Biden sends envoys to seek help to stem migrant flow

US President Biden speaks to members of the press on the South Lawn upon returning to the White House after a trip to Camp David.

US President Joe Biden has said that he plans to visit the border with Mexico “at some point”, and that his administration is working to ensure that potential migrants applied for asylum in their home countries.Biden, who took office on January 20, has faced criticism from Republicans for reversing some of the hardline policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, which they argue has led to increased numbers of migrants arriving at the border.His administration is wrestling with a growing humanitarian crisis at the border, where the spike in the number of migrants fleeing violence, natural disasters and economic hardship in Central America is testing the Democratic president’s commitment to a more humane immigration policy.Biden addressed the issue as he returned to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat and said he would visit the border region at some point, although he gave no specific timetable.Asked what more could be done to convince migrant families to stop coming across the border, Biden told reporters: “A lot more, we are in the process of doing it now, including making sure we re-establish what existed before – which is they can stay in place and make their case from their home countries.”The US government has also ramped up “more aggressive” messaging to persuade migrants to not to come to the United States.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration has placed 17,118 radio ads in Spanish, Portuguese and six indigenous languages to discourage US-bound migration from Central America and Brazil.She said 589 digital ads have also been placed.US officials are struggling to house and process an increasing number of unaccompanied children, many of whom have been stuck in prison-like border stations for days while they await placement in government-run shelters.Officials now plan to house some migrant families in hotels under a new programme managed by non-profit organisations, Reuters reported on Saturday, in a departure from the use of for-profit detention centres that have been criticised by Democrats and health experts.And yesterday the US president dispatched envoys, including White House border co-ordinator Roberta Jacobson, to the two countries for talks on how to manage the increase in the number of migrants heading for the US-Mexican border.When asked if the US delegation would seek support from local officials, Psaki told a news briefing yesterday: “Absolutely, part of our objective as Roberta Jacobson ... conveyed when she was in here just a few weeks ago, was that we need to work in partnership with these countries to address the root causes in their countries to convey clearly and systematically that this is not the time to travel.”Jacobson was joined by Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, and Honduran-born diplomat Ricardo Zuniga, just appointed by the State Department as the Northern Triangle special envoy.Gonzalez will continue to Guatemala to meet Guatemalan officials, as well as representatives from civil society and non-governmental organisations.White House spokeswoman Emily Horne said Jacobson’s goal in Mexico is developing “an effective and humane plan of action to manage migration”.The visit was also announced by Mexico’s foreign ministry, which said the talks would take place today.Gonzalez’s aim in Guatemala is to “address root causes of migration in the region and build a more hopeful future in the region”, Horne said.Biden has resisted calling the border drama a crisis despite Republicans’ insistence that it fits the description.“Children presenting at our border, who are fleeing violence, who are fleeing prosecution, who are fleeing terrible situations, is not a crisis,” Psaki told reporters.Mexico has beefed up law enforcement at its southern border to stem a sharp increase in migrants entering the country to head for the US.“The main issue to discuss will be co-operation for development in Central America and the south of Mexico, as well as the joint efforts for safe, orderly and regular migration,” Roberto Velasco, the top official at the Mexican foreign ministry for North America, said on Twitter.Representatives of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean will also attend, Velasco said.On Sunday Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the administration’s message to would-be border-crossers was simple: “Now is not the time to come. Do not come. The journey is dangerous.”“We are building safe, orderly and humane ways to address the needs of vulnerable children,” he said on ABC’s This Week.Mayorkas, appearing on three television networks, insisted that the administration was doing everything it could to address the migrant influx, but said the task was complicated by policies inherited from Trump’s administration and by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.“We have a plan. We are executing on our plan and we will succeed,” the Havana-born Mayorkas said on ABC. “But one thing is also clear, that it takes time.”Mayorkas repeatedly placed blame on Biden’s predecessor Trump, who imposed an array of anti-immigration policies.“The entire system ... was dismantled in its entirety by the prior administration” and had to be rebuilt, he said.Republicans have flatly rejected that analysis, with Michael McCaul, a Texas lawmaker, calling Mayorkas’s comments “very irresponsible”.“They’ve created the crisis. He says he has a plan. I haven’t seen a plan,” he said, also on ABC.