The Biden regime’s plans to tackle illegal immigration by sending money to Central American countries is a misguided and costly endeavor. Despite the government’s projected $4.2 billion towards “private sector commitments to create economic opportunity in northern Central America,” according to a White House fact sheet, the move overlooks the multitude of other factors that drive illegal immigration, such as political instability and organized criminal activity.

The funds allocated by the Central America Forward framework will do little to address the current immigration crisis in the US. The Northern Central America Investment Facilitation Team supports clean energy infrastructure development, which will not serve as a deterrent for those seeking asylum from their home nations. The workforce development programs sponsored by UASID and the Central America Service Corps are even less effective, since they merely provide young people with paid community service opportunities instead of offering long-term financial stability.

This lack of real action has been reflected in recent immigration data from The Federation for American Immigration Reform, 5.5 million migrants have crossed into the United States under the Biden administration, while 113 known or suspected terrorists have crossed in fiscal year 2021 and 2022 alone.

To make matters worse, migrant deaths surpassed 856 in fiscal year 2022, marking it as one of deadliest periods on record. In short, these investments do nothing to stop those who attempt to cross over into the United States illegally. Instead, they only send a message that there are incentives for doing so, ultimately leading to more migrants attempting dangerous crossings across our borders.

Rather than wasting billions of taxpayer dollars sending money abroad with little guarantee of success, we should focus on reforming our own immigration system here at home. Empowering officers to enforce already existing federal law can help prevent resolve this problem in a hurry.

More resources need to be devoted towards humanitarian aid within our own country. Inflation has reached unprecedented levels this past year alone with food prices increasing 9.1%, meat prices rising 11.7% and dairy prices rising 13.5%. By investing more heavily in local aid efforts rather than abroad initiatives with no tangible results, we can begin to alleviate issues related to illegal immigration while providing much needed support domestically.