacity limit that 

is not something we can go from zero to $100 million from one day 

to the next. 

It takes some time to build that up. We have been in that process for several years, and I think we are well positioned. 

You saw some recent announcement by President—I am sorry, 

Vice President Biden with respect to new programs in the region—

large-scale programs. We have now up to 120 outreach centers. So 

we are to a point where we are able to spend and move resources 

much more quickly. That is positive. 

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In addition, we are also partnering with private sector and 

leveraging other funds from the private sector to get resources 

there. Resources there are certainly not the only piece of it. 

We need the kind of partnership that Mr. Palmieri was talking 

about from the governments in the region, from other actors that 

care about the outcome. The private sector is one that we have 

really aggressively reached out to because they care about security 

as well. It is a business issue for them. It is a bottom line issue. 

It affects their bottom line when people can’t get to work on the 

buses. And so we have, through a series of partnerships and creative efforts, to get cameras on buses in San Pedro Sula, Honduras 

to get a police force that monitors those cameras. 

There are 54 cameras spread throughout the buses because they 

saw that buses is where the crimes are taking place and so what 

about a creative solution to work with the private sector there. 

Another effort is to get the private sector to donate street lamps. 

Those street lamps are then upgraded by the national electric utility, and the businesses get the benefit of those lights and everyone 

benefits from security. 

So it takes some time. We think we are there and we are getting 

to a point where we can spend a lot more and a lot faster. 

Mr. DUNCAN. I appreciate your comment. You kept going back to 

private sector, and we are talking about public sector dollars in 

programs to foreign countries, and I understand the public-private 

partnership and how USAID works. But let me just say this and 

then end the time here. 

I understand the humanitarian side of this. I am very sympathetic to the children that are there. I want what is best for them. 

But I also am very concerned about the national sovereignty of 

this nation and our porous southern border and also elements that 

may be coming along with the children that are transiting into our 

country and what they are coming for. So I think you are going to 

need to be able to answer that question. 

If you are going to ask me to provide a vote for more dollars for 

foreign aid to Central America, you are going to have to able to 

provide a little bit more explanation of why this money hasn’t been 

spent or an explanation of how it has been if not allocated dedicated—that is, future expenditures and how it is going to be spent. 

Whether that is a graph or whether that is information to this 

committee, I think we deserve that if we are going to actually cast 

a vote to provide you more dollars. 

And with that, I will yield to the gentleman, Mr. Meeks. 

Mr. MEEKS. Thank you. You know, just seems to me when I 

think about the creation of our country it was from individuals that 

were fleeing bad situations to a better situation. 

It is almost just human nature if you see something that is better you try to get to what is better and you want your child to have 

a better life than you have had. And so it is difficult, and based 

upon what I know specifically about this problem I would like to 

emphasize a few things real quickly, then ask a couple of questions 

because I think that this should be a wake-up call, number one—

a wake up call that would cause us to refocus our attention on the 

Western Hemisphere—our region of the world. 

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Current migration patterns demonstrate if we don’t pay attention 

to what is happening just beyond our borders it will be to our own 

children. While the headlines of the day may draw attention to faraway places like Iraq and Iran and Ukraine and, make no mistake, 

these are important issues that also demand our attention, but we 

must not lose sight of what is happening closer to home. 

The reality is truly terrifying when you think about homicide 

rates and when you think about the fact that maybe a third of everybody in either whether it is Guatemalans, Hondurans or Salvadorans report being victims of a crime within the last year, the statistics go on. They are just staggering. 

Secondly, this is a serious humanitarian crisis which demands 

the attention of both our domestic and foreign policy experts, and 

we must study the underlying social and economic factors present 

in these countries. 

Lastly, we must also understand the inherent interconnectedness 

of the Americas and indeed of the global village at large. Gone are 

the days when we could analyze a country’s domestic problems in 

a vacuum and as a result of the globalization problems like this 

one we must have a bipartisan, which I think we are trying to do 

in this committee, and multilateral strategies to rid Latin America 

and the Caribbean of the violence and gangs which are leaving our 

children with no option but to flee their homes in pursuit of a 

brighter future. 

