Mexico’s top diplomat on Thursday said he expects a “constant and growing” stream of migrants in the coming year to flow across his country toward the United States from the so-called northern triangle countries: Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard estimated that the United States would need to donate $2 billion a year to help stabilize the three impoverished nations in an attempt to eliminate the circumstances causing people to flee.
Ebrard said Mexico is also planning to invest in the region.
“If you look at the region from different points of view, but especially demographics and economics, it is clear the flows are going to be constant and growing in coming years,” Ebrard said. “The United States will have to allocate $2 billion per year for development in these countries, in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.”
The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 172,000 illegal aliens last month, the highest since March 2001. An additional 1,000 per day are evading capture. In February, border agents apprehended 101,000 people.
The surge coincided with the Biden administration’s revocation of more than a dozen executive actions and diplomatic arrangements put in place under President Donald Trump.
“I would argue that it’s the biggest surge that we’ve ever seen in the history of the Border Patrol,” Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said during a roundtable with Republican members of Congress, Texas landowners, and law enforcement on April 7.
On March 24, President Joe Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to head up the border crisis response. She has yet to visit the border and has said that her focus is instead on providing more assistance to Central American countries.
Amid the surge, Biden’s top border coordinator will leave the administration at the end of April. The White House confirmed on Friday that Special Assistant to the President and Coordinator Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, will step down.
“Biden knew there was no person better to usher in a more safe, secure, and just approach to our Southern Border. Consistent with her commitment at the outset to serve in the Administration’s first 100 days, Ambassador Jacobson will retire from her role as Coordinator at the end of this month,” the White House said in a statement.
