US halts issue of visas to Hondurans

[Ban Hammer 13,619]

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The United States has stopped issuing travel visas to Hondurans indefinitely, saying lax rules in the Central American nation let third-country nationals obtain local passports used for travel to America.

The U.S. Embassy in Honduras said on Saturday it had ordered the issue of all new visas to Hondurans suspended. This week, local authorities arrested two Cameroon citizens trying to obtain Honduran passports using fake identity documents.

"The controls are not sufficient for us, and it is our responsibility to protect the United States," the embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission James Willard told local radio.

Central America is seen as a relatively easy route to the United States by some African and Asian immigrants.

Last week, Honduras warned it had become a new route for Cuban immigrants bound for the United States, with an increasing number washing up on the Caribbean coast on their way to the U.S. border.

The embassy said in a statement it was concerned about the ease with which people were able to obtain Honduran birth and marriage certificates, identity cards and passports.

"Since these documents have been used to enter the United States, this problem continues to be a matter of national security for the United States of America," it said.

Honduran authorities said they would take action to purge possibly corrupt elements from the government bodies that issue identity documents.

Foreign Minister Milton Jimenez said local and international organized crime groups were involved in the trade of Honduran passports and identity documents.

"These are mafias with huge amounts of money, with connections in powerful sectors of the country. They have made people trafficking into a very profitable business," he told reporters.

In 2005, former Director of Migration Roman Romero was fired for allegedly issuing visas illegally to Chinese citizens.

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Wow.

[peejay 327]

I hope this is a trend. It is about time!

The USA should also be slapping sanctions on countries such as China, Vietnam, etc. that refuse to repatriate their citizens with standing deportation orders that entered the USA illegally or violated their visas by overstay. We have close to 40,000 Chinese deportees that China refuses to repatriate. There are several other countries that are also guilty.

Talk is cheap. Action speaks louder than words. If foreign countries refuse to cooperate with the USA...we should refuse their citizens visas.

Citizens of countries that refuse to meet certain quality standards in issuing passports or refuse to repatriate their own citizens should be barred from the USA.

[Artegal 1]

Shouldn't this post be in the Immigration News Forum?

[gtigiant 0]

it's not immigration visas, just visistation visas from what I have read so far

[peejay 327]

it's not immigration visas, just visistation visas from what I have read so far

Unfortunately after the 1986 amnesty sell out and the latest 2006 proposal by the US Senate along the same lines, there are many that lie, cheat, and sneak into the USA hoping for another amnesty.

In other words...they enter on a "temporary visitation visa" and become illegal aliens in hopes of permanent residency through amnesty. The Honduran government's corrupt passport and fraudulent document mill just makes a bad problem even worst.

Amnesty (or as Bush and the Democrats call it "earned legalization") is just a huge magnet for illegal aliens and does absolutely nothing to deter further illegal immigration. It gives the world the impression that anyone can scam their way into the USA and can eventually gain permanent residency and maybe even US citizenship.

It boggles the mind that the US Senate passed another amnesty bill after the failures of 1986.