The president of United States, Joe Bidenpresented this Thursday a budget project in which he asks Congress to approve a game of 1,430 million dollars to reduce the immigration from Latin America.
The majority, about 1,000 million, would be destined to help Central America and another 430 million to the rest of the continent.
This is how it appears in proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 (from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024) that the White House made public this Thursday and that is usually seen as the beginning of the president’s negotiations with Congress, the body with authority to approve the budget.
One of the items bears the title of “Building security and prosperity in Central America and Haiti.”
In it, the Biden government calls for a billion dollars to be allocated to address the “root causes”, including violence and the lack of economic opportunities, that cause millions of Central Americans to migrate to the United States.
During his campaign for the Presidency and when he came to the White House in January 2021, Biden made it clear that his intention was to work with Congress to approve $4 billion in assistance to Central America, especially Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, to end forced migration.
The billion that Biden is now asking for is a step in that direction, argues the text of the project.
In addition, 291 million dollars are requested for Haiti, one of the countries from which a large number of migrants who arrive in the United States irregularly come from and which Washington wants to help recover from the crisis it is experiencing in terms of security, health , economy and democratic institutions.
The budget includes another item to implement the so-called “Los Angeles Declaration on migration and protection” that the United States and 19 other countries of the American continent signed during the Summit of the Americas last year.
Specifically, Biden asked Congress for $430 million to help countries in the Americas manage migration flows with measures that increase opportunities to migrate legally, while at the same time trying to contain irregular migration.
In addition, the budget contains a request for 40 million dollars for aid programs for migrants in Latin America and 75 million for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), of which Washington is already the largest shareholder.
Another of Biden’s priorities, according to the budget, is to increase security measures on the border with Mexico, an item for which he is asking for a substantial amount of money.
Specifically, the Government requests 25,000 million dollars for the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP), in charge of border security, and for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), which manages, among other things, the immigration detention centers.
Also included is a request for funds to hire 350 new CBP border agents, $535 million to improve security at border entry points with new technology, and $40 million to fight transnational criminal organizations.
The budget that was presented today must be approved by Congress and could undergo changes.
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