That being said, I have been a long champion of trade capacity 

building. It was a significant part of the CAFTA negotiations in 

2003 and 2004. In fact, it was the determining factor on why I was 

one of the few Democrats that voted for CAFTA because of the 

money that was put into trade capacity building. 

So that was part of it. It was millions of dollars we appropriated 

for this and USAID received a large percentage of these funds as 

well as a large percentage of the responsibility for ensuring that 

they were used wisely. 

So my question is have you been able to provide—and this is for 

either Mr. Lopes or Mr. Palmieri—an update or can you provide an 

update on the status of these funds and how have they been spent? 

Mr. LOPES. Certainly. Thank you, Congressman. I would like to 

give you a comprehensive written response to that to make sure 

that we cover all the funds. 

My understanding of those resources during the time of the 

CAFTA program is that there was a period of years through which 

there was a set amount that was dedicated toward particular training activities to dedicate resources to compensate for what was 

seen as shortcomings in their ability to carry out and to implement 

the Central American Free Trade Agreement. 

A lot of those efforts have run their course although, and so some 

of those programs I think have closed and resources have been 

dedicated toward new areas or ongoing priorities. 

I think it is certainly worth a look to ensure that the purposes 

for which those funds were dedicated have stuck, and that the capacities that we have put in there are still strong and that those 

trade agreements are still working. 

I am not sure to what extent there is a scope for USAID to engage in that or resources to follow up, but certainly I think a conVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:22 Sep 23, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_WH\062514\88460 SHIRL
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versation around ensuring that any economic capacity building resources are being used as effectively as possible, and our office is 

happy to engage with yours on that. 

Mr. PALMIERI. In addition, I think CAFTA–DR has had a measurable positive impact. The central economy—the Central American economies on average have doubled their GDP over the last 

10 years. 

Exports to the United States through CAFTA are up 66 percent. 

While CAFTA is not the only component of our program in the region, it is making a significant impact in contributions in some of 

the root conditions. 

Mr. MEEKS. But here is the—here is the issue, and we have some 

of it here. You know, we talk about GDP and that is good. 

But sometimes that does not translate down to the common person who is trying to get a job and want to better themselves and 

improve their families. So the GDP sounds good for maybe 1 or 2 

percent at the top but what about everyone else? 

And that was part of what—the capacity building so that the jobs 

that would be created—it was about creating jobs here in America 

but also importantly about creating jobs there because guess what, 

folks? If we create jobs there they won’t come here. You know, they 

come here for opportunity. 

So that is what is important to get done. So I would like to see 

a comprehensive report to look at the jobs that we could have created there so that individuals have an opportunity and then talk 

about the security network that surrounds that, because if that 

happens then we don’t have to worry about, you know, people 

crossing our borders all the time. 

Mr. PALMIERI. Yes, sir. 

Mr. DUNCAN. I thank the gentleman for his comments and the 

Chair recognizes Mr. Duffy from Wisconsin. 

Mr. DUFFY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In my short time here in 

Congress—31⁄2 years—I don’t think I have seen an issue that has 

made me more angry than seeing 4-year-olds and 6-year-olds and 

8-year-olds by themselves with smugglers or coyotes coming to the 

American border. 

I have kids those age—4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14—a lot of them. And I 

could tell you what, to think that they could be traveling on their 

own to the American border is absolutely outrageous and that our 

Government has played a part in this push—in the pull of the push 

and pull is absolutely outrageous and it is unacceptable. 

Mr. Palmieri, in your comments about—oh, let me—I won’t go 

there. Do you have a report for us about what kind of horrors these 

children experience during their 100-plus—hundreds of miles journey here? Rape, abuse, murder? What information do you have on 

what they experience on their route to America? 

Mr. PALMIERI. The journey is incredibly dangerous and——

Mr. DUFFY. I know that. What specifics do you have? 

Mr. PALMIERI. And we know that individuals and children in particular who undertake that journey suffer different forms of violence. They could be sexually——

Mr. DUFFY. Have you done studies? 

