Panama City, Apr 11 (EFE).- The Secretary of Homeland Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, insisted on Tuesday that migrants trying to reach US territory must do so through the “legal channels” that the US is implementing. UU. Otherwise, they will be “returned” to the other side of the border.
Mayorkas, who held a meeting this Tuesday in the Panamanian capital with the foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama to discuss the migration crisis through the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border between the two Latin American countries, assured in an interview with EFE that there is no alternative to the legal route.
“There is a very important message to send in addition to the fact that we are building legal roads so that people do not have to risk their lives in the Darién and that is that we are enforcing our laws at the border,” the secretary remarked.
“It is so tragic to see people risk their lives, take the perilous journey, suffer the trauma, put their life savings in the hands of traffickers who only seek their own profit, only to be returned,” said Mayorkas, originally from Cuban.
The Darién jungle is one of the most dangerous border crossings for irregular migration, where the harshness of the journey having to cross swollen rivers is compounded by attacks by armed men, who rob and rape, in addition to the lack of drinking water being contaminated by excrement and corpses.
Most of the migrants, exhausted and out of breath, repeat one word: “sorry” for having taken that route, calling on their compatriots to choose another option, to no avail.
This year alone, some 400,000 migrants are expected to cross the jungle, almost double the more than 248,000 who did in 2022. In the first 3 months of 2023 alone, some 87,390 migrants crossed the Darién, 7 times more than in the same period of 2022.
“And those are the individuals, the human beings who survived to tell the tale of the trauma of the journey. We also think of the people who didn’t make it. That is exactly why we are creating legal avenues for them to come to the United States in a safe and orderly manner in search of a better life,” he explained.
Mayorkas highlighted as “the most powerful example of success” of this legal path the creation of a humanitarian permit program for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, a measure that he recently revealed led to a 95% reduction in the arrests of individuals. of these countries on the border.
“We have already received thousands and thousands of people in this way,” he said. A program that can reach 30,000 humanitarian permits a month, “360,000 people a year.”
EXPANSION OF LEGAL PATHS
The US official also warned that they are “expanding” legal channels, both through their refugee program and through humanitarian permits for nationals of those four countries affected by economic or political instability.
“We will be revealing in the coming weeks the additional routes that people must take” to be able to travel to the United States legally, Mayorkas announced.
The Secretary of Homeland Security also recalled that migrants have other ways to travel legally to US territory, such as visas for seasonal workers, or for agricultural or non-agricultural workers for limited periods to “earn money legally.” and send remittances.
In addition, next month the Government of President Joe Biden will lift the controversial Title 42, a health measure imposed by the Government of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) that allows the hot expulsions of migrants at the border.
“We are concerned that there may be an increase in the level of migration” due to the lifting of that measure, Mayorkas acknowledged, but his advisers recalled that the basis of the country’s immigration law, which is contemplated in Title 8, will continue to be fully in force.
During his meeting with EFE, Mayorkas was accompanied by Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and former US ambassador to the UN, who highlighted the important role played by countries that were originally going to to be only transit for migrants.
In Colombia, he stressed, “more than two million Venezuelans” are settled and it is “a very important and very commendable decision” that the Colombian authorities have offered them “temporary protection status.”
“When that happened, USAID was quick to support the Colombian government to set up that system, the registry, the mechanism, but also to support the Venezuelans that were coming in to make sure that they were not overburdening the communities,” said Power, who He stressed that they are dedicating “more than 200 million dollars a year” to this task and seek to increase 34 million.
The US official insisted that it is the “responsibility” of the United States to come to the support of those countries south of the Darién, such as Colombia, but also Ecuador or Peru, “which are doing everything possible to absorb these populations” of migrants.
REFUGEE EXPERIENCE
For Mayorkas, the need to have to leave his country for political or economic reasons is not something alien. A native of Cuba, he came to the United States with his parents and sister as “political refugees” when he was a child. “It was the second time, by the way, that my mother was a refugee,” after having fled from the Nazis in Europe.
“I understand very well the fragility of life, the vulnerability of people, the importance of humanitarian aid, and at the service of that fragility, at the service of that vulnerability, we create legal channels and urge people not to take such a risk. expensive. But it is also very important to remember that we are not alone in this. That the migratory challenge that our region is experiencing is a challenge that we must all respond to together, ”he declared.
