2024-02-28 23:10:56
The United States seeks to contain migratory pressure on its border with Mexico at all costs. The president, Joe Biden, plans to travel this Thursday to Brownsville (Texas) the same day that his probable rival in the November presidential elections, Donald Trump, goes to another point on the border, Eagle Pass, also in Texas. This Wednesday it was the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who acted as host of a trilateral ministerial meeting on migration with Guatemala and Mexico in which the three countries agreed to strengthen migration cooperation.
The three countries “commit to establishing a trilateral working group focused on operational issues that will work to improve security, law enforcement, processes and infrastructure along their international borders,” they said in a joint statement. . “Law enforcement authorities in the three countries will collaborate to identify security deficiencies, exchange information and develop coordinated operational plans,” the statement also says, adding that “this effort will build on and expand existing partnerships to address to shared challenges” on their borders.
The debate has focused on actions to strengthen the human management of migration, joint collaboration to address the root causes of irregular migration and displacement, and ways to expand legal avenues in the Western Hemisphere, as anticipated by the Department of State.
Blinken has been accompanied by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and other American officials from different departments. He has received the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, and the Foreign Minister of Guatemala, Carlos Martínez, in Washington.
During the meeting, Foreign Minister Martínez announced that Guatemala will soon host the next ministerial meeting of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection.
According to the joint statement, the three delegations agreed on the urgency of addressing the root causes of irregular migration and displacement. To this end, they debated the importance of promoting investments in Guatemala that develop infrastructure and expand access to health, education, electricity and housing. Participants also emphasized the need to foster economic productivity, boost supply chains between the three countries and create jobs in the region.
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The three countries committed to expanding access to labor mobility avenues as a strategic response to migration challenges in the region. The delegations also discussed the fight once morest human trafficking and the importance of trafficking prevention programs. “Participants committed to redoubling joint law enforcement efforts, including by improving information sharing and working collectively to investigate and prosecute human trafficking and migrant smuggling networks,” it says. the note.
The United States and Mexico have already had another meeting this year in which issues such as standardizing migration figures, combating human smuggling networks and a plan to address the arrival of immigrants through the dangerous Pass have been established as goals. of Darien in Panama.
United States immigration policy has tried under the Joe Biden Administration to address the root causes of migration, create legal routes for migrants to the United States and toughen the law for those who break the rules, but that mix has not worked and is They have broken records for irregular arrivals of immigrants to the country.
Biden has tried to relieve the border by authorizing permits for migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba. The United States Government has also set up offices in Colombia, Guatemala and Costa Rica, where those interested in starting the trip to the United States can process their applications.
Arrests for illegal crossings fell by half in January, following record highs in December. In January, in his last meeting with Bárcena, Blinken greeted the “great progress” that was being made and the milestone that the inauguration of social democrat Bernardo Arévalo in Guatemala represented for immigration collaboration. His arrival to power opens up, in Blinken’s opinion, “an important new area of cooperation on migration” between the three countries. “We will continue to collaborate more broadly to develop regional solutions to this historic challenge we face,” he said in January.
Biden himself called the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, earlier this month to talk especially regarding the border. The US president expressed his gratitude for Mexico’s operational support and for the adoption of concrete measures to deter irregular migration. Both reiterated their shared commitment to strengthening our joint efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations involved in the illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons and people, according to the summary of the call released by the White House.
Immigration has displaced the economy as the star issue of the political confrontation between Republicans and Democrats. This Thursday, Biden is the protagonist of his second visit to the border as president, following the visit to El Paso in January of last year. The White House announced the trip this Monday following publishing information regarding Trump’s visit to Eagle Pass this Thursday.
Trump’s pressures have derailed a bill that included aid to Ukraine and Israel, but also reforms to curb illegal immigration on the border with Mexico. The border measures were initially a Republican demand to give the green light to aid to Ukraine and Israel, but when push comes to shove, they have preferred to take a step back and continue using the migratory flow as an electoral weapon.
Biden is analyzing the possibility of approving a decree with some measures to make the passage of immigrants more difficult or facilitate their expulsion. Among the measures being considered by Biden’s team is invoking the powers under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which gives the president broad latitude to block the entry of certain immigrants if necessary. was “detrimental” to the national interest.
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