Washington, DC – Today the White House released its strategy document to address the root causes of forced migration from Central America. This is a critical component of the Biden Immigration Blueprint.
The following is a statement from Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
The Biden-Harris administration has a plan to stabilize the region and build a modern solution and immigration system that is safe, orderly, and humane.
The vision embodied in the new strategy is a realistic and critical part of the solution: by addressing root causes, forced migration from Central America can be a matter of choice rather than a matter of life and death. This is in the context of a multidimensional regional strategy that combines root cause alleviation with expanded legal pathways from the region, a well-managed border that restores and rebuilds a fair and humane asylum system, and legal and community supports for those going through the asylum system to ensure good decisions and system integrity.
This is a far cry from the Trump and GOP approach, characterized by cruelty, chaos and lawlessness: separating families, caging migrants, sending refugees into danger in Mexico, gutting asylum, and having the audacity to blame immigrants for COVID out of one side of their mouth while politicizing the pandemic and stoking fears over vaccinations and masks with the other side. As a nation, we are better than the GOP’s ugly xenophobia and inability to govern.
The transition from the old system, decimated by Trump, to a new system, articulated in the Blueprint, will be rocky. But they should stay true to their plan and keep working to fix a gutted immigration system so that it aligns with our values and interests.
