Vice President Kamala Harris said the United States plans to provide agricultural aid and disaster relief to stem migration.
United States Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to tackle the “root causes” of Central American migration, saying families are leave the area due to widespread hunger.
In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning, Harris said most people don’t want to leave their home countries but have little hope that things will improve amid crises. economic and humanitarian.
“We have to give people some hope that if they stay, help is on the way,” Harris said.
She said the Biden administration plans to step up U.S. aid to farmers and farm programs in Central America, as well as provide emergency aid to help countries still struggling to rebuild after hurricanes devastated the region last fall (fall).
“It’s a complex question. If it had been easy, it would have been handled years ago, ”said Harris.
“There they are extremely hungry and food insecure… If parents and children literally cannot eat – if they cannot have the essential things that each one needs to live – of course they will flee. . And that’s what we see.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tackling the Root Causes of Migration: “We need to give people hope that if they stay, help is on the way.” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/dcOKYcUCX0 pic.twitter.com/pb2PPMxQLt
– State of the Union (@CNNSotu) 25 April 2021
US President Joe Biden – who vowed to take a more humane approach to migration than his predecessor Donald Trump – last month appointed Harris to lead his administration’s effort to stem an increase in arrivals at the US-Mexico border
US border authorities apprehended more than 172,000 migrants and asylum seekers at the country’s southern border with Mexico in March – a 71% increase from the previous month.
At least half of these people were deported under a public health measure from the Trump era which effectively sealed the border to migrants due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Migration advocates in the United States have called on Biden to overturn the policy, known as Title 42, amid a rising violence and threats against asylum seekers in Mexico.
Harris is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other Mexican government officials practically on May 7.
She is also expected to travel to Mexico and Guatemala to discuss migration, but no date has been given for this visit.
“We’re working on the plan to make it happen,” Harris said in the CNN interview on Sunday. “I can’t get there soon enough.”
Lopez Obrador this month mentionned he planned to propose to the Biden administration to expand a key Mexican agricultural program to Central America in an effort to stem migration.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said U.S. and Mexican officials would discuss expanding the program – known as Sembrando Vida – during the May 7 meeting with Harris.
“It will be a productive and cordial conversation,” Ebrard tweeted the Saturday.