Mr. PALMIERI [continuing]. There are reports of sexual assault. 

There are reports of mass killings in the past. There are reports 

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of being kidnapped, and then extorted for additional funds as they 

are crossing along the journey. 

There are reports of children who have been maimed trying to 

board trains that are moving to the north. The dangers are significant. They are very well documented, and we can get you a full report on that. 

Mr. DUFFY. I would welcome that. Are you a parent? 

Mr. PALMIERI. I am a parent, and I also——

Mr. DUFFY. Okay. I just want to ask you a question. So do you 

think that you need your government to tell you that—I don’t know 

how old your children are, but if you have a 4-year-old do you need 

the government to say, listen, you are going to send your child, 

your 4-year-old or your 6-year-old, on a multiple 100-mile journey? 

It is dangerous. You don’t know the coyote. You don’t know the 

smuggler. News flash to all of you who want to spend money to go, 

this is a dangerous trip for my child. I would say that is pointless. 

It muddies the message, and you told us that is part of the messaging that you are doing in these countries. I think it makes more 

sense to say the American border is closed. This trip will be for 

naught. If you get there, I am sorry. We are compassionate. 

The President has talked about our DREAMers. But if you come 

you are going to be sent back. Don’t make the trip. But that you 

are telling parents that this is dangerous, parents aren’t stupid. I 

mean, this is insulting that you tell a parent that it is a dangerous 

trip. 

Mr. PALMIERI. The messages combine both messages, Mr. Duffy. 

Not only are we explaining the dangers of the journey and making 

it very real for these parents to consider, but we are also making 

clear that there are no immigration benefits in the United States 

when you arrive. 

Mr. DUFFY. Are you telling them that the border——

Mr. PALMIERI. That there will be no——

Mr. DUFFY. So to that point are——

Mr. PALMIERI [continuing]. Benefit under the deferred action on 

childhood arrivals, that there will be no benefit under comprehensive immigration reform. 

Mr. DUFFY. And to back up that point, have you been sending 

any of these children back home? 

Mr. PALMIERI. There have been very few——

Mr. DUFFY. That is right. There has been very few. So isn’t——

Mr. PALMIERI [continuing]. Deportations of the unaccompanied 

children because we have to first attend to their humanitarian 

needs——

Mr. DUFFY. So wouldn’t the message——

Mr. PALMIERI [continuing]. And connect them to a guardian or a 

relative who can receive them. 

Mr. DUFFY. So the message really is you send them and they 

don’t get deported. They haven’t been deported. They get to stay. 

You can say all you want but the messaging has been if you send 

your children to the American—the U.S. border they will be allowed in and they won’t be sent back to the country of origin, and 

I think that is the wrong message. And you would agree that this 

is a humanitarian crisis that involves children, yes? 

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Mr. PALMIERI. It is an acute humanitarian situation these children are suffering. 

Mr. DUFFY. What is the pull that has brought these kids to the 

United States? 

Mr. PALMIERI. The factors we see, and it is a very complex issue 

as you have just outlined, is there are factors both in their home 

country related to——

Mr. DUFFY. That is the push. I’m talking about what is the pull. 

What is the pull bringing them up here? 

Mr. PALMIERI. And they have family members, obviously, in the 

United States that they are trying to reunite. 

Mr. DUFFY. Do you think it has anything to do with the President’s comments about immigration—the President’s policies on 

our border? 

Mr. PALMIERI. I think the administration’s message has been 

very clear since this situation has expanded, that there are no immigration benefits for these children who are arriving; that they 

will be given notices to appear for deportation proceedings and that 

the journey will be futile. 

Mr. DUFFY. This is a humanitarian crisis that involves children. 

I think it is of the utmost seriousness. What comments publicly has 

the President made to say listen, our borders aren’t open and if you 

send your children they will be deported back to their country of 

origin? What public comments has he made to that effect? 

Mr. PALMIERI. The messages we are sending out are really loud 

and clear. 

