How Biden’s ‘Los Angeles declaration’ confronts a migration surge from Cuba, Venezuela
World leaders gathered in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas agreed on Friday to take action to confront a surge in migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, three authoritarian countries that were not present at the summit.
U.S. homeland security officials have warned that migrants from these three nations have reached new heights this year — a particular challenge for U.S. authorities who do not have the diplomatic relations necessary to return them.
President Joe Biden adopted the declaration alongside other heads of state at a ceremony on Friday afternoon.
“With this declaration, we’re transforming our approach to managing migration in the Americas,” Biden said in a speech. “Each of us is signing up to commitments that recognizes the challenges we all share and the responsibility that impacts on all of our nations, and that will take all of our nations.”
Despite the absence of several heads of state from countries central to key migration routes — including Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, who protested a U.S. decision not to invite authoritarian governments — much of the region collaborated on the declaration in the months leading up to the summit and would adopt it on Friday, officials said.
Read More: U.S. seeks help controlling ‘unprecedented’ flow of migrants from Latin American nations
The “Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection” includes:
▪ A commitment from Colombia to provide legal protections for over 1.2 million Venezuelan migrants that have crossed their border since Venezuela’s economy began to collapse under the government of Nicolás Maduro five years ago. No nation has taken in more Venezuelan refugees than Colombia.
▪ Ecuador also issued a decree creating a pathway to regular migration status for Venezuelans who entered the country through regular ports of entry.
▪ And Costa Rica committed to renew special temporary protections for migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba who have arrived prior to March 2020, so long as it can obtain “necessary financial resources.” The Central American nation will also convene an international task force to secure additional support for the program.
▪ The Biden administration said it would work with Congress to provide $25 million in funding to aid Ecuador and Costa Rica’s programs, and announced an additional $314 million in new funding to assist refugees and vulnerable migrants across the hemisphere.
Read More: The Biden administration to step up family reunification for Cubans and Haitians
The administration also announced it was resuming the expedited family reunification programs for Cubans and Haitians, a policy it had previewed in May. The State Department said the United States will resettle 20,000 refugees from the Americas over the next two years, “a three-fold increase over projected arrivals this fiscal year.”
But the resettling number is small compared to the commitment of receiving 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and given the large influx of people displaced in the region.
Read More: Five developments worth knowing from Joe Biden’s Summit of the Americas in L.A.
“Protection needs are significant in the Western Hemisphere,” the White House said in a statement. “More than 5 million Venezuelans have been displaced in the Americas, and hundreds of thousands more people from other countries across Latin America and the Caribbean are also displaced.
“As the United States scales up its resettlement operations in the Americas,” the statement continued, “we call on other governments to do the same.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 12:40 PM with the headline "How Biden’s ‘Los Angeles declaration’ confronts a migration surge from Cuba, Venezuela."
