https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58673578
For almost eight years, immigration, both illegal and legal, has been a topic of contention in the United States. Now, as tensions rise at the US border, the US has been forced to make some hard choices. Many of the migrants at the border are fleeing economic turmoil after the Covid crisis, or political unrest, and even unsafe living conditions due to natural disasters that have plagued South america. People from everywhere have made the long journey to the border, yet, no amount of people is as large in numbers or desperate as the Haitians. In 2010, Haiti was struck with an earthquake of catastrophic damage. It is estimated that a total of 250,000 people died, as well as the island’s homes and businesses being demolished. Many left then in hope of a better life, but thousands of people followed as the years went on, due to a series of heavy economic blows and presidential turmoil. Under Biden’s presidency, many Haitians felt they would be more welcome in the US than ever before. Instead, the opposite was true. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, US president Joe Biden has been ‘forced’ to keep in place many of the anti-immigration measures the former president Donald Trump instated.
Taking into the consideration the methods of relocation that have been instated near the border, though not by the US, several things come to light. Migrants have described white men on horses, herding them away from the border. These methods have been compared to those used during the US Civil War, to herd slaves. Though Biden has said he will investigate this, he also promised pre-election to make it easier for people in humanitarian crises to immigrate into the country. Just recently, he deported 4,000 Haitian immigrants who were found at the border. Perhaps, if Corona was not still circulating countries, Biden would be able to take in more immigrants. But even in that ideal scenario, he can’t take in everyone. Haiti is a country that has been constantly plagued with earthquakes. There will be refugees after each one, and there’s no possible way to evacuate the entire country. In my opinion, our first step should be to vaccinate countries where the majority of the population is unvaccinated. In doing that, in a couple of years those countries’ economies will be able to begin recovering, reducing the turmoil in said countries.
Vaccinating those countries has another advantage, resuming trade between the US and said countries. Under liberal theory, increasing trade would promote cooperation between Latin American countries and the US, as well as help fuel their economy and reduce the amount of people fleeing the continent. For some Latin American countries, this could work quite well, however in others, the US would have more luck trading with drug cartels than the government itself. As drug cartels currently control much of the economy in Latin America, the US is backed into a corner. This is also why social welfare is so important to liberal theory, because so many of these aspects flow into one another.