The Biden administration is under fire for the lack of focus on security threats originating from the Western Hemisphere in its 2022 National Security Strategy that was released last October. Despite the growing challenges posed by criminal organizations in Central and South America, the document scarcely addresses human trafficking, drug trafficking, or illegal immigration, and fails to mention the Southern border crisis altogether.
Sources have informed The Floridian that a high-ranking Department of Defense (DOD) official reviewed drafts of the report before its official publication. The drafts' neglect of the Western Hemisphere raised concerns that the administration was not taking security threats in the region seriously enough.
In response, that high-ranking DOD official traveled to Washington, DC to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, urging her to prioritize illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and political instability in the region, according to an individual familiar with the meeting that took place shortly before the document was released.
The official presented the security risk concerns and encouraged Harris and the administration to modify the strategy to reflect the existing threats to the U.S. before publishing.
Despite this intervention, the 48-page strategy document outlined its global priorities as follows: Out-Competing China and Constraining Russia, Climate and Energy Security, Pandemics and Biodefense, Food Insecurity, and a few others.
Notably absent from the list of global priorities are the threats posed by organized criminal groups like drug cartels in Central and South America, leading to questions about the administration's commitment to addressing these critical security challenges.
In fact, transnational criminal organizations are only mentioned once in the entire document.
The lack of emphasis on the Western Hemisphere and the migration crisis at the southern border has alarmed experts who argue that a comprehensive and coordinated approach is necessary for ensuring regional stability and maintaining US national security interests.
At the very end of the document (Page 40) that references regions, the administration briefly mentions border security, but does so when stating that it looks to enter in "a bold hemisphere-wide partnership" with other nations to help assist "affected communities, the expansion of legal pathways," and "human migration management."
The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection complements U.S. efforts at home to modernize its border infrastructure and build a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system with a bold hemisphere-wide partnership centered on the principle of responsibility-sharing, stability and assistance for affected communities, the expansion of legal pathways, humane migration management, and a coordinated emergency response. The United States is also leading the charge to expand legal pathways for migration and to combat illicit human smuggling and trafficking that prey on vulnerable migrants. These efforts combined aim to stabilize migrant populations and replace irregular migration with orderly flows that can fuel economic growth in the United States and across the region. We will pursue these collaborative efforts while ensuring a fundamentally fair, orderly, and humane approach to migration management that bolster border security and protects our nation.
Florida Congressman Cory Mills called Harris's "dismissal" of the threat to America and throughout the Western Hemisphere as "anti-American."
The Biden administration is completely culpable and complicit with the ongoing criminal activity along the border,” stated Rep. Cory Mills in a response to The Floridian's request for comment. " VP Harris’ dismissal of the threat posed to Americans by criminal drug cartels, who continue to kill Americans by bringing deadly fentanyl, speaks to the anti-American beliefs she holds.
