Saved by the campaign, Joe Biden obtained a “historic commitment” to favor legal migration. Twenty countries in the region, including some whose presidents did not travel to California to show their discomfort with the United States, signed the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection on Friday, which represents unprecedented progress and shows a certain unity of action beyond the political struggle that has marked the IX Summit of the Americas.
“It is the first time in the hemisphere that we meet to share responsibility for the migratory challenge,” concluded the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, when thousands of disinherited people from Venezuela, Honduras, Cuba, Haiti and other countries in the region.
The expectations were so low and the political pressure from the three dictatorships and their allies so high that in the end the White House feels a certain relief when the country looks askance at Los Angeles, focused on what is happening around the process for the storming of the Capitol.
The final agreement includes Spain, according to the document distributed by the US administration. Madrid will double the number of job routes for Hondurans to participate in circular migration programs.
The goal of the 20 nations (USA, Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Barbados, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Argentina) is reinforce legal emigration, reinforce economic aid to the most disadvantaged and facilitate the return of those who are rejected. The fight against climate change, which has hit Central America and the Caribbean so hard and has pushed migration, also has its own chapter in the agreements.
With the first package of 314 million dollars, Washington will promote humanitarian “relief” for refugees and vulnerable migrants, including Venezuelans, one of the largest diasporas on the planet. Among its specific commitments, it also highlights that it will receive 20,000 Latin American refugees in the next two years
A pilot program, valued at 65 million dollars, will promote temporary work for temporary employees from Central America and Haiti. Both Canada (50,000 workers) and Mexico (20,000) will integrate refugees into their labor market.
One of the great pending issues is the asylum system on its borders, overwhelmed today by waves of emigrants. Since last month, the administration has tried to speed up the processing of applications for those who meet the requirements.
“The declaration, which includes important commitments to promote safe, orderly and legal migration, is positive because it undoubtedly responds to the urgent need to address the challenges and abuses faced by millions of migrants in the Americas,” said Tamara Taraciuk, Acting Director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“On paper it sounds good, but everything will depend on the implementation and above all on how they are going to manage the border,” María Puerta Riera, a professor of American government in Florida, told EL MUNDO.
At the moment, a relief for Biden, “who is facing a difficult domestic situation: inflation and the price of gasoline continue to rise and the stock market broke a record low. The Democratic president has a priority: to avoid a more severe defeat of which is expected for the mid-term elections in November”, concluded the political scientist.
Trump supporters accuse the government of promoting illegal emigration, while Biden’s own supporters remind him of his electoral promise to “humanize” emigration.
Although the agreement is signed by some of its allies, such as Mexico and Argentina, the reaction from Havana was swift. “It is an example of its (USA) racist, xenophobic and plundering vision of migrants. It does not understand in any way the real causes of migration,” added Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, who called for dialogue and “genuine collaboration” of all governments involved.
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