We, the Heads of State and Government of the Argentine Republic, Barbados, Belize, the Federative Republic of Brazil, Canada, the Republic of Chile, the Republic of Colombia, the Republic of Costa Rica, the Republic of Ecuador, the Republic of El Salvador, the Republic of Guatemala, the Republic of Haiti, the Republic of Honduras, Jamaica, the United Mexican States, the Republic of Panama, the Republic of Paraguay, the Republic of Peru, the United States of America, and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, gathered in Los Angeles on the margins of the Ninth Summit of the Americas, reiterate our will to strengthen national, regional, and hemispheric efforts to create the conditions for safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration and to strengthen frameworks for international protection and cooperation.
We embrace the need to promote the political, economic, security, social, and environmental conditions for people to lead peaceful, productive, and dignified lives in their countries of origin. Migration should be a voluntary, informed choice and not a necessity.
We are committed to protecting the safety and dignity of all migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless persons, regardless of their migratory status, and respecting their human rights and fundamental freedoms. We intend to cooperate closely to facilitate safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration and, as appropriate, promote safe and dignified returns, consistent with national legislation, the principle of non-refoulement, and our respective obligations under international law.
We acknowledge that addressing irregular international migration requires a regional approach, and that ongoing health, social, and economic challenges of the pandemic exacerbate the root causes driving irregular migration, including the vulnerabilities of many migrants and their communities.
We value the tradition of our region in welcoming refugees and migrants and showing solidarity with our neighbors. We recognize the positive contributions of refugees and migrants to the socio-economic development of their host communities. We recognize the sustained efforts of States in our hemisphere in hosting refugees, providing regular migration pathways, promoting local economic and social integration, facilitating safe, dignified, and voluntary return, and supporting the sustainable reintegration of returnees.
We remain committed to collectively leveraging the benefits of migration while addressing its challenges in countries and communities of origin, transit, destination, and return. We do so in a spirit of collaboration, solidarity, and shared responsibility among States and in partnership with civil society and international organizations. We reaffirm our shared commitment to supporting host communities; strengthening and expanding regular pathways and access to international protection; fostering opportunities for decent work; facilitating regularization and access to basic services; and promoting principles of safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration.
We also intend to strengthen the institutions that are responsible for migration management in our countries and exchange best practices in order to provide efficient and adequate care to migrants and access to protection for refugees.
We affirm that countries of origin and countries and communities hosting large numbers of migrants and refugees may need international financing and assistance related to development, basic humanitarian needs, protection, security, public health, education, financial inclusion, and employment, among others. We support efforts that allow all migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and persons in situations of vulnerability to integrate into host countries and access legal identity, regular status, dignified employment, public services, and international protection, when appropriate and in accordance with national legislation, to rebuild their lives and contribute to those communities. We plan to continue efforts to prevent and reduce statelessness. We intend to expand efforts to address the root causes of irregular migration throughout our hemisphere, improving conditions and opportunities in countries of origin and promoting respect for human rights. We reaffirm the importance of safe, dignified, and sustainable return, readmission, and reintegration of migrants to help them reestablish themselves in their communities of origin. We further reaffirm the importance of ensuring all foreign nationals receive prompt consular assistance when needed or requested, and returnees are treated humanely and in a dignified manner, regardless of their immigration status, including in the process of their repatriation and return.
We affirm that regular pathways, including circular and seasonal labor migration opportunities, family reunification, temporary migration mechanisms, and regularization programs promote safer and more orderly migration. We intend to strengthen fair labor migration opportunities in the region, integrating robust safeguards to ensure ethical recruitment and employment free of exploitation, violence, and discrimination, consistent with respect for human rights and with a gender perspective. We intend to promote, in accordance with national legislation, the recognition of qualifications and the portability of social benefits. We intend to pursue accountability for those who commit human rights violations and abuses. We plan to promote access to protection and complementary pathways for asylum seekers, refugees, and stateless persons in accordance with national legislation and with respect for the principle of non-refoulement. We seek to promote border security and management processes that respect human rights and encourage and facilitate lawful, safe, and secure travel within the region. We commit to guarantee human rights to individuals in vulnerable situations and to provide access to international protection, as appropriate. We further intend to provide specialized and gender-responsive attention to individuals in situations of vulnerability.
