OAS asks US to reunite migrant families as soon as possible

WASHINGTON – The Organization of American States urged the United States on Friday to follow through on President Donald Trump’s decision to stop the separation of migrant families at the southern border.

The 34-nation regional bloc also called for the U.S. to reunite migrant children with their parents as soon as possible.

The OAS resolution was adopted without debate or vote. The U.S. delegation did not block its adoption, but its ambassador at the bloc, Carlos Trujillo, noted in comments included as a footnote to the resolution, “The United States will continue to exercise its own sovereign authority over its immigration policy.”

The measure was much less critical toward the Trump administration than the original draft proposed by Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which had urged the U.S. “not to resort under any circumstance to the separation of migrant families.”

The resolution was watered down after the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras met Vice-President Mike Pence in Guatemala on Thursday. According to Honduran diplomat Luis Cordero, the three Central American leaders “value positively” Trump’s executive action to halt the policy of taking children from their detained parents.

Nonetheless, the resolution urges Washington not to prosecute asylum seekers and calls for human rights investigators to visit the southern border to assess the impact of the migration policy. The resolution describes any migration policy that leads to separation of families as violating human rights, especially of children and adolescents.

Under Trump’s policy, the government has begun prosecuting all migrants caught entering the country without authorization. About 2,000 children separated from their parents after crossing the border illegally are still being held, and many families say they don’t know how to locate them.

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Reach Luis Alonso Lugo at http://www.twitter.com/luisalonsolugo