On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden will visit Guatemala to speak with leaders from the country and other Central American countries that thousands of unaccompanied minors are leaving to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

Biden had already planned to visit Latin America to watch the U.S. play Ghana in the World Cup on Monday, as well as visit Colombia and the Dominican Republic, The Associated Press reported. On Sunday, however, senior administration announced Biden's additional stop.

According to AP, Biden will discuss the struggles and dangers faced by undocumented children trying to enter the U.S. The vice president will also let the country's leaders know that minors do not get special treatment and face probable deportation.

"While he's there in Guatemala, he will emphasize that illegal immigration is not safe," an anonymous senior official told AP. "That putting your child in the hands of a criminal smuggling organization is not safe, and he will make clear that recently arriving children are not eligible for [the deferred deportation program] or earned citizenship provisions in current immigration reform legislation."

According to NBC News, Biden plans to meets with Guatemala President Otto Pérez Molina, El Salvador President Salvador Sánchez Cerén and Coordinator General Jorge Ramón Hernández Alcerro, a representative of Honduras.

"The surge of unaccompanied Central American children crossing the U.S.-Mexican border is an issue of great concern to us," the official said. "The children making this long journey are some of the most vulnerable individuals, and many become victims of violent crime and sexual abuse."

According to data from Border Patrol, the number of unaccompanied minors coming from Central America has increased over 1,000 percent recently. Since October 2013, 48,000 children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have been caught at the border, AP reported. Government estimates expect that 60,000 minors, mostly from Central America, will be caught at the border this year, 10 times more than in 2011,

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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