Border Czar Kamala Harris to hold Zoom talks with Mexico president over plan to pay migrants to plant TREES to stop them coming to the US in her first intervention since Biden gave her the job a month ago
Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on May 7 to discuss migration amid an increase in underage migrants at the U.S. southern border.
Mexico's top diplomat revealed the news and said the video meeting will focus on Mexico's questioned tree-planting program.
López Obrador is trying to get the United States to help fund a massive expansion of the program into Central America as a way to stem migration.
Officials are scrambling to handle a dramatic spike in children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone, which has lead to a massive expansion in emergency facilities to house them as more kids arrive than are being released to close relatives in the United States.
Despite being tasked with managing the crisis at the southern border 31 days ago, Harris has not yet visited border facilities nor held any significant press conferences on the issue.
Harris will hold a virtual meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on May 7 to discuss migration amid an increase in underage migrants at the U.S. southern border
López Obrador's 'Planting Life' program aims to pay farmers to plant 1 billion fruit and timber trees in Mexico, in hopes that it will boost the economy and stem migration
Migrants cross the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico on two inflatable rafts, in Roma, Texas on Thursday
It comes amid a dramatic surge in illegal crossings at the border, with more than 172,000 encounters in March alone, including an historic number of unaccompanied children.
Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard wrote on Twitter that Mexico also wants to talk about cooperation on the pandemic. Mexico wants the United States to send more coronavirus vaccines.
Harris' office said in a statement that the meeting will focus on 'the common goals of prosperity, good governance and addressing the root causes of migration.' It did not mention the tree-planting initiative.
López Obrador pitched his 'Planting Life' program, which aims to pay farmers to plant 1 billion fruit and timber trees in Mexico, to U.S. President Joe Biden at Thursday's climate change summit.
The program has been extended to El Salvador, and Mexico wants U.S. funding to further extend it to Honduras and Guatemala.
López Obrador claims the program can help prevent farmers from leaving their land and migrating to the United States. He has also proposed that the U.S. grant six-month work visas, and eventually citizenship, to some of those who participate in the program.
Irma del Socorro Moo Ek, a beneficiary of Planting Life, is pictured in Kopoma, Yucatan state, Mexico on Thursday
Some critics have suggested that farmers with marginal or unprofitable natural woodlands have simply cut them down in order to plant new trees
Trees are felled before seedlings are planted at a Planting Life site, a jobs and reforestation program promoted by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Beneficiaries of Planting Life prepare seedlings for planting in Kopoma, Yucatan state, Mexico, on Thursday. Lopez Obrador is making a strong push for his tree-planting program
But environmentalists question whether planting big swaths of commercial species - sometimes on land that held native forests - is a good idea.
Opinions are mixed in Mexico on whether the program is really working and whether it can offset Mexico's other policy of encouraging the use of fossil fuels.
The program has already planted 700,000 trees in Mexico, where it pays 450,000 Mexican farmers a stipend of about $225 per month to tend the saplings.
Some critics have suggested that farmers with marginal or unprofitable natural woodlands have simply cut them down in order to plant new trees and qualify for the monthly stipend.
López Obrador says the carbon-capture from trees in the reforestation program will make a major contribution to fighting climate change.
But at the same time, López Obrador's administration has focused on building oil refineries and burning more coal and fuel oil at power plants, while placing limits on private renewable and gas-fired electricity generation.
Harris was first tasked with managing the crisis at the southern border 31 days ago, but has yet to visit the border or any of the crowded facilities holding migrants.
Harris has insisted she will travel to Guatemala and Mexico in the next month.
The White House has said her role is to try and determine the 'root causes' of migration, such as economic strife and violence that motivate people to try and reach America.
An image taken on April 22 at the Long Beach Convention Center, where migrant children found at the border without a parent will be temporarily housed, shows Kamala Harris' book Superheroes are Everywhere sitting on a cot along with a backpack, clothes and basic supplies
On Friday, Harris toured New Hampshire to promote Biden's infrastructure package
Harris said during a trip to North Carolina on Monday, that she is bringing together different US agencies - including the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture - to address the root issue of migration, including trade, poverty and food insecurity.
'This week I'm bringing together foundation leaders from across our country to really encourage them to do more in terms of the civil society piece of this, which will be about both growing the work that they've already done historically, but also engaging civil society in the region in the Northern Triangle,' she said.
Though Harris has not visited the border, her children's book Superheroes are Everywhere is being included in welcome packs for unaccompanied children who cross the border illegally.
Images taken at a California shelter for migrants this week show Harris' book sitting on a cot along with a backpack, some clothes and other basic supplies like body wash and toothpaste.
These form the welcome kits for unaccompanied migrant children arriving the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, which has recently been converted to deal with an influx of illegal immigration .
In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released data showing they had encountered the highest number of unaccompanied children in history crossing the southern border.
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