Mr. DUFFY. That is not my question for you. No, no, no, no. My 

question is what has—this is serious stuff. It involves children. 

What has the President said publicly about sending these children 

home? He hasn’t said anything, has he? 

Mr. PALMIERI. I will gather the President’s statements and deliver them. 

Mr. DUFFY. He has—he has made public statements to this effect? I haven’t seen them. I haven’t heard them. You have? 

Mr. PALMIERI. In the announcement about the humanitarian situation, the President emphasized that we had a humanitarian 

need. 

Mr. DUFFY. Did he say that our borders were closed? I mean, it 

is a humanitarian crisis but he is not saying listen, of course, it is 

a humanitarian crisis but listen everybody, our borders are closed. 

If you come we are going to send you back home. 

That would go a long way to sending the message to these specific three countries that if you send your kids it is dangerous, and 

they are not going to get the benefit that you talked about in your 

testimony. 

If the President says that, that goes a long way and I think save 

the little kids’ lives. I used to prosecute child sexual assault cases. 

They are the most horrific cases that you will ever handle as a 

prosecutor, and to think that these kids will go through these horrors and the President won’t stand up and say listen, there is no 

benefit—please don’t send your children, and he says it publicly 

and strongly. I think that is the wrong message from this administration. I yield back. 

Mr. SALMON. Thank you. Mr. Smith. 

34

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much and I want to thank my friend, 

Mr. Duffy, for raising the issue. This is serious stuff and we all get 

it. 

Like my colleagues, I am extremely concerned about the welfare 

and well being of these children. Back in the early 1980s, I wrote 

the Child Survival Fund, put it at $50 million and went to El Salvador when there was a day of tranquility when the FMLN and 

Napoleon Duarte had a cease fire simply to vaccinate children 

against polio, diphtheria, pertussis. 

So members of this panel and Mr. Duffy, as having prosecuted 

some of these horrific cases, we are in solidarity with these children. We are deeply concerned about it. 

So I would like to ask a few very specific questions because they 

are vulnerable to sickness. They are vulnerable to abuse and even 

death. I have worked on neglected tropical diseases for the entirety 

of my 34 years as a Member of Congress. 

We have a bill pending that deals with that. Last year I had a 

hearing on NTDs by one of the greatest experts in the world, Peter 

Hotez, ‘‘Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases.’’ He points out that 

in this very incisive book as you know, I’m sure, to my friend from 

USAID, the places where these kids are coming from are endemic 

with hookworm, roundworm, whipworm and many, many other 

parasitic infections. 

This long journey, the strain on their young and very fragile 

beings, certainly can exacerbate those problems. So first question, 

are U.S. medical personnel screening for NTDs? 

Are they asking the right questions, doing the right kind of analysis to determine whether or not a child is carrying worms which 

certainly makes him or her vulnerable to other opportunistic infections? 

Secondly, on human trafficking, I am the author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. It is the bill, the landmark 

bill on combating trafficking, yet in my own district in Lakewood 

we had a situation where a Mexican trafficker had a number of 

Mexican women and young girls. 

That was busted. They are being prosecuted. We have Honduran 

gangs in Trenton. They are doing the same thing with mostly Honduran young girls and we know it is everywhere. 

Gangs have not replaced but have been added to the issue or the 

exploiters and we know that these gangs, including some of these 

gangs coming out of Central America, are exploiting young girls 

and young women. 

So my question would be about trafficking. What is being done 

to mitigate the possibility and, I would say, high probability of 

these girls and young women being forced into prostitution and to 

other kind of servitude? 

There was a report that just came out, and I would commend it 

to your reading that something on the order of 90 percent—88 percent was the number they give—of trafficked women at some point 

have contact with a health care provider. 

About 60 percent are emergency rooms, and yet, from the interviews of well over 100 trafficked women it was discovered with 

shock and dismay that they never asked, even though there was 

35

bruising, there were other kinds of indicators of abuse, whether or 

not that woman was in trouble and needed to be rescued. 

