To all our passionate Republican voters, the migrant crisis at the southern border has reached unprecedented levels. The numbers of migrant encounters in 2021 skyrocketed, and they continue to outpace the prior year every month of FY23.
Vice President Kamala Harris has been tasked with leading diplomatic talks to tackle the root causes of the crisis, but Republicans have dubbed her the “border czar,” and she has been criticized for not visiting the border and failing to reduce illegal immigration.
However, Harris has been making strides in her approach, which focuses on addressing the “root causes” of the crisis, such as poverty, violence, corruption, and climate change, and she announced this week an additional $1 billion in funding and a new initiative to direct money to Central America. This funding brings the total amount of Harris’ “Call to Action” launched in 2021 to $4.2 billion.
The Call to Action is a public-private partnership that aims to tackle specific goals, such as reform, digital and financial inclusion, food security and climate-smart agriculture, climate adaptation and clean energy, education and workforce development, public health access, strengthening democratic governance, combating corruption, and improving security.
The extra funding is targeted towards achieving these goals and creating new jobs, increasing access to the financial system, and allowing small businesses to thrive.
The new initiative, called “Central America Forward,” will add good governance and labor rights as priorities into the partnership. The program will identify clean energy projects and workforce development programs, and private sector partners are committing to goals to combat corruption and protect labor rights.
These efforts represent a long-term development effort, but Harris claims they are already beginning to see positive trends, linking the effort to a decline in migration from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The administration has been attempting to show that its measures are working, with officials announcing that new border numbers show a sharp drop in migrant encounters in January, with the number of migrants caught by Border Patrol crossing illegally the lowest since February 2021. The administration has linked the drop to a new parole program for 30,000 migrants and expanded Title 42 expulsions for those nationalities.
While Harris has faced criticism from Republicans for her approach, the administration has been attempting to put the blame on Congress for failing to pass an immigration reform bill with extra border funding.
So far, Republicans have balked at the inclusion of a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants included in the White House’s framework.
Ultimately, what we need is a bipartisan solution to fix our broken immigration system. We are a nation of immigrants, but we must ensure that we secure our borders and protect American citizens. Vice President Harris and the administration’s approach to the migrant crisis is a long-term one, but it is a step in the right direction, focusing on addressing the root causes of the problem. We must give it time to develop and see positive results.
In the meantime, Republicans have pledged to investigate the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis now that they have taken control of the House. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the administration’s efforts to address the crisis.