IMMIGRATIONWhite House Says Plans to Address Causes of Migration Show Results
The White House’s strategy for curbing migration to the United States from Central America zeroes in on job creation, economic investment and support for human rights. Biden administration officials say is showing results, but analysts caution against unrealistic expectations.
The White House’s strategy for curbing migration to the United States from Central America zeroes in on job creation, economic investment and support for human rights. Biden administration officials say is showing results, but analysts caution against unrealistic expectations.
A sharp increase of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border presented a political crisis for President Joe Biden at the beginning of his administration. He asked Vice President Kamala Harris to spearhead a “root causes” strategy, banking heavily on using American investments to improve living conditions in three Central American nations known as the Northern Triangle: Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Specialists in migration say reducing irregular migration through investments will take decades.
“And I think this administration knows [that],” said Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
“The problem is in the public sphere,” he said, explaining that the public expects to see real-time results in one or two years, “and that just simply is not the case economically, even if we had the investment capacity to do so.”
Ruiz Soto says the success of this strategy depends on more than what the White House is doing. It needs governments in the region that are committed to significant improvements.
“For example, if Microsoft wanted to set up a hub in Guatemala, they would need not only to include money to build the building, to hire workers, provide training, but also a counterpart allocation from the Guatemalan government to build the roads, to have the infrastructure for the electricity, to have broadband internet,” he said.
That it is not something that can be accomplished in just a few years, Ruiz Soto said.
Not New
The strategy is not new. Under former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, there was a U.S. strategy for engagement in Central America that focused on pillars similar to the five in the Biden administration strategy.
“The difference is that they are prioritizing different things, but investing in Central America with the efforts to reduce irregular migration is not new,” Ruiz Soto said.
In March, the White House published an updated fact sheet showing $5.2 billion in financial commitments from private organizations. The investment, the White House said, is expected to create economic opportunities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
