United States immigration officials have launched a media campaign in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where poverty and violence has caused a wave of migration to the US over the past year. <br /><br />Many of those crossing the border illegally are unaccompanied children, over 50,000 since October according to official figures.<br /><br />US president Barack Obama called a meeting with the leaders of the three Central American nations on Friday and urged them to strike at the root causes what he called a humanitarian crisis on the border between the US and Mexico. <br /><br />“We have seen a tremendous spike in activity over the last few months that we’ve been out here. We launched our boats in early June, we launched two boats and we’ve been operating 24/7 since then. We’ve seen a definite increase in activity, said Lieutenant Charlie Goble from the Texas Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol and Tactical Marine Unit.<br /><br />Officials in the border state of Texas say are up against a very sophisticated network of smugglers.<br /><br />The US administration has been asking Congress for more resources and authority to halt the flow of migrants across the border.
