Kamala Harris to Lead America's Response to Curb Migration
President Joe Biden appointed Vice President Harris on Wednesday, March 24, as the person in charge of directing the actions of the United States Government in the face of the increase in the migratory flow to the country. This task involves building diplomatic bridges with Mexico and the countries of the Northern Triangle, at a time when in the United States there are more than 14,000 minors who crossed the southern border alone and are in temporary shelters.
Joe Biden continues to strengthen his diplomatic team to address the surge in migrants trying to enter the country. A week after he appointed Roberta Jacobson as the Southwest Border Coordinator, he now appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the White House effort on that matter.
The US president is replicating the same model that Barack Obama used when he was president. At the time, Obama delegated then-Vice President Joe Biden as the leader of the Oval House effort to reduce US troops in the war in Iraq.
And just like that figure, this time President Biden gives Kamala Harris all the leeway to curb migration. "When she speaks, she will speak for me and she doesn't have to check with me first," Biden said.
But her decisions will not depend solely on her. On the other side are Mexico and the countries of the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras). One of Harris's tasks will be precisely to strengthen collaboration with those countries so that these governments control their own borders.
This task is linked to the main objective that Harris will have as head of migration for the White House: to stop the irregular arrival of migrants to the United States. To achieve this, it must strengthen the programs with which the Central American governments and the Mexican Administration can process asylum requests from their countries of origin.
This is why Biden recognized that he will need the help of those countries, also for them to try to control the reasons that force thousands of people to leave their places of origin. "The best way to prevent people from coming is to prevent them from wanting to leave," said the US president. He later mentioned gang violence, drug cartels, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes as factors driving migration.
Another of Harris's measures will be to tighten the US border with Mexico. That is why the vice president indicated that the job "will not be easy, but it is an important job" and she added that it is a job that Americans demand. That last mention refers to the political pressure that the White House has for handling migration.
Political tension in the United States due to increased migration
Since they assumed the executive power of the country, Biden and Harris have focused on changing the immigration policies of their predecessor Donald Trump and began the modifications with three fundamental changes: they paused for 100 days the deportations of some migrants who had no documents; they reversed the ‘Stay in Mexico’ program with which all migrants were deported while they waited for their first court hearing in the United States; and, lastly, they allowed unaccompanied minors to stay in the United States while their legal situation was resolved.
Although Biden has made it clear that migrants should not cross the border, migration has skyrocketed in recent weeks.
In February, authorities detained more than 100,000 people who tried to cross the border between Mexico and the United States in an irregular manner. That figure had not been seen for more than a year and made Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of National Security, warn that the situation was on its way to becoming the largest wave of migrants the country has seen in 20 years.
The drama is particularly experienced by minors who cross the border alone and are detained. By law, the Immigration Police can only hold them for three days and then must send them to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The task of this entity is to find a relative living in the United States or a temporary home, where they will be while the judge decides their legal status.
The problem is that migration also skyrocketed among unaccompanied minors and now there are so many that there is not enough shelter for everyone. Currently, at least 9,500 children are in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services and another 4,500 are in the hands of the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English).
There are so many unaccompanied minors that, less than two weeks ago, Mayorkas asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to also set up some of its shelters for the children to stay. there temporarily.
Faced with this situation, several Republicans traveled to the southern border and, since then, have lined up against the Biden government. For example, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy visited one of the centers where unaccompanied minors are sleeping and told the press that "hundreds" of them were "crammed into large open rooms."
While Republicans speak of a "migration crisis", the White House refuses to call it that and only refers to a "problem at the border." But regardless of what each party calls it, the border situation prompted Biden to create a government team to promptly address migration. And it is that effort that Vice President Harris will lead.
Will Vice President Harris travel to Mexico and the Northern Triangle?
One of the first tasks that Harris carried out after being named as the leader of the United States strategy for migration was to speak by phone with the high-level delegation that the White House sent to Mexico last Tuesday to speak with the Andrés government. Manuel López Obrador.
That team was led, on the one hand, by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, and on the other, by the coordinator of the southern border of the White House, Roberta Jacobson. They reached an agreement that migration from one country to another is "orderly, safe and regular."
However, it was not disclosed what Harris discussed with the US delegation.
What is known is what the vice president said to the 'CBS' network. In an interview, Harris promised to travel to the Mexican border, although she did not specify when. One of the officials who works with the vice president told EFE news agency that the new delegate has not yet planned to travel to Central America.
