The US Will Investment More to Decrease Migration Levels

The US government announced that it will allocate more investment to Mexico and Central American countries with the aim of reducing the flow of migrants and improving the treatment they receive. Additionally, the US and Mexican authorities are working to further reduce the arrival of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

This week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US government will invest US$200 million to further address migration issues in the region. The new investment will be used for humanitarian aid work, especially to protect refugees and asylum seekers. In total, the US government has allocated US$594 million to the region in the last four years.

In addition, US President Joe Biden recently announced that the country's migration efforts will be focused on reducing the arrival of migrants coming from what the president sees as dictatorships such as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. However, Biden assured that he will seek to create alternatives for deportation together with the Mexican government, since it would be inhumane to send the migrants back to their place of origin, where they would likely face persecution.

The humanitarian crisis on the US-Mexico border has worsened because the arrival of migrants continues to increase significantly. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that in 2021, detentions at the border exceeded 2 million for the first time, a 24 percent increase compared to 2020.

So far in 2022, the arrival of migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba has increased exponentially as well, while the arrival of migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has decreased, CBP reported. “Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere. Our dedicated teams of skilled agents continue to work around the clock to secure our border and safely and humanely process and vet every individual encountered, but those fleeing repressive regimes pose significant challenges for processing and removal,” said Chris Magnus, Commissioner, CBP

Experts believe the migration crisis will not improve in the short term, as the Biden administration recently ended the Remain in Mexico policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until the date of their US hearing.

In addition, Title 42, one of former President Donald Trump's toughest immigration policies, has been held in place despite Biden’s efforts to rescind it. Experts say that this will worsen Mexico’s migration issues. The country has so far received about 80 percent of the 1.5 million returned migrants. Because Mexico does not have the resources to continue receiving so many migrants, experts say that López Obrador’s government must fight for the lifting of Title 42 or negotiate that the US allocates more resources to Mexico’s migration units, reported El Economista.