According to the Guatemalan Institute for Migration, in the last six days, some 3,661 Hondurans, including 510 minors, have been forced to return to their country.
Biden administration takes action on migrant rights, but much more is needed
In response to this first caravan of migrants and refugees, a representative of the new Biden administration told NBC news, "The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight," and discouraged refugees from heading to the US at the moment.
Since the pandemic was declared, the US administration has used it as an excuse to close the land border to all refugees and migrants, denying their human right to seek asylum. Until recently, people - mostly tourists, businesspeople, or locals - from some countries have been free to enter by plane.
On becoming president this week, however, Biden immediately issued various executive orders, including ending the national emergency that Trump declared in February 2018 to divert billions of dollars from defense to wall construction. He also ordered his cabinet to work on preserving the DACA program, and is revoking one of Trump’s first executive orders, which declared that all of the 11 million people in the country without documents were priorities for deportation.
The Engel list and US aid: helping or hindering Central America?
Biden also introduced the US Citizenship Act of 2021, which includes promising aid to Central America. The US$4 billion will go to private investment in the region, as well as programs supposedly aimed at security and combating corruption, with the stated aim of addressing the issues that cause people from Central America to migrate.
However, it doesn’t address the role the Democratic Party of the US had in supporting a coup in 2009 in Honduras, which helped bring to power the sort of people currently governing the country. US aid is frequently used as a method of influence and control in Latin America and the details of who, exactly, the funding goes to, will have to be examined.
At the same time, in December the US congress passed the U.S. – Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act (H.R. 2615). The law will be presented by Biden to congress and he is expected to sign it. It also allegedly aims to “help” Central America combat corruption and other fundamental problems by requiring the president to publish a list of people from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador who “are engaged in significant corruption and the undermining of democratic institutions and ensure that they are denied entry into the United States.”
|
