Kamala Harris and the president of Guatemala agree on stopping irregular immigration, but with options for migrants.

In their second virtual meeting, Vice President Kamala Harris and the President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei , agreed on the need to “send hope” to immigrants, in order to stop the irregular migratory flow to the United States.

Harris had expressed that message "of hope" in an interview on CNN , but the Central American president paraphrased the vice president at the beginning of the virtual meeting.

"The Guatemalan government wants to be your partner to address ... not only poverty, but so many evils that affect us , " said Giammattei.

The objective, he added, is that Guatemalans meet in their country "opportunities to advance" and, therefore, they will not need to travel to the United States. "

At the beginning of the meeting, which was largely behind closed doors, Vice President Harris thanked Giammattei's willingness to work on a joint plan, which outlines the integration of civil organizations and businessmen.

“When we last spoke on the phone, a few weeks ago, we discussed our shared commitment to expanding opportunities in Guatemala and throughout the region,” Harris said. "As you know, the people of Guatemala have been suffering greatly due to the recent hurricanes, the persistent drought and, of course, the damage caused by COVID-19 . "

The vice president continued with her position revealed in previous messages that most immigrants "surely want to stay" in their country, but sometimes they have no options.

"These are the acute factors that are in many ways causing people to leave their homes, despite the fact that they would probably prefer to stay," Harris said. "There are also long-standing problems that are often called root causes of immigration."

The vice president added that her plan will include proposals on how to face the lack of economic opportunities , extreme weather conditions, as well as corruption and the lack of good governance and violence against women, indigenous people, members of the LBGTQ community and Afro-descendants.

We want to work with you to address both acute causes and roots in a way that gives hope to the people of Guatemala that there will be an opportunity for them if they stay home,” Harris said. "The United States plans to increase relief to the region, strengthen our cooperation to manage migration in an effective, safe and humane manner."

It was then that the vice president spoke about how she plans to integrate the US efforts into multilateral work, including international organizations and other allied countries, civil organizations and businessmen.

"Tomorrow I will meet with Guatemalan community leaders and I am eager to hear their thoughts, the people of the region, of course, must be at the center of everything we do," said Harris.

The meeting took place on the same day that Secretary of State Antony Blinken imposed sanctions on a current official and a former official of the Guatemalan government, Gustavo Adolfo Alejos Ca m bara and Felipe Alejos Lorenzana, respectively, for their corruption actions.

"Gustavo Alejos and Felipe Alejos sought to interfere with the judicial selection process for the appointment of magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) and the Court of Appeals of Guatemala," charged the Biden Administration.