Throughout Joe Biden’s campaign, it was no secret that the cornerstone of his Presidential bid lay in repudiating the Trump administration’s approach to the Latin American and Caribbean Countries (LAC). Instead, he made promises to reawaken policies and initiatives from the Obama administration. These commitments appear not to be mere empty promises, especially in the backdrop of Biden’s personal affinity with the LAC, which saw him visit the region as Vice President no less than 16 times.
Central to Biden’s presidential campaign was his focus on the United States reclaiming its global leadership underpinned by its liberal values. Biden’s idea of a “nation of migrants”, perhaps exemplifies his fundamental disagreement with the Trump administration’s policy towards the LAC. The President-elect’s policy on immigration explicitly emphasises the need for cooperation and to address the root of the problem within the countries in crisis, rather than just addressing its symptoms by short-term solutions symbolised by the Trump administration’s rhetoric for ‘the Wall’.
To this end, Biden’s manifesto has explicitly promised to review the Temporary Protected Status for vulnerable populations so as to revoke controversial asylum policies and gradually increase refugee admittance in the US as well as work towards ending the practice of separating immigrant families at the US borders. Furthermore, Biden has promised to raise his US$750 million aid plan to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to US$4 billion, spread over four years, which will aim to tackle local corruption, violence and poverty to eventually reduce immigrants.
While the immigration policy promises great change, Biden has pledged to heighten US support for democracy in the region through a global Summit for Democracy, modelled on the Nuclear Security Summit, which will aim to fight corruption and authoritarianism as well as advance human rights. Biden’s emphasis on a ‘foreign policy for the middle class’ might, however, see a certain continuity in pragmatism in trade policy towards the Americas, with Biden supporting the Trump administration’s newly negotiated United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement. Consequently, although the Biden campaign has made substantial commitments, the extent to which the US policy towards the Americas will actually transform naturally remains to be seen.
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