WASHINGTON.— President-elect Joe Biden will seek the support of Congress to approve investments for security and prosperity in the region, and to address the problems of poverty and violence that motivate illegal emigration to the United States, his campaign said Sunday .
Biden won the presidency of the United States on Saturday, after accumulating 279 votes from the Electoral College with his victory in Pennsylvania and Nevada, nine more than the minimum votes required to win the contest, according to projections from our sister network, NBC.
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Biden's campaign said this week that, upon assuming the presidency on January 20, 2021, one of its priorities will be to issue executive orders that reverse some of the Trump Administration's immigration policies.
Eager to add votes among Hispanics, Biden presented this summer an
ambitious Latino agenda
that includes comprehensive immigration reform to legalize the undocumented population, and a four-year investment strategy of $ 4 billion for various programs in Central America. .
Hunting for Latino vote, Biden promises immigration reform and more opportunities for Hispanics
Speaking to Noticias Telemundo today, Jennifer Molina, director of Hispanic media for Biden's campaign, affirmed that the former vice president believes that
forging "productive alliances" with Latin America and the Caribbean is an "essential" part of the foreign policy
of the United States. United.
Biden "is committed to rebuilding our relationships in the region, and will work with Congress to invest in people in the region," Molina said.
This rapprochement with the region will include measures to "strengthen security and economic opportunity, and to address the roots of migration in the region, including violence and poverty," he emphasized.
The investment plan would follow up on the
“Alliance for Prosperity” program
that Biden led in November 2014 as vice president during the Obama Administration, as a result of the immigration crisis on the southern border in June of that year.
Migrant children outside Homestead, Florida, temporary shelter for unaccompanied children, May 6, 2019.AP / AP
Biden will assume the presidency on January 20, 2021, and will inherit a country convulsed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recession, and
a growing demand from black and Latino minorities for social equity.
Biden has said that he will present to Congress, in the first 100 days of his administration, a bill for comprehensive immigration reform, but much will depend on the reconfiguration of Congress, which is the only entity that can pass laws.
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After the elections last Tuesday, the Democrats maintain control of the House of Representatives, although with several fewer seats.
Currently, Republicans have control of the Senate, with a margin of 53-47.
On Tuesday, Democrats won the seat for Arizona, with the election of former astronaut Mark Kelly, but they need two more to achieve a 50-50 tie.
If they succeed, the Democrats would regain control of the Senate, because, in her role as Speaker of the Upper House, the incoming Vice President, Kamala Harris, could break ties in future votes in that legislative body.
The closing of the count in Georgia can define the tie that has occurred in Congress
Nov. 6, 202001: 10
Challenges in Congress
In any case, immigration reform has been an unfinished business dragged by Congress since 1986, when the Reagan Administration enacted an "amnesty" for three million undocumented immigrants.
The president, Donald Trump, proposed a reform focused on
more restrictions on legal immigration
based on "merits" and the reinforcement of border security, with a multi-million dollar project for the construction of his promised wall.
Trump did not offer a solution for the 11 million undocumented people living in the country, and
Congress rejected his plan on several occasions
.
Two experts consulted today by Noticias Telemundo agreed that immigration reform and the plan for Latin America will
face great obstacles, even if the Democrats win back the Senate.
Chuck Rocha, a former senior advisor to the other presidential campaign of independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, said Biden is in debt to the Latinos and African Americans who catapulted him to the White House.
According to Rocha, the Latino community expects Biden to meet goals that he can accomplish from day one: get rid of Trump's racist executive orders;
reinstate DACA and TPS;
the closure of private detention centers on the border, and the reunification of children separated from their parents.
"The community cannot wait a year or two for some kind of negotiation, and we don't know how the Senate will look ... but it can start with executive orders,
as a wild card towards a great immigration reform package
" that addresses the causes of emigration illegal, Rocha emphasized.
On the plan for Central America, Rocha considered that Sanders "is well positioned" to promote it in the Senate,
but everything will depend on whether Biden selects him for a position in his Cabinet,
either as Secretary of Health or Secretary of Labor.
For Rocha, Biden would do well to select Sanders and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren to his eventual Cabinet, because that would "
placate those who want to throw stones at him from the left
.
"
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April 13, 202000: 22
For his part, Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a center for political studies in the US capital, considered that immigration reform will not be easy “because Democrats and Republicans support different pieces of that reform,
and have not reached consensus on a whole package ”.
His ambitious plan for Central America has a good chance if the Biden project manages to "offer firm guarantees against the corruption of the partners of the Northern Triangle countries," he said.
The Trump Administration expels more than 200 Central American children to Mexico
Oct. 30, 202002: 13
Expectations towards Latin America
Regarding Biden's foreign policy towards Latin America, Shifter considered that he is not "socialist", as Trump accused him, and neither is he a "naive" about the nature of the "dictatorial regime" of the Venezuelan government and its "crimes against humanity ”.
For this reason, it is more than likely that Biden will
use the current sanctions to solve the crisis in Venezuela,
“not only to punish Nicolás Maduro and show that he is tough.
Biden will insist on significant concessions before relaxing any sanctions, ”Shifter said.
In the case of Mexico, Shifter described as “disappointing and disconcerting” that the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO),
refused to congratulate Biden on his victory,
and warned that, in his opinion, “it is not a favorable start ”for bilateral relations.
Even so, "the new administration will adopt
a less punitive and coercive policy in the area of migration,
and will broaden the bilateral agenda to include human rights and corruption issues," Shifter said.
They celebrate Joe Biden's triumph in Mexico and hope he supports migrants
Nov. 8, 202001: 08
In the case of Cuba, Shifter pointed out that Biden is aware that the Cuban government wasted the thaw of relations initiated by the Obama Administration but, for humanitarian reasons, it will
probably relax restrictions on the flow of remittances and travel
of Cuban-Americans to the island.
That does not mean, however, that a Biden administration makes concessions before the Havana government takes significant steps toward political and economic openness, he said.
