President of Guatemala says White House hasn't talked to him about migrant crisis since June



The president of Guatemala said that the White House had not contacted him about the migrant crisis since he had a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris in June.

President Alejandro Giammattei made the comments in an interview with John Roberts of Fox News.

“Other than your meeting with Kamala Harris in June?” asked Roberts who appeared shocked.

“That is the only one," replied Giammattei.

“That is the only communication you’ve had with the Biden Administration about illegal immigration?” asked Roberts.

“Yep," Giammattei replied.

Roberts asked him if he thought that was odd, and Giammattei admitted that he had spoken to the ambassador from the U.S. many times, but not with anyone directly from the White House.

"We had many conversations with your ambassador, but [between] my presidency and the White House, no. I spoke once to Joe Biden because I introduced myself," Giamattei explained.

"Then we had the visit of Vice President Harris," he continued. "On matters of state and migration, we had Mr. Alejandro Mayorkas. Aside from that direct communication, no we have not had it."

The admission severely undermines the claims of the administration that Harris has been putting all her efforts into addressing the root causes of the illegal immigration crisis in Latin America. Harris has been plagued by criticism that her office appears unprepared to handle the tasks delegated to her by the White House.

Roberts went on to ask Giammattei whether the Biden administration had dealt with illegal immigration better than the Trump administration had, he answered that he had been in regular contact with the Trump administration.

The continuing immigration crisis has been only one of the problems that has dragged down poll numbers both for Biden and for Harris. The vice president's office is also seeing an exodus of staffers as more and more damaging stories make headlines about the disfunction and incompetence plaguing the workplace

Here's more about Harris' poll problems:

Kamala's Poll Numbers Take a NOSEDIVE | @Pat Gray Unleashedwww.youtube.com

Kamala Harris Rushes To Border After Trump Announces Visit

The vice president took close to three months to make plans to visit to the southern border, shortly after former President Trump announced his own plans to visit.

Guatemalan president says Biden's confusing messaging encouraged smugglers to drop off children at the border



Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said that President Joe Biden's confusing messaging on immigration led to the migrant crisis by encouraging human smugglers to drop off children at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Giammattei made the comments in an interview with Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC.

"The president has been talking and speaking very compassionately about migration, certainly children migration," Mohyeldin said. "Do you believe that the president's message about compassion is making the situation worse or is indirectly encouraging migrants to informally migrate to the U.S.?"

"I am nobody to make a judgment here, but I believe in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, messages were confusing," responded Giammattei, translated into English by MSNBC.

"They were compassionate messages that were understood by people in our country, especially the coyotes, to tell families, 'we'll take the children, the children can go in and once the children are there they will call their parents.' And so those messages were confusing. Not because of the way they were communicated, but because of the way they were translated here," he explained.

Giammattei went on to say that the crisis was concerning because the unaccompanied minors were more likely to fall into the hands of cartels and the prostitution network as they tried to make their way into the U.S.

Mohyeldin also asked Giammattei to respond to the conditions in U.S. detention centers for those who were caught at the border. He said that the coyotes, the smugglers who lead the illegal migrants into the U.S., were far more inhumane. He also said that it would be difficult for any nation to provide the proper conditions for a massive wave of migrants.

"What I can say is that no government, no matter how large or strong, can have that gigantic apparatus that would be required to address 30 or 40 thousand people in detention centers and have all of them in a status where they're claiming refuge," Giammattei said.

The Biden administration is exploring the possibility of sending cash payments to countries, including Guatemala, in order to stabilize the governments and economies so that migrants feel less of a push to migrate northward.

Here's the interview with Guatemala's president:

Guatemalan President On Migrant Crisis | Ayman Mohyeldin | MSNBCwww.youtube.com