US President Joe Biden asks Congress to spend nearly $987 million on Central America and Haiti in 2023 to maintain “leadership” in the area, according to the budget project published this Monday.
This budget plan covering the period between October 1 and September 30 is sent to Congress, which is the one that controls the coffers of the government. It is therefore subject to amendments for approval by both chambers, in which the Democrats have a narrow majority.
In the section “continuing leadership” in Central America and Haitithe president proposes to specifically invest 986.8 million in those countries “as part of a comprehensive strategy to advance systemic reform while addressing the root causes of the irregular migration“, reports the White House.
This amount is part of your investment plan of 4,000 million over four years for Central Americawhere most of the undocumented immigrants who enter the United States or crowd its border with Mexico in the hope of being able to do so come from.
The president suggests combining the aid with improving border security.
“The budget includes billions of dollars to keep America’s borders secure and enforce our immigration laws,” says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a statement specifying that the amount designated by the president for the DHS amounts to 97.3 billion, out of a total of 5.8 billion.
The funds will be used “to modernize the port and border facilitiesinvest in technology, ensure the safe and humane treatment of migrants in DHS custody, and reduce the backlog of immigration cases.”
The budget funds the hiring of 300 border patrol members and additional “prosecution coordinators” who will allow agents to focus “on their core missions of counterterrorism, law enforcement and security.”
Also included is the allocation of 375 million dollars to apply a new provisional regulation aimed at speeding up the processing of asylum applications and the immediate expulsion “of those not eligible” to obtain it.
The budget project includes 20 million for the Family Reunification Task Force to identify and continue to reunite the thousands of immigrant families who were separated under the zero tolerance policy of the administration of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
On HaitiIn response to “generalized violence,” the president allocates $274.8 million to “support recovery,” improve national police capabilities, combat corruption, and strengthen civil society.
With this investment plan, the american government three objectives are set in the region: “to revitalize the associations that generate economic resilience, democratic stability and citizen security”.
Globally, the fight against autocracies, one of Biden’s favorite topics, would take more than $3.2 billion.
In accordance with the commitments made during the Democracy Summit, With these funds, he wants to “promote democratization, protect universal human rights, strengthen anti-corruption work, and increase programming that builds inclusive, legitimate, and effective governance.”
But eight countries in the Americas were excluded from that conclave held in December: VenezuelaNicaraguan, CubaBolivia, El Salvador, HondurasGuatemala and Haiti.
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