Press Secretary Psaki was talking with reporters on Monday about new agreements struck between the US government and the governments of Mexico and Guatemala to get them to “surge” police and military presence to stem the tide of migrants.
When asked about when the agreements were made, and what the plan entails, Psaki responded:
“Well, there have been a series of bilateral discussions between our leadership and the regional governments of Mexico, Honduras … and Guatemala. Through those discussions, there was a commitment, as you mentioned, to increase border security.”
“So, Mexico made the decision to maintain 10,000 troops at its southern border, resulting in twice as many daily migrant interdictions. Guatemala, surged 1500 police and military personnel to its southern border with Honduras, and agreed to set up 12 checkpoints along the migratory … route.”
“Honduras surged 7000 police and military to disperse a large contingent of … migrants. As with any diplomatic discussion, these discussions happen at several levels.”
Psaki went on to talk about how the discussions “take place at several levels,” although she agreed that it would be fair to characterize these talks as having taken place “over the past few weeks.”
“Is the plan to sort of apprehend these migrants who are trying to cross the border, or, sort of, as they are already on their way to the United States, is the plan to, you know, stop them there? How will this work?” asked a journalist.
Psaki replied that it would be up to the individual governments involved, but iterated that “the objective is to make it more difficult, the journey, and make crossing the borders more difficult.”
All of these seems a little bit different than past discourses by Psaki and the rest of the Biden administration, where they promised a more “humane” approach to immigration.
