In recent weeks, the vice president's defenders have been keen to point out that Kamala Harris was never a “border czar” and was never in charge of securing America's wide-open southern border. Instead, they argue, she was only responsible for addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America.
Even if that's true, the vice president's supporters shouldn't be so enthusiastic about bragging about it.
In 2021, the Biden administration launched “Root Causes.” strategyThe 2019 Initiative was a grand initiative led by Vice President Kamala Harris aimed at addressing the challenge of mass migration through US development assistance to Central America, but three years and $3 billion later, there's been little impact from Harris's efforts on the root causes.
USAID cites dubious and unfalsifiable metrics as evidence of the success of its “root causes” strategy, obfuscating its modest impact and saying its assistance has “helped create or preserve more than 70,000 jobs in North and Central America” since 2021. HearingUSAID officials touted the increase in H-1B visas for Central Americans as the root causes strategy's biggest success.
In reality, the Biden Administration’s 2021 plan was nothing new, but a simple repackaging of failed development strategies used for decades, with a focus on liberal wish-list priorities. Controversial aid programs for climate change, social movements, gender ideology, labor unions, and local journalism were added to a set of priorities that were laudable but ultimately unrelated to the challenge of mass migration, including gender-based violence, labor rights, and corruption.
This controversial liberal movement, especially around gender ideology, has not only failed to solve the migration crisis, but has actually worsened US relations in the region. Repulsion She continues to be at odds with socially conservative leaders and citizens in Central America. But even without her progressive shortcomings, VP Harris' plan to address the “root causes” of the migration crisis was shaky from the start.
Consider, for example, the ineffectiveness of economic development as a solution to the migration crisis. Mexico has benefited from deep trade integration with the United States for decades, GDP per capita is more than twice that of Guatemala And almost Three times the size of HondurasYet Mexican nationals remain the largest group of new illegal immigrants entering the U.S. Even if Vice President Harris is able to significantly boost Central American economies, the lesson from Mexico is that illegal immigration will continue.
Another folly of VP Harris' “root causes” strategy is that it fails to address the reality of hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Arriving in Latin America from Asia and From Africa before coming to AmericaShould we also consider dramatically increasing aid to these regions to address the root causes? No. Doing so would waste billions more and potentially produce even worse outcomes.
When it comes to combating illegal immigration, there is no option but a secure border, and the first thing the next administration should do is stop outsourcing the problem to the development industry and the Mexican military and take control of the US border itself.
Moreover, the next administration should fundamentally rethink its development assistance strategy to Latin America to ensure its effectiveness and to align it with important U.S. economic and national security interests. Important Advances We are making progress toward this goal by focusing on increasing inter-hemispheric trade and investment rather than pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into failing social programs, but much more remains to be done.
Parliaments can also play a fundamental role towards this goal by demanding accountability for aid funding and ensuring that development funds are not hijacked by controversial social movements.
What won't work is another four years of VP Harris' “root causes” strategy, which is poorly conceived and predictably bad. Instead of boasting about it, the US should learn from its mistakes and develop a strategy that tackles the migration crisis head on and puts Central America on a sustainable path.
Andrés Martínez Fernández is a senior policy analyst at the Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is mentioned for identification purposes only. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the organizational position of the Heritage Foundation or its Board of Trustees.
