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Vice President Kamala Harris told the President of Guatemala on Monday that tackling migration was a top priority for both countries, as she made her first visit to the region – and the President of Guatemala blamed the States – United for the influx of migrants at the border.
“And so I am in Guatemala today to discuss and advance our common priorities,” Harris told President Alejandro Giammattei after arriving in Guatemala. “The most important of these, as you mentioned, is the migration from this particular region.”
HARRIS STAFF SAY CLIMATE AND ECONOMY AMONG MAIN DRIVERS OF MIGRATION AFTER GUATEMALA PRESIDENT BLAME US
June 7, 2021: Vice President Kamala Harris, left, meets with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei at the National Palace in Guatemala City. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)
Harris was appointed 75 days ago by President Biden to lead US diplomatic talks to resolve the wave of migration to the US border, with a focus on what the administration sees as the “root causes” of the crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants flooding the border since President Biden took office.
More than 178,000 migrants were met at the border in April alone, with authorities estimating thousands more escaped officers. The Biden administration has struggled to open facilities to house migrants, including the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children who have reached the border.
While critics have blamed the Biden administrations for the dramatic rollback of Trump-era border policies like Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs) and asylum deals with countries like Guatemala, the administration has backed down. focused on root causes like violence, poverty and corruption in Central America.
HARRIS TO MAKE ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORTS BEFORE AND VISITOR CENTER IN GUATEMALA, MEXICO
“I am thinking of corruption, violence and poverty, lack of economic opportunities, lack of climate adaptation and resilience, lack of good governance,” Harris said last month.
Harris, now on a two-day trip to the region which will also see her visit Mexico on Tuesday, said her visit “reflects the priorities the president and I have placed on this region of our world.”
“We are neighbors and the position of the United States is that then we are interconnected, we share family ties, we share historical ties, and it is important that as we enter a new era we recognize the importance and the importance of that relationship as neighbors, ”she said Monday.
She said the two countries must work to improve the situation in Guatemala, whose residents she said do not want to leave but feel compelled to do so, and called for “tangible results” to convince people to leave. have hope for their future.
But Giammattei, in an interview broadcast the day before, had objected to the “root cause” explanation, and said the two “are not on the same side of the coin” on the issue.
Instead, he blamed what he saw as a more welcoming message to migrants by the new administration for the increase.
“The message also changed: ‘We are going to reunite the families, we were going to reunite the children,” he told CBS News. “The very next day the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States.
“We have asked the United States government to send a clearer message to prevent more people from leaving,” he said.
HARRIS TO MAKE ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFORTS BEFORE AND VISITOR CENTER IN GUATEMALA, MEXICO
June 7, 2021: Vice President Kamala Harris, left, meets with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, at the National Palace in Guatemala City. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)
His apparent criticisms of the administration were echoed by Republicans in the United States, who emphasized the role of administration policies – such as ending the construction of border walls, tightening the application inside and the liberation of families inside – in the crisis at the border. .
In particular, Republicans have repeatedly criticized Harris for not visiting the border. The White House has said its role is not the border per se, but high-level talks in the region – but critics have said a visit to the border is important in understanding the problem.
“After 75 days in charge of the Biden border crisis, Kamala Harris still refuses to go to the border.” Republican National Committee’s Hispanic communications director Jaime Florez said Monday. “Instead of directly addressing the human costs of the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies, Kamala is once again ignoring the millions of Americans affected.”
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“The Kamala meetings in Mexico and Guatemala are aimed at blaming the Biden administration, not resolving the crisis it and Biden created,” he said.
Harris will hold a press conference later Monday, before traveling to Mexico where she will meet with Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador. Harris is likely to use the visit to tout the more than $ 300 million the United States has pledged in humanitarian aid to Central America, as part of a $ 4 billion investment project in the region.
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