WASHINGTON, D.C. — Consular representatives from El Salvador have been involved in identifying and offering protection to the unaccompanied minors flooding across the border, according to a source at the El Salvador Embassy.
“Our consulate in Tucson, Arizona, reports a number of visits to shelters and detention centers and several interviews with Salvadoran minors,” the Embassy source told Breitbart News.
In recent months the numbers of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors have vastly increased resulting in what President Obama has termed an “urgent humanitarian situation.”
Many of the children are from Central America, specifically El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
The El Salvador Embassy source would only say there are “multiple reasons” for the surge in unaccompanied children crossing the border into the United States but did not name any specific reasons.
Obama administration officials have argued there are forces, such as violence and poverty, pushing these unaccompanied minors out of their home countries; meanwhile Republican critics have pointed at Obama administration policies as pull factors for illegal immigrants to come to the U.S.
When asked if El Salvador is providing any support for the United States to deal with these children, the source said that the government has “provided consular protection to the minors.”
“Our representatives have visited the shelters where the children are placed. In order to address the issue, we have strengthened the capabilities of our consulate in Tucson. In the coming days, our Vice Minister for Salvadorans Abroad, Liduvina Magarín, will be traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border to verify the conditions of the Salvadoran minors,” the El Salvador Embassy source said.