Migration gets top billing as foreign policy issue
President hosts hemisphere leaders in a call to action
Migration has taken center stage at an assembly of Western Hemisphere leaders, reflecting its emergence as a top foreign policy issue amid red-carpet drama over who comes and who stays home.
The “Los Angeles Declaration,” to be announced while U.S. President Joe Biden meets with his counterparts from North, Central and South America Wednesday through Friday, is expected to be a brief call to action that supporters hope will guide countries on hosting people fleeing violence and persecution and searching for more economic stability.
The United States has been the most popular destination for asylumseekers since 2017, posing a challenge that has stumped Biden and his immediate predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
But the U.S. is far from alone. Colombia and neighboring South American countries host millions who have fled Venezuela. Mexico fielded more than 130,000 asylum applications last year, many of them Haitians, which was triple from 2020. Many Nicaraguans escape to Costa Rica, while displaced Venezuelans account for about one-sixth the population of tiny Aruba.
“Countries are already having to do this, so rather than each country trying to sort this out and figure it out for themselves, what we’re doing is saying, ‘Let’s come together in a coherent way and construct a framework so we can all work together to make this situation more humane and more manageable,’” said Brian Nichols, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Biden arrived at the summit Wednesday, trailed by questions about how much progress he can make on migration and other issues when some of his counterparts from the region — most notably Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — are boycotting the event.
The controversy has undermined the start of the summit, which is being hosted by the U.S. for the first time since the inaugural event in 1994, at a time when China has been trying to make inroads in the region.
Although Biden was heavily involved in Latin America while he was vice president, his focus has largely been elsewhere since taking office as president last year. He’s been trying to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward Asia while also rallying allies to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Some concrete measures may be announced, perhaps funding for development banks.
Nichols said Monday that discussing any specific initiatives would be premature, but officials have made clear the agreement will be largely aspirational.
There is widespread agreement that relief must target growth and stability for entire communities in which migrants live, not just migrants.
“If you only help the migrants and not the communities around them, that’s counterproductive,” Nichols said.
The agreement may call for more pathways to legal status, mechanisms to reunite families, more efficient and humane border controls and improved information sharing, according to experts who have seen drafts.
In another area, Biden on Wednesday planned to announce a new partnership to help rebuild the economies of Latin American and Caribbean countries, which suffered the steepest contractions during the pandemic and have struggled with global inflation that followed.
The administration wants to draw greater private investment into those countries.
The White House outlined development goals for the region in a fact sheet that includes clean energy, stronger supply chains and improved governance on corruption and tax issues.
Also planned are new efforts to bolster Latin America’s health systems.
By working with the Pan American Health Organization, Washington aims to provide more training to 500,000 public health, health science and medical workers over the next five years, according to a senior administration official.
Leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are skipping the Summit of the Americas, depriving Biden of unity amid the photo opportunities and pageantry starting with an inaugural ceremony Wednesday.