Vice President Kamala Harris’ effort to tackle root causes of migration from Central America has yielded more than $4.2 billion in private sector commitments, but border crossings remain high amid mass migration in the Western Hemisphere
. In March 2021, during an influx of unaccompanied migrant children, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with overseeing diplomatic efforts with the Northern Triangle. At the time, most minors apprehended on the US southern border were from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – a region where major hurricanes and the coronavirus pandemic took a devastating toll.
There, Harris will announce more than $950 million in new commitments, bringing the total to more than $4.2 billion, the senior administration official said. Experts credit Harris’ ability to secure private sector investments as her most visible action in the region to date but have cautioned about the durability of those investments over the long term. Senior administration officials argued Monday that the investments have begun to show results on the ground.