Guatemala is Begging the U.S. to Grant its Migrants Amnesty
Jose Nino
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The Guatemalan government is requesting that the U.S. allow approximately 700,000 Guatemalan migrants stay in America due to flooding that has killed over 150 people in the Central American nation.
According to a Reuters report, the Guatemalan government is requesting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Guatemalan migrant nationals in the U.S. Neil Munro of Breitbart News explained that this migration “status would allow Guatemala’s illegal migrants to stay and work in the United States, regardless of the high unemployment and low wages among many unskilled Americans.”
“The foreign ministry will, over the course of the week, send the papers to our ambassador in Washington, who will make the request to the U.S. government,” Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said to reporters. “We don’t know if President Trump will accept or not but we believe that it is our obligation to request it.”
Trump has traditionally opposed TPS and has requested the cancellation of TPS for hundreds of thousands of migrants residing in the U.S. for nearly two decades. On the other hand, the Guatemalan government is likely aware that a Biden administration would be more receptive towards keeping TPS active and bringing in many more migrants than an America First Trump administration.
Should the Biden administration grant TPS to Guatemalan migrants this could spark a Domino effect in Central America where the governments in Honduras and El Salvador would then press the U.S. to bestow amnesty to their respective migrants.
Munro outlined the exact number of Guatemalan migrants making their way across the U.S. border:
Since 2016, roughly 662,432 Guatemalans were registered while crossing the border. The vast majority used border loopholes to semi-legally migrate into the United States, usually by claiming asylum. Few of the migrants have been sent home, even after their temporary legal status has expired.
Munro continued highlighting some of the migrant numbers:
The Guatemalan migrant population includes 278,566 single adults, 294,263 adults with children, plus another 89,583 children or teens delivered by coyotes at the border from 2016 to 2020.
The 2016 to 2020 number does not include the additional number of Guatemalans who successfully marched around the border defenses via the desert and scrubland, nor the 30,649 Guatemalan teens or children relayed by the coyotes in 2014 and 2015, nor the 16,090 Guatemalan teens and children relayed from 2009 to 2013, nor the 57,160 nationals from Guatemala detained in 2015.
This request by Guatemala is a Big Capital’s wet dream. An influx of migrants depresses blue-collar workers’ wages, puts massive pressure on rents in urban centers, and strains public infrastructure. With the magnet of birthright citizenship, migrants can have kids stateside that can serve as their pathway to citizenship. Add in chain migration, and you have a recipe for naturalized migrants to bring in as many family members as possible.
The demographic effects of this are undeniable. Continued migration will sharply transform American political institutions and only beget further migration. The U.S. must be explicit in delineating hard limits to migration. Neglecting to establish these boundaries will result in the U.S. losing its sovereignty.
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