VOA标准英语2014--中美洲多国领导人将会见奥巴马以应对移民危机

 

President Asks Central American Leaders to Help Stop Migrants 中美洲多国领导人将会见奥巴马以应对移民危机

WHITE HOUSE —

President Barack Obama met with leaders of three Central American nations Friday to ask for their help in stemming the flow of thousands of unaccompanied minors¹ to the southern U.S. border.

Obama told the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras at a White House meeting it is not a lack of compassion², but an obligation to obey immigration laws that is prompting the U.S. to turn back many of those coming to this country's borders.

The U.S. president asked the leaders to do their part. “All of us recognize that we have a shared responsibility to address this problem.”

Obama said there may be some cases in which migrants can apply for refugee status, but that those instances will be few.

Under U.S. law, those who come and seek asylum³ are given due process, meaning the courts decide whether they can stay or not.

The migrants make the dangerous journey across Mexico in the belief that they will get residency permits - a hope that is encouraged by human smugglers.

Political analyst⁴ Michael Barone said the influx⁵ of unaccompanied minors poses a real problem for Obama.

“On the one hand, he has made the arguments that he's increased the number of deportations, but it doesn't look like a very secure border. It looks like people are coming over and staying here,” said Barone.

Activists⁷ in the Latino community -- one of Obama's main sources of political support -- have criticized the deportations.

And so the president's discussions with Central American leaders Friday included a proposal to further discourage migrants from making the trip north, and thus avoid the need for the U.S. to deport⁶ them: a pilot program where Central Americans can seek asylum in their home countries, not at the U.S. border.

Pilot program

White House officials say the pilot program would involve screening some youth in Honduras to see if they qualify for refugee status in the United States. They say the young people could be interviewed before they make the dangerous journey to the U.S. border.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The idea here is that in order to deter⁸ them from making that dangerous journey, we'd set up a system in coordination⁹ with these host countries to allow those claims to be filed in that country without them having to make that dangerous journey.”

The plan is drawing fire from opposition¹⁰ lawmakers who are pushing to pass a narrow immigration bill in the coming days before going on their summer recess¹¹.

That bill includes deploying¹² National Guard troops on the border and assigning more judges to help speed up deportations.

Steady stream

Since October, more than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been held at the United States' southern border, most of them from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. In many cases, the children are trying to reach parents or other relatives who have paid to have them brought into the U.S.

U.S. officials have been urging the Central American leaders to do more to stem the flow.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina and his Honduran counterpart, Juan Orlando Hernández, met Thursday with members of the U.S. Congress ahead of the White House meeting.

Speaking with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Honduran leader said the crisis is a result of crime and poverty in Central America, as well as failures of the U.S. legal system.

In many cases, the children are trying to reach parents or other relatives who have paid to have them brought into the U.S.

Obama also urged Republican lawmakers Friday to approve a request for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to deal with the immigration surge.

Republicans in Congress are considering a smaller amount and say Obama's immigration policies have encouraged the flood of children across the border.

Both the president and the Democratically-led Senate have championed immigration reforms that would give the 11 million immigrants already in the United States illegally a path to obtain U.S. citizenship¹³. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is opposed and says it will not vote on the issue this year.

1 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

3 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

4 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

5 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

6 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 deter   

vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住

参考例句：

• Failure did not deter us from trying it again.失败并没有能阻挡我们再次进行试验。
• Dogs can deter unwelcome intruders.狗能够阻拦不受欢迎的闯入者。

9 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

10 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

11 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

12 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

13 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。