The head of US diplomacy meets this Wednesday with his counterparts from Mexico and Guatemala in Washington to address irregular migration, the hottest issue in the election year.
The record number of migrants and asylum seekers arriving in the United States has become a headache for Democratic President Joe Biden, whom Republicans accuse of not doing enough to stop migration.
The US border patrol has intercepted migrants in an irregular situation on the border with Mexico more than 2.7 million times since January 2023, of which more than 800,000 were Mexicans and more than 285,000 Guatemalans, according to official data.
Blinken: “No country can face the challenge alone”
At the beginning of the meeting, his head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, stated that “the countries of origin, transit, and destination must work together because no country alone can effectively confront this challenge. This geographical particularity places us as countries that face most phases of the migratory cycle,” agreed Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena.
For this reason, the delegations of the three countries will examine the causes of migration, such as corruption, which Arévalo promised to combat. Bárcena insisted on finding solutions “with a more regional perspective”, because it allows developing “a kind of unique migration model” that can serve “even for other regions of the world.”
“We see migrants as people in labor mobility” who “seek opportunities” and to make it an option “we have to go to the deep causes”, to the root. “How we seek to strengthen regular pathways to labor mobility,” that is, how to ensure that people “find” opportunities, she explained. The Biden government created a series of “legal routes” to enter the United States, such as making an appointment through a mobile phone application (CBP One), completing procedures in the countries through which migrants pass or applying for permits. humanitarian and family reunification.
These avenues include work visas, which are very important for both the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Arévalo. His Foreign Minister, Carlos Ramiro Martínez, described the temporary work as a “clear aid measure.”
Guatemala: “Social debt accumulated over decades”
“Roots, causes, perhaps they are words that we add to a word that summarizes everything that is development, which is what we do not have,” he declared. Guatemala has a “social debt accumulated over decades” and even if an effort is made over the next four years “it will not correct this scenario, but rather lay the foundations for a new country to be built,” he said.
The Guatemalan minister recognized that the State is obliged “to generate and offer opportunities” so that people “do not emigrate.” On the other hand, “people should have the right to remain in their own countries, but that means that the conditions must exist that actually make staying not only possible, but attractive,” Blinken said.
The meeting is held the day before Biden and Donald Trump, his possible rival in the November elections, travel to the border with Mexico to discuss the immigration crisis.
Elections in Mexico, which demands regularization of millions in the US
Mexico, which holds elections in June, insistently demands the regularization of millions of migrants living in the United States, one of Biden’s campaign promises that never materialized due to Republican opposition.
The latter have made the migration crisis the star issue of their campaign, to the point of conditioning military aid to Ukraine on a tougher policy in that area. Biden gave in and negotiated for months an immigration bill that has not been approved because the lower house of Congress, with a conservative majority, considers it too weak.
And this makes it possible to temporarily prohibit people from requesting asylum when the border with Mexico is collapsed and tightens the standard of interviews in which it is evaluated whether there is a possibility that the person will be persecuted or tortured if they return to their country.
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