“They have had six years of continuous drought in these areas,” said Gass. “They have no food, they have no means of working or earning a living and they are eating the seeds that they would normally keep for planting. And when the seeds run out, they don’t have much more to go on. “
In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic devastated urban and rural communities in the region and made it doubly dangerous to undertake a long journey.
Biden said he would try to resolve the situation by creating shelters and immigration screening facilities in those countries, so that migrants can start seeking asylum in the United States, instead of appearing without warning at the southern border. But he has yet to release a comprehensive immigration plan, leaving observers keen to speculate on what his overall strategy will emphasize.
Last month, at his first press conference as president, Biden said he had asked Vice President Kamala Harris to examine “the fundamental reasons why people leave Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador in the first place”, listing some key factors : “It is because of earthquakes, floods. It is for lack of food. It is because of gang violence. It is because of a number of things. “
But as he implements this plan, Biden faces endemic corruption in many national and local governments, which can make it difficult to deliver aid directly, as he acknowledged.
He recalled the work he started as vice president of Barack Obama, whose administration faced a wave of migrants on the southern border in 2014 and 2015, which was spurred by a confluence of gang violence and natural disasters in the region. “What I was able to do was not give money to the head of state, because many are corrupt, but I was able to say, ‘OK, do you need street lighting to change things? I’m going to put the lighting on, ‘”he said.
Experts pointed out that while the Obama administration took steps to work directly with local governments and establish accountability mechanisms, that approach was still in its infancy when Trump became president and reversed most of the new reform initiatives.