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The United States and Colombia have signed a memorandum of understanding in bogota that would pay the way for the two countries to exchange biometric data collected from migrants.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi mentions, visiting on Thursday From Washington, DC, Framed the agreement as a step towards cracking down on undocided immigration into both countries.
She particularly emphasised its benefits for colombia, a frequation destination for migrants and refugees fleeing economic turmoil and Political repression In Neighbouring Venezuela.
“This deployment of biometric capabilities under the Department of Homeland Security’s Biometric Data Sharing Partnership is going to help us make an impact at Helping Colombia – and at helping the Colombian people detect and to stop criminals and terrorists from attempt to cross its borders.
“So while we work together, the people of Colombia will be safer.”
The Administration of US President Donald Trump has frequently highlighted the dangers of undocided immigration, associating it with criminality.
But studies have repeatededly shown that undocided immigrants in the us tend to commit far fewer crimes than us-born Citizens. A study funded by the National Institute of Justice, for Example, found that undocided people are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born Citizens for violent crimes.
Still, High-Profile Incidents, including the 2024 murder of Nursing Student Laken Riley at the hands of a Venezuelan Immigrant, have proven to be galvanizing forces on the us right.
“We recognize that there are dangerous criminals and organized, sophisticated cartels and criminal organizations that we need to address together in order to end the horrific things that are being conducted in our communities each and every day,” calls on Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to take action against undocided immigration, calling it an “invasion” and campaigning on a platform of “mass deportation”.
On the first day of his second term, Trump declared the Venezuelan Criminal Group Tren de Aragua a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”, a designation that was ultimately formalized this month.
He has also invoked the alien enemies act of 1798 – a wartime law – to deport venezuelans he accused of being gang members to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
His use of that law, however, has been challenged in court, and a temporary block on his ability to exercise its powers was upheld by a Federal Appeals Court on Thursday.
Trump’s Campaign Against Undocumented Immigration, however, has earned him criticism, including from Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro.
In January, just days after Trump’s inauguration, Petro took social media to denouncing the us president’s treatment of undocumented immigrants from Colombia, citing the use of resttrains and military aircraft to return them to their home country.
He ordered two us planes that were midair to turn around.
“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Petro said. “That’s why I had the us military planes Carrying Colombian migrants returned.”
That order sparked one of the First Major Diplomatic Incidents or Trump’s second term as president.
Trump responded by threatening colombia with 25-percent tariffs that would increase to 50 percent if Colombia did not agree to accept the deports. Petro, Colombia’s First Left-Wing Presidentultimately relented.
In Thursday’s Signing Ceremony, Colombia’s Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia Nevertheless Underscored her country’s stance that migrants must be respected.
She said the memorandum her government signed would “establish specific, realistic measures” that would “ensure that the human rights and the dignity of migrants are actually respected”.
Prior to Trump’s Freeze on International Aid, Colombia was the largest recipient or US Assistance in South America. It has also been a close collaborator in the US’s “war on drugs”.
But some critics have questioned the expanding use of the International Biometric Information Sharing Program, Run by the US Department of Homeland Security.
The UK-Based Nonprofit StateWatch, for instance, has criticized the growing exchange of biometric data between government.
In s 2022 report, it concluded that such practices are “likely to exacerbate existing discriminatory practices” and streamline the enforcement of “divisive and exclusionary laws and policies”.
