Friday, 25 Jul 2014 01:53 PM
By Wanda Carruthers
newsmax

It's unlikely that children in Central America who want to come to the United States will be able to obtain refugee status, Rep. Luis Gutierrez told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday.

A plan under consideration by the administration of President Barack Obama would screen children and young adults in Honduras to see if they would qualify for refugee status on humanitarian grounds, thereby allowing them to enter the United States.

"There is really very little in our law . . . unless we declare them refugees, and I don't see that happening. [It] doesn't mean I don't think it should happen. It's just I don't see that happening," the Illinois Democrat said Friday.

A way to stem the tide of the recent surge of people illegally crossing the southern U.S. border "to seek out the American dream" would be to aid the impoverished Central American countries from which they are fleeing, Gutierrez said.

"I think we should have a program that allows Central America to thrive, and that we invest in those countries," he said. "Severe violence and severe poverty are going to bring people to America to seek refuge here. And, the way you stop that from happening is creating conditions there."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Gut.../25/id/584951/