Some 8,000 Honduran asylum seekers tried to organize a kind of welcome party for President Joe Biden this month. His effort to reach the southern border of the United States in at least two caravans has been repelled thanks to President Trump’s agreements with Mexico and Guatemala to use force to intercept illegal foreigners. But Central America remains a hot pot of immigrants desperate to work in the US
Biden now needs to define his own strategy. More resources at the border to process candidates can help. But without new incentives for migrants to follow the law, the United States will remain heavily dependent on the militarization of immigration policy in Guatemala and Mexico to contain the inevitable flows of illegal aliens.
Hondurans seem to have logically concluded that, with Democrats in power again, Trump-era asylum restrictions would certainly be lifted. Still, on January 17, NBC News reported that a senior transition officer from Biden said his message to migrants was that “this is not the time to make the trip”. That same employee also said that they “need to understand that they will not be able to enter the United States right away.”
Good words of warning did not discourage migrants who left on 15 January. On January 18, they were involved in violent clashes with the Guatemalan National Guard and the national police. Teared mothers sat on the floor holding their children while young people blocked roads, threw stones and tried to force the police through.
Front reports say thousands were rejected. My sources say the rest has been divided into smaller groups that continue to move north. The White House said over the weekend that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – known as AMLO – agreed to continue working to “stem the flow” of illegal aliens from Central America in Mexico. If they manage to reach the border with the United States, the Biden government has warned that the priority of processing will go to those who are already waiting in the asylum queue.