The growing crisis of the immigrant children crossing the U.S. borders has gotten both national and international interest, but now the Central American countries from which the children are fleeing from appear to be getting involved as well.

Over a week ago, Central American leaders from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala met with President Barack Obama and toured the facilities where the immigrant children were housed. Some critics are calling it an apology tour by Central America, while others feel that the children should be given more humanitarian support.

The Central American leaders of the Northern Triangle Nations, Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala and Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador got a first hand look at the immigrant children crisis. And some critics suggest that these leaders received a message: Help the U.S. by lessening the deluge of children crossing the borders illegally, and in turn, the U.S. could help the aforementioned countries with their security and development problems, Michael Shifter wrote in Politico.

Shifter is the president of the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD). The Inter-American Dialogue is a think-tank, and it is a U.S.-based center that carries out policy analysis, exchange and communication on issues in Western Hemisphere affairs. The dialogue brings together both public and private leaders from around the Americas to address problems and view opportunities for different hemispheres, from the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The near $4 billion that Obama has asked Congress for in order to rectify the current immigrant children crisis, only $300 million will be allocated to the affected Central American countries. Two of the Central American leaders feel that the U.S. has to take some of the blame for their criminal and economic crisis which has caused the children to flee. Honduras' Hernandez and Guatemala's Pérez Molina argue that the drug trade and drug consumption by the U.S. has driven the violence in their countries, along with their endemic poverty and corruption that stems from this drug usage, Politico reported.

At the moment, all three Central American countries have the highest homicide rates globally with Honduras leading the way. Pérez Molina has tried a different approach to stemming the drug trade, he has considered legalization of certain drugs, but few countries in that region are interested in that idea, Politico reported.

To blame the U.S. for these countries' economic problems is perhaps myopic, and blaming each other does not solve the problem either but creates obstacles instead. The current obstacle is that the number of unaccompanied youth crossing the U.S. borders has tripled since 2011. This means that more than 52,000 children, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, have been detained at the borders since October 2013, US News reported.

Another part of the obstacle that is affecting the crisis -- both politically and legally -- is the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. According to the act, the law requires that children who are detained from those Central American countries must be allowed a court hearing with an immigration judge. The courts are all backlogged, and this leads to waiting times that could last years, US News reported. As a result, children are released to their families or foster care until they are granted a court date.

At the moment, the Obama administration has estimated that at least 90,000 migrant children from Central America will attempt to cross the U.S. border this year. Almost 60,000 of unaccompanied minors have been picked up by law enforcement at the U.S.' southern border since October, Time reported.

The silver lining in all of this is that Americans care about the well-being of the children. According to a poll carried out by the Public Religion Research Institute, approximately 7-in-10 Americans would prefer to see that the unaccompanied migrant children be treated as refugees rather than illegal immigrants, Time reported.

The poll also indicates that only one-quarter of Americans had expressed support for rapid deportation of the migrant children, but 70 percent of those polled preferred that a temporary shelter, along with an option of permanent residency for those children whose safety could be in danger if they returned back to their countries.

At least 80 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans support the option of rapid deportation.

Shifter of the IAD suggests that Salvadorans, Hondurans and Guatemalans in general want their children to rejoin relatives living in the U.S. and that the current immigrants who are already settled in the U.S. also want them to succeed. But the Central American governments seemingly do not have the resources and institutional capacity to help their own native children in an effective way.

The aforementioned countries could seek more development aid and support in trade and energy from the U.S. But they might not get much, Shifter suggests.