United States Vice President Kamala Harris announced on April 14th that she will travel to both Mexico and Guatemala to help better address the sudden increase in migration. The Biden administration has received brutal feedback concerning their “lack of attention” to this issue. Harris’ main goal during this trip will be to track down the sources of the issue and best determine next steps. Critics have mentioned that the left are refusing to call it a crisis but rather referring to it as a “challenge.” Some republicans have even gone as far as to put a picture of Harris on a milk carton with the phrase; “MISSING AT THE BORDER.” Despite the criticism, Harris will follow through with her trip and tackle aspects such as troop force increase, facility building, and enhancing enforcement at their borders.
This article shows a diplomatic occurrence between the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala. It also shows a dispute between the two parties in the United States, with the Right accusing the Left of not showing enough effort and the Left accusing the Right of causing the migration increase in the previous term. To the region, this upcoming trip is important and could effect the future of how things are run between the borders. We could see new protocols in place which could effect the levels of migration in the long-run. Additionally, the dispute between the Left and Right of the United States could decrease, but given their habit of fighting, it will not effect how the two parties will interact with each other.
Using levels of analysis, we can try and determine the roots of the increase in migration. On a global level, the COVID-19 virus has brought a global drop in economy, which could explain the desire to move in hopes of a better economical outcome. On a state level, the United States has been actively handing out COVID-19 vaccines and are making good progress, whereas Mexico and Guatemala are slightly behind. This could explain the increase in migration due to the desire to receive the vaccine.