About 8,000 asylum seekers in Honduras tried to host a reception party for President Joe Biden this month. Their effort to reach the southern border of the United States in at least two caravans was rejected due to agreements that President Trump entered into with Mexico and Guatemala to use force to intercept illegal aliens. But Central America remains a hotbed of future migrants desperate to work in the US
Mr Biden must come up with his own strategy. More frontier resources for processing applicants could help. But without new incentives for migrants to abide by the law, the United States will remain heavily dependent on militarizing immigration policy in Guatemala and Mexico to contain the inevitable flows of illegal aliens.
Hondurans seem to have logically concluded that with the Democrats in power, Trump-era asylum restrictions were certainly removed. However, on January 17, NBC News reported that a senior transition official Biden said his message to migrants was that “this is not the time to travel.” The same official also said that “they must understand that they will not be able to come to the United States immediately”.
Nice words of warning did nothing to discourage migrants who had left on 15 January. Until January 18, they were engaged in violent clashes with the Guatemalan National Guard and the national police. Mothers in tears sat on the ground holding their children while the young people blocked the roads, threw stones and tried to get away from the police.
Previous reports say thousands have been returned. My sources say that the rest have split 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 – had agreed to continue working to “reduce the flow” of illegal aliens from Central America to Mexico. If they reach the US border, the Biden administration has warned that the priority of processing will return to those already waiting in line for asylum.