Renewing our commitment to respect and ensure the human rights of all migrants and persons in need of international protection, we recognize each country’s responsibility to manage mixed movements across international borders in a secure, humane, orderly, and regular manner. We intend to expand collaborative efforts to save lives, address violence and discrimination, counter xenophobia, and combat smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons. This includes expanded collaboration to prosecute migrant smuggling and human trafficking criminal organizations as well as their facilitators and money laundering networks. We commit to provide appropriate protection and assistance to victimized individuals. We intend, in accordance with national legislation, to improve and facilitate regional law enforcement information sharing, with the purpose of supporting the investigation and prosecution of crimes. We intend to explore new mechanisms, while preserving and leveraging existing regional, subregional, hemispheric, and global fora, to strengthen cooperation on border management and apply current mechanisms on visa regimes and regularization processes to combat exploitation by criminal groups. In the instance of foreign nationals without a need for international protection and without a legal basis to remain in their country of presence, we commit to conduct any returns in a manner consistent with our respective obligations under international human rights law and international refugee law, and that respects the dignity of the individual, integrates safeguards to prevent refoulement, and promotes the return of children to safe conditions.
Recognizing the imperative of promoting safe, orderly, and regular migration, and the safety of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the region, we intend to work to cooperate in emergency response and humanitarian assistance in situations of mass migration and refugee movements. We plan to strengthen existing regional coordination mechanisms and, as appropriate, the participation of civil society and international organizations to advance those aims. This includes strengthening information sharing, as appropriate and in accordance with national legislation, enhancing early warning systems, leveraging existing relevant fora and processes, and defining a common set of triggers that activate a coordinated response.
To advance the common goals laid out in this Declaration and create the conditions for safe, orderly, humane, and regular migration through robust responsibility sharing, we intend to work together across the hemisphere to:
However, that message was clouded by a partial boycott by leaders, including Mexico’s president, to protest Washington’s exclusion of leftist U.S. antagonists Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The summit’s line-up was thinned down to 21.
At the summit’s opening on Thursday, leaders from Argentina and tiny Belize rebuked Biden face-to-face over the guest list, underscoring the challenge the global superpower faces in restoring its influence among poorer neighbors.
On Friday, Chile, the Bahamas, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda joined the criticism, though Biden was not present. ‘We can’t have exclusions,’ said new Chilean leftist President Gabriel Boric. The summit’s line-up was thinned down to 21.
The declaration, due to be presented by Biden and other leaders on Friday, ‘seeks to mobilize the entire region around bold actions that will transform our approach to managing migration in the Americas,’ the White House said.
Though Biden had previewed the migration plan as ‘ground-breaking,’ a person familiar with the matter said some countries are unlikely to endorse it. Some Caribbean states are expected to withhold their approval, an official said.
U.S. officials were working up until the last minute to persuade skeptical governments to accept, or at least not openly oppose, any of the provisions, another person familiar with the negotiations said.
U.S. officials believe the open backlash Biden faced in Thursday´s session reinforced the determination of some leaders against caving in to American pressure over the declaration, the source familiar with the matter said.
Some initiatives listed by the White House had been previously announced.
The summit sessions regularly rang out to U.S. composer’s John Philip Sousa’s ‘The Liberty Bell’ march, a tune popularized by the classic British comedy show ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus.’
LIMITED EFFECTS
‘Addressing the unprecedented migration crisis in the region requires us to rethink how we view multilateral development finance and how we manage the strains on our economies,’ the White House said.
Eric Olson, director of policy and strategic initiatives at the Seattle International Foundation, called the declaration a ‘useful framework for working on solutions’ but said it would likely have limited near-term effects because it is non-binding.
Mexico, whose long border with the United States is the main point of irregular migration – will back the declaration, an official said, despite President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s no-show.
The absence from the summit of the leaders of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – the Northern Triangle region from which many migrants come – has raised doubts how effective the pledges will be. U.S. officials have said the turnout would not prevent Washington from getting results.
The declaration encompasses commitments by an array of countries, including Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Belize and Ecuador. There was no mention, however, of any pledges by Brazil, Latin America’s most populous nation.
The White House’s announcement did not include any U.S. pledges for additional work visas for Mexicans. That would form part Lopez Obrador’s visit with Biden next month, an official said.
Observer Spain pledged to ‘double the number of labor pathways’ for Hondurans in its migration program, the White House said. Madrid’s temporary work program enrolls 250 Hondurans, suggesting only a small increase is envisioned.
Curbing irregular migration is a top priority for Biden as the number of attempted illegal border crossings has risen to record highs.
Republicans, who hope to regain control of Congress in November elections, have pilloried the Democratic president for reversing the restrictive immigration policies of Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
But migration has had to compete with Biden’s other challenges at home and abroad including high inflation, mass shootings and the war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Daina Beth Solomon, Dave Graham, Matt Spetalnick, Trevor Hunnicutt, Lisanda Paraguassu, Ted Hesson; writing by Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)