The mid-term elections that took place in the United States on Tuesday raise the question of whether it could have an effect on migration policies towards Central America, specifically in Nicaragua, where thousands flee from the sociopolitical crisis and human rights under the administration of President Daniel Ortega.
The migratory dynamics of Nicaraguans fleeing this Central American country has changed after the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, according to analysts told the Voice of America.
Previously, Nicaraguans chose as their main destination Costa Rica, however, the inflation and scarcity that exists in that nation, has changed the rules.
María Puerta, adjunct professor of political science at Valencia College, based in Orlando, Florida, assures that the final composition of the Senate will be a definitive factor in terms of immigration policies.
And it is that if the Lower House is in the hands of the Republican Party, after the mid-term elections, “it is to be expected that it will exert greater pressure on the government of President Biden, especially in terms of immigration,” he explained.
“What we can anticipate is that there will be a paralysis in terms of immigration reform, the investigations and interpellations of the DHS (United States Department of Homeland Security) will be an integral part of the legislative agenda of the Republican Party, as already their leaders have advanced it,” Puerta told VOA.
The expert anticipated little progress on immigration, but “a central presence in the political debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election.”
For his part, Eric Hershberg, director of the Center for Latin American Studies at American University, rules out that the election results “will have an impact on US foreign policy with respect to Central America, nor on migration trends in the region.”
Hershberg pointed out that the issue was not an element of debate in campaigns of key states, so the results, in the short term, “will not lead to a change in US public policies towards the region, issues such as migration, combat to corruption, human rights, quality of democracy and investments in development cooperation”.
Thousands of Nicaraguans seek the US
During fiscal year 2022, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) registered a record 2.7 million migrant detentions, 164,600 of these Nicaraguans.
The number of detainees is a substantial increase in relation to 2020, which barely totaled 3,164 Nicaraguans detained on the southern US border.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said that migration is due to the sanctions applied by the United States, something that experts contradict and blame state repression.
“Then they are there complaining about the immigrants, well, keep imposing sanctions and more immigrants will go to the United States,” the president respected during the 43rd anniversary of the Ministry of the Interior in October of this year.
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