Biden to visit Latin America during Netanyahu’s DC speech

Vice President Biden will travel to Central America during the first week of March, the White House said Wednesday, missing an address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

{mosads}Biden will travel to Guatemala to convene a meeting with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras as well as the president of the Inter-American Development Bank to discuss a program designed to address the causes of migration from those countries to the United States.

The “Alliance for Prosperity” program was introduced in November following last summer’s surge of unaccompanied child migrants and families from Central America to America’s southern border. It provides the countries with economic assistance as well as programs designed to fight high levels of crime and strengthen governments.

Though the program was announced around the same time as President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, it deals with slightly different populations. Many of the unaccompanied children were detained by the authorities and placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Biden and his wife will also lead the official delegation to the inauguration of new Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez while on the trip.

The trip will cause Biden to miss Netanyahu’s address to Congress, which has become a topic of partisan conflict in recent weeks.

Netanyahu, who opposes the White House’s eagerness to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, was invited by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) without any consultation with the White House. As president of the Senate, Biden likely would have attended if he had been in Washington, D.C., at the time.