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PRESIDENT CLINTON DISCUSSES IMMIGRATION DURING VISIT TO CENTRAL AMERICA
On March 8 President Clinton became the first U.S. president to visit Central America since the end of the Cold War with the beginning of a four-day trip through Central American countries devastated by Hurricane Mitch last October. The highlight of his trip was to be the presentation of a plan to prevent mass migration from the region in the storm’s aftermath. A cornerstone of the plan is the granting of $ 650 million in new emergency aid. However, as he made his way through the region, other difficult issues continued to arise. 
On the first day of the President’s trip, the period of Temporary Protected Status granted to nationals of El Salvador and Guatemala expired. There are at least 3,000 people from the two countries who are now immediately deportable. Clinton and the INS maintain that the countries are now able to handle the returning citizens, but their governments disagree. The President also, while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, questioned whether there was anything he could legally do to stop the deportations. 
On the final day of the trip a summit was held, attended by Clinton and the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize, and the Dominican Republic. At the meeting, held in Antigua, Guatemala, once the capitol of all Central America, the leaders issued a joint communique pledging intra-American cooperative efforts to improve protection of human rights, deal more effectively with problems of crime and drugs, and to protect the environment. The communique also stressed the need for debt relief and financial aid for the region, without which its continued economic development, already severely harmed by the hurricane, will not be sustained. 
President Clinton also promised to work to change the current interpretation of the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act of 1997, under which Nicaraguans receive more favorable treatment than nationals of other Central American countries. Clinton reaffirmed his "intention to support our immigration laws fairly and justly," but also said he would "work strongly for the elimination of any disparities in our law so that they treat Central Americans equitable, whatever their country of origin."