The United States left for Friday, the last day of the Summit of the Americas, the declaration on migration which it presents as a regional association of shared responsibility on asylum and border control, but it is unknown how many countries will sign it.
“Safe and orderly migration is good for all of our economies, including the United States. It can be a catalyst for sustainable growth, while irregular migration is not acceptable,” the US president said Wednesday during his inaugural address. the ninth Summit of the Americas.
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The key term for Biden is shared responsibility, because the United States does not want to bear the full burden of the migratory flow.
And even less so a few months before the mid-term elections in November, at a time when high inflation is dragging down his approval rating among public opinion.
A government official stated that Biden “is asking all governments along the migration route to establish or strengthen the asylum process in their respective countries.
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Also that “they reinforce their borders more effectively, carrying out controls and expelling people who are not eligible for asylum,” he added.
Some 7,500 irregular migrants, mostly from Central America, but also from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, try to cross the border with the United States every day, according to official data from April.
Biden is calling on all governments along the migration route to establish or strengthen the asylum process.
The unknown is how many countries will sign the declaration, at a time when Washington’s relationship with some of its neighbors is not going through its best moment.
According to the government official, the United States “does not expect all countries to sign,” but will prioritize “those most affected by migration and refugee flows”.
The Democratic president is trying to resolve the immigration crisis that could cost him control of Congress during the November elections.
“Each of our countries has been impacted by migration, and I believe it is our shared responsibility to address this challenge,” Biden said Thursday during a plenary.
The Republican opposition accuses him of laxity, while on the left he is criticized for not having implemented, as he had promised, a more humane immigration policy than that of his predecessor Donald Trump.
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The migration announcements
The United States will host 20,000 refugees from Latin America in 2023 and 2024, and will disburse $314 million in aid for migrants in the regionwhile Mexico will double border work permits, the White House announced this Friday on the last day of the Summit.
The United States is committed to opening the doors to 20,000 people, that is, triple
of refugees welcomed this year, reports the White House in a statement.
The government of President Joe Biden also intends to “increase” the reception
of Haitian refugees, but does not give figures, and will grant 11,500 temporary work visas to citizens of Haiti and Central America due to the shortage of labor in the United States.
On the other hand, he announced 314 million dollars in new funds for “humanitarian aid and development assistance for refugees and vulnerable migrants” in Latin America, which includes a program for Venezuelans who have emigrated to 17 countries in the region.
According to the statement on the Declaration of Los Angeles, as the White House calls it, Mexico will increase the number of Border Worker Cards from 10,000 to 20,000, which allows residing in one state and working in another.
The Mexican government will also launch a new temporary work program for between 15,000 and 20,000 people from Guatemala per year, and plans to expand it to Honduras and El Salvador in the medium term.
In addition, with the support of the UN Refugee Agency, it will integrate 20,000 refugees into the Mexican labor market in the next three years.
Belize will launch a regularization plan for irregular migrants, Costa Rica will renew a temporary protection program for Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, and Ecuador issues a decree establishing a way to grant regular immigration status to Venezuelans who entered the country through
from an official port of entry.
Guatemala approves, for its part, a new legislation to promote programs
of legal labor migration and Canada will open its borders to 50,000 workers in the agricultural sector, the statement said.
Plan to fight against migrant smuggling
The United States also revealed this Friday that it has launched an “unprecedented” covert operation to dismantle human trafficking networks throughout Latin America and thus contain irregular migration heading towards the southern US border.
The White House made the announcement as part of the “Los Angeles Statement on
migration and protection”, which will be signed this Friday in the Californian city with the presence of US President Joe Biden, on the last day of the IX Summit of the Americas.
“In the last two months, the United States, under the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, has deployed more than 1,300 personnel throughout the region and invested more than $50 million (in the covert operation),” he said. the White House in a statement.
Until the end of May, these agents have carried out some 20,000 measures to disrupt migrant smuggling networks, including “arrests and prosecutions, confiscation of properties such as houses and vehicles used to traffic people, and criminal investigations,” according to the official note. .
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that this has caused “900 fewer migrants to arrive at the southern border of the United States each day,” and assures that its efforts have only just begun.
The United States is coordinating the operation with the Government of Mexico, in addition to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview with CNN.
Criticism at the Summit
The list of countries invited to this summit lit the fuse of discord, given that the Biden government chose to exclude Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.
In response, some countries, championed by Mexico, decided to boycott it, such as Bolivia and Honduras.
Others participate in the meeting, but as spokespersons for those who cannot come or to express their demands.
In the first plenary session on Thursday, Argentine President Alberto Fernández stood up to Biden speaking as president pro tempore of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to which the three excluded by the United States belong.
“The fact of being the host country of the Summit does not grant the ability to impose the right of admission“, said.
Belizean Prime Minister John Briceño joined the protest. “This summit belongs to all of the Americas. Therefore, it is inexcusable that all the countries of the Americas are not here,” he blurted out.
Added to the protest over exclusions, according to Argentina, is the need to “rebuild institutions that were designed” for integration.
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“The OAS, if it wants to be respected and return to being the regional political platform for which it was created, must be restructured, immediately dispensing with those who lead it” currently, he stated, in tune with Mexico’s criticism of the secretary general of this organization, Luis Almagro.
Disgusted by the exclusions, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not attend the summit and sent Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard instead, who took the opportunity to describe the absences as a “strategic error” and advocate “refounding the inter-American order.”
In addition to the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, political commitment projects on democratic governance, health and resilience, climate change and environmental sustainability, clean energy transition and digital transformation will be adopted at the summit.
AFP
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