(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei made a statement regarding the Biden administration’s Title 42, which the possible scrapping of resulted in a surplus of illegal immigrants rushing through his country to the southern border of the United States.
The announcement that Title 42—a COVID-era public health order used to expel certain migrants to slow the spread of the disease—would no longer be in effect resulted in a wave of migrants heading north.
Guatemala has suffered an increase in illegal migrants going through the country heading for the U.S. because of the sitting administration’s policies.
However, Title 42 is still in effect. The order was set to expire on May 23 but was blocked in a Republican-led lawsuit.
That has not stopped migrants from making their way up to the border.
“We have recently seen a very serious increase in the number of migrants seeking to cross our border,” Giammattei said. “When Title 42 was eliminated, we see an even greater increase in the crossings through Guatemala, illegal crossings through Guatemala to reach the United States illegally as well.”
The Biden administration has also installed a rule expelling most illegal migrants from Venezuela, but allowing legal entry to 24,000 Venezuelans who meet certain qualifications.
Giammattei said this is also causing a huge problem in Guatemala, as Venezuelans continue to pass through his country going to and coming from the U.S.
“And now that the Venezuelans we understand that have the possibility of obtaining a visa, that means another problem for Guatemala. We have no relationships with Venezuela, we do not have diplomatic exchanges, we don’t have an embassy here or there,” Giammattei said.
Giammattei explained that the Guatemalan government cannot issue identification for Venezuelans, creating a “floating population” making its way through the country.
Record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants have been crossing the southern border since the Biden administration took charge.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who was put in charge of the crisis, has visited the border once and still refuses to take serious action against the problem.
Recently, the Department of Homeland Security was requesting that government workers volunteer to pick up the copious amounts of trash that has been left in border towns.
