Despite its pledges to aid Central America, the Biden administration continues to deny the United States’ role in destabilizing the region.

When Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on June 25, she repeated the claim she made during her trip to Guatemala and Mexico earlier that month: The Biden administration is serious about addressing the root causes of Central American migration.

“This issue cannot be reduced to a political issue,” Harris said. ​“We’re talking about children, we’re talking about families, we’re talking about suffering, and our approach has to be thoughtful and effective.”

Toward this end, the administration has set forth a four-year, $4 billion proposal to increase assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, ​“conditioned on their ability to reduce the endemic corruption, violence, and poverty that causes people to flee their home countries.” President Joe Biden also issued an executive order that identifies the principal culprits for this present state of affairs as ​“criminal gangs,” ​“trafficking networks,” ​“gender-based and domestic violence,” and ​“economic insecurity and inequality.”