Speaking to reporters at the White House Wednesday, President & Coordinator for the Southern Border Roberta Jacobson explained how the Biden administration plans to stem the flow of "irregular migration" to the United States.
As part of the plan, Jacobson said the Biden White House will ask Congress for $4 billion, which will be used to fund programs in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and other countries south of the border. It is unclear how the funding with be protected from corruption.
Roberta Jackson of the NSC on how the Biden admin plans to spend $4 billion immigration request.
— Anders Hagstrom (@Hagstrom_Anders) March 10, 2021
"We know how to get money to communities that are most likely to send migrants," she says. She adds that aid to hurricane-struck locations are priority.
Interesting answer from Roberta Jacobson of the NSC here.
— Anders Hagstrom (@Hagstrom_Anders) March 10, 2021
Has the U.S. really paid for streetlights in South American countries in an effort to reduce immigration? pic.twitter.com/BG3DB50io4
Last year the Department of Justice announced charges against the former chief of the Honduran National Police for "conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, and related weapons offenses involving the use and possession of machineguns and destructive devices."
“Juan Carlos Bonilla Valladares, the former chief of the Honduran National Police, allegedly abused his positions in Honduran law enforcement to flout the law and play a key role in a violent international drug trafficking conspiracy,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said at the time. “As alleged, on behalf of convicted former Honduran congressman Tony Hernandez and his brother the president, Bonilla Valladares oversaw the transshipment of multi-ton loads of cocaine bound for the United States, used machineguns and other weaponry to accomplish that, and participated in extreme violence, including the murder of a rival trafficker, to further the conspiracy. Now Bonilla Valladares has been marked as an outlaw and charged with crimes that could send him to a U.S. prison for life.”
Meanwhile the Biden administration, including Jackson, is still refusing to call the situation at the border a crisis -- despite the number of unaccompanied minors tripling since last month.
The number of migrant children in custody along the border has tripled in the past two weeks to more than 3,250, and many of them are being held in jail-like facilities for longer than the three days allowed by law. ?@KannoYoungs? ?@shearm? https://t.co/BfpF43Dska
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) March 9, 2021