SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I think there's a lot to be said to getting the heads of government and heads of state of 34 countries together. They all represent a lot of people who are suffering at the moment a particularly difficult situation as it relates to the economy. And I think -- at least I can say for President Obama, as he has said to you all many times, he gets up every day trying to figure out what he can do to help those people, to create jobs. And I think this weekend was a good opportunity to press on his colleagues on the same topics.

Q One last -- you said "remarkable" for their candor. Why is it remarkable? I mean, I guess what I'm wondering is wouldn't it be expected that a new U.S. President would be greeted that way, would have that kind of candor? Or is it the history of this region maybe that makes that remarkable?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Ben, I actually confess to be saying that it's remarkable because this is the first summit that I've been to with the President. (Laughter.)

Q Glad I asked. (Laughter.)

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You know, as I said, I leave it to you guys to put this -- you all have been to these before. I leave it to you all to put this in the context of the other summits. I did note that it was relatively cooperative. We elucidated for you last night some of the disagreements, and there's going to be disagreements, and disagreements on some very important issues. But it doesn’t mean that you can't disagree without being disagreeable.

Q Would you describe the summit in general as it comes to a close now as a success for the United States?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You know, I would, Jeff. And I think that we had a lot of reporting in the run-up about how there would be this big clash. We didn't see that. Saw a lot of run-up about how there will be a lot of fighting over Cuba. We didn't see that. Because frankly I think the President set a tone in making clear that there are certain things that all the people represented here today hold in common, and it's the one thing -- it's one of the things that Cuba doesn’t have, namely, democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of association.

And so some of the worries that people set up didn't materialize. I think that's because the President came down with a very senior team -- not necessarily represented in this room. (Laughter.) He came down with a very robust agenda on issues that are of intense mutual interest: security, narcotics trafficking and energy and climate. So I think the President wanted to -- as he made clear in his opening statement -- look forward, not look back, not get dragged into these stale debates of the past that marked for him and for many of us social studies projects in high school, but now these are actually people's lives that are in the balance. And I think they had a very workmanlike, work-person-like summit.

Q Speaking of Cuba, was there any discussion today -- can you tell us if there was any discussion today in the SICA meeting?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The word was never uttered in the room.

Q Which word?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Cuba. It didn't come up in the SICA meeting at all.

Q Okay. The other question I have is, any readout of -- anything more than what the State Department put out last night about the Venezuela return -- and U.S. returning ambassadors to their respective posts?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No.

Q You mentioned that immigration was brought up. I was curious if you could expand on that a little bit -- what sort of issues specifically to do with immigration? What were they asking of the President?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Certainly. The issue of immigration is one that is important to the President. He has spoken on a number of occasions of his commitment to moving the debate forward on comprehensive immigration reform, first and foremost, to ensure that we have an immigration system that has a secure border, respects the laws of the United States and also respects our tradition as a nation of immigrants.

Obviously our immigration policy has a significant impact, particularly on the countries of Central America. The conversation was focused on -- and again, we don't read out what other Presidents said -- but they discussed as a general matter their interest that they follow this issue very closely, that it has significant implications for their own economies, in the form of remittances and other economic contacts between the United States and Central America.

It's an issue of central importance to these Presidents and they had a good conversation, where the President was able to lay out what he has laid out on a number of occasions in public about the work that he is doing to ensure that we have a 21st century immigration system in the United States.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thanks, guys.

Q Thank you.

END 10:06 A.M. EDT