The White House has unveiled its plan to address the root causes of migration, a long-term strategy that involves working with the private sector and foreign governments to bolster Central American countries, but it is expected to do little to stem the immediate surge of migrants arriving at the southern border.
The five-pillar blueprint aims to improve economic prospects in the region, combat corruption, advance labor and human rights, and counter trafficking, gang, and gender-based violence. A second document, a companion to the root causes strategy, outlines its implementation goals. One senior official billed the system as “the first of its kind.”
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In a letter, Vice President Kamala Harris detailed the administration’s plan, writing that “in Central America, the root causes of migration run deep — and migration from the region has a direct impact on the United States.”
“For that reason, our nation must consistently engage with the region to address the hardships that cause people to leave Central America and come to our border.”
The White House views corruption in Central America as a major driver of migration from the region and will use sanctions, among other tools, to press for reform.
The plan builds on principles that have been laid out before but have done little to curb migration, with any effects likely to take place in the long term.
Border crossings reached a 21-year-high in June with more than 188,000 migrants apprehended — 50,000 of whom came from countries outside the Northern Triangle or Mexico, where much of the focus has been.
“The emphasis on root causes is absolutely essential and important. But it’s not going to help the administration manage what’s happening on the border today,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, the managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
In one 24-hour period this week, Border Patrol stopped more than 800 people in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, among them, the single largest group of people apprehended this year.
“This type of systemic change will take time to achieve, and progress will not be linear, which means in shorthand, even if we start working on this now, it’s not going to have a huge impact on migration from the region for quite a while,” Brown told the Washington Examiner.
The plan is also short on details of how the administration aims to reach its goals.
“Exactly what kind of programs are we talking about? Or who are our partners? There’s no timelines. There are no deliverables,” Brown said. “It’s a high-level strategic document, so it’s meant to be a framework that guides overall U.S. engagement on these issues in the region, and that’s fine. But the next step is, ‘OK, we need to see what the implementation looks like. We need to see what specific efforts we’re going to do in light of all of these things.’”
Sequencing details for some short- and medium-term goals to build partnerships, mobilize investment, or promote reforms are helpful, Brown said. But there are other obstacles. For one, Congress will need to weigh in on funding. “They hold the purse strings,” she said.
Lawmakers in both parties have urged Biden to enforce stricter immigration rules and, with facilities overwhelmed, find a way to manage the crisis safely.
In a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner, Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, urged Biden to appoint former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, or someone like him, to a “border czar” role.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, aimed his criticism at Harris, whom the president tasked earlier this year with leading the administration’s focus on root causes.
“The Vice President’s new ‘strategy’ implies she had a strategy to begin with,” Cornyn said in a statement.
Biden in February signed an executive order calling for a strategy to manage the migration surge from the Northern Triangle region. He then put Harris at the helm.
“The root causes piece that the vice president is working on, in some respects, is the long pole in the tent — it certainly is going to be the longest-term effort,” a senior administration official said.
Harris, who met with leaders in Guatemala and Mexico last month, has faced criticism for casting her role as separate from the issues at the border, many of which are politically fraught.
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Speaking to reporters this week, one administration official said the goal was not to halt arrivals altogether.
“We’re not seeking an end to migration,” this person said. “We’re seeking to change the ways in which people migrate, provide an alternative to the criminal smuggling and trafficking rings, and to give people access to opportunity and protection through legal channels, legal pathways.”