My hope is that our health officials and others will be looking for 

the telltale signs, many of which are subtle but looking for them 

nevertheless to ask the right questions—are you being trafficked, 

are you being exploited? Because that is a huge problem. 

You know, we see it with tsunamis and with hurricanes. We 

were very concerned when the hurricane or typhoon hit the Philippines, and I went to the Philippines. Every question I asked was 

about what is being done to ensure the exploited are not and 

USAID did a wonderful job, frankly, during that typhoon period to 

ensure that that didn’t happen. 

I know I will run out of time, but HHS is vetting—when people 

are handed over and children are handed over to relations that 

might be family how are they vetting to ensure that who that child 

is passed over to is not an abuser, a trafficker or someone purporting to be a family member? 

Are they overwhelmed to the point where they are contracting 

that out? Because that would be a serious problem. I mean, how 

well—you know, we don’t want to find 6 months from now that 

kids have been passed over to trafficking rings, and it can happen. 

It can happen very easily when you have an overflow of crisis 

like this. So if you could touch on that as well. And finally, the administration is pushing fast track of the Trans-Pacific Partnership 

and the inclusion of Vietnam within the TPP. 

Four Congresses in a row I have gotten passed in the House the 

Vietnam Human Rights Act. It has died in the Senate each time, 

sadly. It may get passed this year—who knows? But we know that 

even the State Department’s book on trafficking just came out on 

Friday that Vietnam is a major source of labor trafficking and 

many products are made with child labor in Vietnam. 

And yet they will now, if this treaty goes through on fast track, 

be in a situation where they will displace many of the textile capabilities of the Central American countries and put them out of business. 

When you have forced labor, those dirt cheap wages, if there are 

wages at all, certainly makes the competitive advantage go toward 

Vietnam. 

Is that being considered with the TPP or are you guys, for example, in the Western Hemisphere saying time out, Vietnam is an 

abuser, this will hurt Central America and will hurt El Salvador 

in an extremely—in an extreme way, and I think that is—we have 

got to put that on the radar. 

So if you could speak to that as well, and I thank the chair for 

yielding time and if they could answer those questions I would 

deeply appreciate it. 

Mr. SALMON. You know what? Go ahead. Take your time and answer those questions. This is the last question, and then we will 

close after that. So no problem. 

Mr. PALMIERI. With regard to the screening processes of the children who are arriving, my understanding is that the Health and 

Human Services Department has the primary responsibility and 

would have the best information. 

36

We do understand that there is both psychological and medical 

screening of all these children when they arrive, and that there is 

background checks done on who these children are being turned 

over to once they are processed through. The HHS——

Mr. SMITH. But how do you do a background check? Is it——

Mr. PALMIERI. I would say we would have to get back to you with 

a more specific answer——

Mr. SMITH. If you could get back with more specifics on that I 

would appreciate it. 

Mr. PALMIERI [continuing]. From the Health and Human Services Department. I think your comments about the potential impact 

of TPP on Central America is something that we are all watching 

closely in the Western Hemisphere, in particular those governments themselves. 

The trade representative have given us good information that 

TPP should not have a direct negative impact as the CAFTA–DR 

benefits should allow these countries to continue their access to our 

market even after TPP is moved forward. And I think that is——

Mr. SMITH. Because of tropical diseases perhaps USAID wanted 

to get this. 

Mr. LOPES. Sure. Thank you, Congressman. First of all, thank 

you for your comments about USAID and their response, and thank 

you for your leadership on this issue. 

In 4 years in this job it is the first time that neglected tropical 

diseases has come up in a direct briefing or hearing that I have 

participated in, and I know that those issues are very real for a lot 

of people. 

It is part of our effort to continue with a broad base of programs—environment, health, agriculture—that are sort of all 

woven in to the root causes of opportunity. Health—if people can’t 

sort of get through the basic health the first 5 years of their life 

they are certainly not going to be able to be positioned well to have 

opportunities and the ability to have an economic well being, which 

we have heard from our initial assessments, trying to understand 

why people are getting on these buses and trains—that, you know, 

certainly, that is one of the causes they have referenced. 

