By EFE
23 Aug 2024, 01:41 AM EDT
US Vice President Kamala Harris said the United States can regularize the more than eleven million undocumented migrants living in the country, while also “protecting” the border with Mexico.
“I believe we can live up to our heritage as a nation of migrants and reform our broken immigration system,” the leader said in her acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination during the party convention in Chicago.
The vice president also promised to revive and permanently enshrine in law a controversial bipartisan immigration pact that included the most stringent restrictions on the asylum system in years.
“I refuse to play political games with our security, and here is my commitment: as president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill,” Harris insisted before a lively crowd, who greeted her on stage with shouts and applause.
No support to move to a vote
The deal, which was heavily criticized by human rights groups and failed to garner enough support to make it to a vote, did not include any avenue for legalization for migrants already in the U.S. or for people seeking to immigrate to the country.
Harris noted in her speech that the pact had been supported by the Border Patrol union at the time and made no specific mention of how it would offer people living without legal status a path to citizenship.
The brief mention of migration management in Harris’ speech marks a departure from current President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, where he emphasized his differences with former President Donald Trump on this front and promised to “restore” the country’s asylum system.
He promised to revive the project
After the bill that Harris promised to revive today failed, Biden began implementing a series of restrictions similar to those included in the text, which prohibit most people who cross the border irregularly from requesting asylum.
Pressure from the Republican Party’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and the possibility of a close race in November have prompted the Democratic government to toughen its rhetoric on migration and take measures to stop the arrival of people across the southern border.
Detaining migrants from Mexico
These rules, along with close collaboration with Mexico to block routes and stop migrants, have caused the number of irregular crossings to fall to its lowest point in four years.
Hundreds of thousands of people have arrived at the southern border of the United States, the world’s largest economy, so far this year in search of better opportunities and fleeing deep social and political crises in countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti.
The entire American continent is registering high levels of movement of people, with more than 21 million people currently displaced, according to data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Continue reading:
- Trump proposes death penalty for sex traffickers and big drug dealers
- The story of two migrants who crossed the Darien and now work at the Democratic convention
- Guatemalan arrested for the deaths of 53 migrants in Texas