The newly proposed U.S. immigration bill, if passed, would not halt immigration, but make the trip to the United States more dangerous for Central Americans who wanted to seek better opportunities there, leaders of the National Association of Latin American and Caribbean Countries said in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

The current legislative project, now under discussion in the U.S. Senate, would add to the already large death toll of migrants heading for the United States, according to reports from Tegucigalpa.

More than 25,000 Central American migrants have died or have been reported as still missing en route to the United States over the last three years.

Under the bill debated in the U.S. Senate, undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States more than five years will be able to apply for U.S. citizenship, while those who have been there between two and five years will be required to return home and then come back as legal workers. But those who have been there less than two years will be required to leave without any assurance of returning to America, and will have to join others seeking entry papers.

The legislative project also includes plans to beef up border controls and extend the existing barrier along a large part of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Source: Xinhua