US border: ‘We need to look at the complexity of migration’

We need to look at the complex set of issues that are pushing people out of Central American countries as well as the pull factors attracting people towards the United States, the former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Elizabeth Neumann, has said.

Every administration dating back to George W Bush has looked at the southern border as a security challenge as well as a humanitarian challenge, she told BBC World News.

“We need Congress to act," Ms Neumann said. "Congress has taken up an approach to immigration reform three separate times in the last 15 years and always failed," she added.

More than a 100,000 migrants were stopped by officials at the US-Mexico border last month, including thousands of unaccompanied children.