MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) – Colombia and Central American countries are urging Washington to reconsider building a wall on the US-Mexico border as they have joined hands to forge common migration policies.

Delivering a joint declaration Monday at the end of the group’s discussions, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez called on Washington legislators to eliminate aspects of a sweeping US immigration policy reform that are “not appropriate”.

Top officials from Colombia, Central America and the Dominican Republic met in Mexico after the US House of Representatives voted in December to wall up more than a third of the 3,200-kilometre (2,000 mile) border with Mexico.

The measure has not yet been passed by the US Senate.

“The Sensenbrenner law must by analysed very carefully,” Derbez said, adding that migrant safety and the integration of migrant communities must be incorporated into any overhaul of US immigration policy.

“We will spare no efforts to defend our fellow citizens” in the United States, Derbez said.

Officials said they had agreed to develop a “flexible common posture” on migration and that other countries in the region – no doubt a reference to Washington – were welcome to join the effort.

“We are creating migration policies between origin countries, transit countries and destination countries,” said Mario Fortin, foreign minister of Honduras.

The countries taking part in the meetings are both sources of thousands of migrants hoping to enter the United States, and key transit countries for the migrants.

The US House voted in December to erect a wall along roughly one-third of the US border with Mexico, in a bid to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants. A wall already exists along short portions of the border.

The amendment to a broader bill on illegal immigration policy “mandates the construction of specific security fencing, including lights and cameras, along the Southwest border for the purposes of gaining operational control of the border,” a text of the measure said.