Kamala Harris came to solve the problems in Central America. But the problem is much bigger now.
Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, said: “They have a great strategy laid out for Central America, but the flow has changed. They’ve gone beyond the Northern Triangle.
The State Department also sponsors Creole and Spanish-language digital ads aimed at Haitian migrants to inform them about U.S. immigration and border policies, a spokesperson told The Washington Post. CNN.
The administration is also trying to balance maintaining partners in the region and doubling enforcement at the US-Mexico border to stem irregular migration. It’s a difficult balance that has, at times, created tension.
A senior Guatemalan official told CNN: “It doesn’t correlate with a more rhetorical, humane approach to migration when they send the deportees to a very remote area in the middle of the jungle. , where there is no infrastructure to receive them”.
Guatemalan officials addressed the matter with Harris’s office and others in the administration in August, the official said. While it is unclear whether the vice president will intervene, the Department of Homeland Security is currently sending direct flights to Guatemala City.
Arousing hope at home
The authorities have gradually infiltrated those fronts. Over the past 90 days, internet access has been established in an indigenous community of more than 4,000 people in Honduras, according to Jonathan Fantini Porter, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Central American Partnership. Fantini Porter also recently tasted the first Honduran-sourced Nespresso cup when the company entered there.
The idea, explains Fantini Porter, is to develop a system that responds to the different needs of an individual or family, so that they tend to stay at home instead of emigrating. For example, if it is a farmer, that might include providing resources and tools to ensure they prosper by having buyers and access to banks.
Other private investments include Microsoft’s plan to expand Internet access to 3 million people in the region by July 2022 as well as the development of community centers to help teach internet skills and skills Digital for women and young people. And Mastercard hopes to help 5 million people in the region access banking services and help bring 1 million micro and small businesses into the digital banking system. Fantini Porter said the Central American Partnership also intends to increase and stabilize the income of 250,000 celebrities and support 1.5 million families.
Experts say such actions are important for improving conditions on the ground over time, and say addressing migration across the hemisphere will require additional partnerships in the region. , a view also acknowledged by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We face a challenge that is in many ways unique with tremendous pressure from flows of illegal migrants arriving in different ways,” Blinken told a news conference in Mexico this month. , different regions of the hemisphere”. “We must take a stronger regional approach to this challenge.”
Authorities in South America have been tracking the increased movement of migrants in the region for months. Many fleeing migrants worked in informal jobs before the pandemic and are particularly vulnerable to extreme poverty due to the tight economy last year.
Although authorities deport more than 7,000 Haitians to Haiti, the flow of migrants through Panama – one of the transit countries as people move north – has not slowed, according to the Panamanian foreign minister’s office. Panama’s foreign minister’s office.
Harris and her team have been coordinating with the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which engage with other regional partners, such as Panama, senior administration officials told CNN.
“Conversations with Panama are broader and fall into what we consider the category of migration management,” said one of the senior administration officials. “Even though we’re very coordinated, we don’t have those conversations but other people in the White House do.”
However, Harris’ focus remains on the Northern Triangle.
Matt Rooney, executive director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, argues that achieving sustainability requires some degree of government support. and member of the Central American Partnership working group. And that could be complicated by systemic problems plaguing Central American governments.
“You have to ask yourself in that case: Why aren’t there more? And why are there companies in the United States that do business in industries where you can do business in Central America, why don’t they do business in Central America, why don’t they do business in Central America?” Central America?” said Rooney. “The answer to that question is that there are glitches in the investment climate.”
Listed in the administration’s root cause strategy is promoting an “environment conducive to business” by implementing reforms. Senior administration officials acknowledge that tackling corruption and creating change in governments is a challenge but reiterate that for countries to thrive, infrastructure needs to be in place to enable it. conditions that promote economic growth.
“There will be ups and downs along the way,” a senior administration official told CNN. “Really, the only long-term solution to the patterns of regional migration that we see in those three countries in particular is to enable people to have hope back home.”
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