We have limited health programs in the region compared to, say, 

5 years ago in Latin America. We do have grants through the Pan 

American Health Organization and we do have some limited engagement on neglected tropical diseases. I can’t speak specifically 

to hookworm or roundworm but we are happy to get back——

Mr. SMITH. Is that something you could ask—also ask HHS or 

whoever is administering the program who is on the ground? Because if they are not looking for it, again, co-morbidity is very high 

and these kids are walking with worms. Rather than feed the future we are feeding the worms and I know, you know, you understand that. 

But if it is not being done as they come across the border this 

is a golden opportunity, one of the good positive outcomes that 

come from this mass influx, is to screen these kids and get them 

the deworming drugs to improve their lives. 

Mr. SALMON. If I could interject, I went and visited the facility 

in Nogales where there is 1,250 children. So Representative Smith, 

there is 140 CBP officers working to care for these children and 

37

then there are FEMA representatives and there are HHS people 

there and they are doing health screenings for every child that is 

there. 

Now, I don’t know about the specifics of the worm issue but I 

know that the health of these children is a prime focus of our personnel that are on the ground working with these children. 

In fact, one of the young teenagers that was there actually had 

a baby. Now, she didn’t have it there in the facility. They took her 

to the local hospital in Nogales. But I saw her in one of the facilities with the baby by her side. And so——

Mr. SMITH. I appreciate that, and I appreciate your work on 

NTDs as well—a leader in the Congress. But if that is something 

you could check with them—if they are not looking perhaps to look 

to provide some healthier outcomes for these children. 

Mr. LOPES. Yes. Certainly, I will get——

Mr. SMITH. I appreciate it. And on the trafficking real quick, 

hopefully the interagency council headed up by Luis CdeBaca is deploying very knowledgeable people to hopefully catch this working 

with law enforcement, of course, because it has gone under—right 

under our nose—two of my cities, major busts. 

I will never forget when Chris Christie was U.S. Attorney. Remember that? Albio Sires will remember this. A bedroom community, whole group of Mexican minors found having been trafficked. 

He busted up that ring and thankfully repatriated the young 

girls with their parents and families. But it could be going on in 

a very, very dangerous and robust way, if we are not careful, under 

the guise of this influx of children. 

Mr. DUNCAN. Will the gentleman yield? 

Mr. SMITH. Yes. 

Mr. DUNCAN. I just want to say for the record, Mr. Chairman, 

there is not a single person on this dais or on this committee or 

in this Congress that is not very sympathetic to the humanitarian 

challenge that we have down there concerned about the children. 

Oftentimes our comments are taken—when we focus on the border we focus on immigration reform, we focus on security and national security issues and what not. But we are very concerned 

about the children, and we want to make sure they are cared for. 

We want to make sure they are reunited with their parents, 

hopefully in their home country, so they can return back to a normal way of life in their country and don’t put a strain on the American resources. 

But I think that is lost in the debate a lot of times that we are 

not concerned about children and absolutely we are. And so with 

that, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. 

Mr. SALMON. And I am going to go ahead and just provide closing 

statements, and I am going to kind of segue from what you just 

said because it is about security. It is about our border. 

But more than anything, the thing that kind of trumps them all 

is that the current policy is not compassionate. It is not, because 

for every child that ends up in one of these facilities and then is 

in the United States for 7 years waiting for a hearing because of 

some of our laws and we need to change those—we do—a child 

didn’t make it. 

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The child may have died in the desert. The child may have been 

killed. That child may have been sold into slavery. And so what we 

are doing now is not compassionate, it is not smart and is not good 

policy. 

And so we need to make sure that we send a clear message to those countries that if they pay $5,000 to $8,000 to get their child 

to America to get a free pass it is not going to be fruitful. 

They won’t get a free pass. Then they won’t be spending that 

money anymore with these coyotes to get that done. They just 

won’t. It will be a deterrent. 

And so it is in all of our interests, on both sides of the aisle, to 

get that done and make sure that these children are back with 

their families in that loving environment. 

So that having been said, this subcommittee is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 3:22 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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