The White House is considering conditional cash transfers to migrants from some Central American countries in a bid to curb arrivals at the southern border and would send COVID-19 vaccines to those countries.
The proposed cash payment program would focus on migrants from Northern Triangle countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the White House’s southern border coordinator Roberta Jacobson told Reuters Friday.
By targeting the economic drivers of migration, the White House hopes to stem a surge of people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, she said.
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“We’re looking at all of the productive options to address both the economic reasons people may be migrating, as well as the protection and security reasons,” she said.
And while Jacobson did not specify who exactly would receive the payments, she said the government would not be “handing out” cash.
“The one thing I can promise you is the U.S. government isn’t going to be handing out money or checks to people,” she said.
While the White House has not decided yet whether to prioritize sending vaccines to Triangle countries, she said, it was weighing how doing so could help their economies.
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In an interview earlier Friday, Jacobson told the New York Times that she would be leaving the White House at the end of the month.
A former ambassador to Mexico, Biden’s White House point woman on the migration issue has handled key relationships with Northern Triangle governments in Central America.
