Solís described the aid from the U.S. government as “the biggest assistance granted in the last 30 years” and a reflection of the good relations between the two countries.
President Luis Guillermo Solís will meet Monday with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden in Washington D.C. to talk about security, migration and green energy.
Judicial and immigration officials in Costa Rica on Tuesday arrested two men suspected of forming part of a criminal group responsible for smuggling migrants across the Americas on their way to the U.S.
Foreign Minister Manuel González said illegal immigration requires “structural solutions," including a change in U.S. immigration policy that incentivizes Cuban immigration.
A recent report details nearly 30 cases where unaccompanied Central American child migrants in the U.S. had been trafficked after federal officials released them to sponsors or where there were "serious trafficking indicators."
Cuban migrants will be flown to El Salvador on charter flights and then bussed to Mexico -- all at their own expense. From there, they must find their own transportation to the U.S. border.
The announcement recalled the sanctuary movement of the 1980s that provided safe haven to several thousand people fleeing civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, with churches in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities sometimes filled with people seeking asylum in the United States.
Central America's so-called Northern Triangle -- Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras -- recorded a total of 17,422 murders in 2015, 11 percent higher than for 2014, according to preliminary police tallies.
