THE ANGELS –
Leaders across America, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, signed what US President Joe Biden called a “historic compromise” on Friday to ease the pressure of northward migration.
The deal, the central success of the Summit of the Americas in California, pledges Canada to spend $ 26.9 million this year to curb the flow of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection also includes Canada’s promise to host an additional 4,000 migrants from the region by 2028, as well as a pre-existing plan to incorporate 50,000 more agricultural workers from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean.
“Each of us is signing for commitments and recognizing the challenges we all share and the responsibilities that affect all of our nations,” Biden said as he shared the stage with 19 fellow leaders.
He blamed the growing migratory pressure on the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was exacerbated by the Ukrainian war and what he called the “nuisance” caused by autocracies in the region.
Colombia, he said, hosts millions of refugees from Venezuela, while up to 10% of Costa Rica’s population is made up of migrants, a problem that he said requires a collective approach to health. and the welfare of the hemisphere.
“Our security is linked in a way that I don’t think most people in my country fully understand, and maybe not in your country either,” Biden said.
“Our common humanity demands that we take care of our neighbors by working together.”
Canada’s new funding will go to programs to improve the integration and management of borders, protect the rights of migrants and host communities, advance gender equality and combat human trafficking.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly wondered on Friday about the seemingly insignificant number of new migrants Canada has agreed to host over the next six years. Canada is already doing a lot, he said.
“Migration is certainly a problem throughout the hemisphere, but we also know that we are doing our part every year by taking one percent of our population as new immigrants,” Joly said.
“At the same time, we want to do it in a way that respects the system,” he added, noting that Canada and the United States continue to negotiate the terms of the agreement for a secure third country, which currently allows migrants seek refugee status in Canada if they enter the country from the United States at unofficial checkpoints.
The LA statement is based on four key pillars, Biden said: stability and assistance to communities, broader legal migration routes, human migration management, and a coordinated emergency response.
It aims, the White House said in an information sheet released earlier in the day, to “mobilize the entire region around bold actions that will transform our approach to migration management in the Americas.”
It includes commitments from a number of Latin American and Caribbean nations throughout, from economic stabilization and humanitarian aid to the “regularization” of migrants living illegally in host countries.
Colombia, for example, has already regularized 1.2 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees, and has agreed to do the same for another 1.5 million by the end of the summer.
Not in vain, the United States is doing the heaviest work, including $ 25 million to support countries that are implementing new regularization programs, $ 314 million for stabilization efforts, and a $ 65 million pilot project. dollars to support agricultural workers.
The Biden administration is also committed to resettling 20,000 refugees from America over the next two years, three times the current resettlement rate, the White House said.
At the same time as funding and resettlement efforts, the U.S. plans to crack down on human trafficking operations, including a new “unprecedented-scale” campaign to disrupt and dismantle criminal smuggling companies in Latin America.
Earlier in the day, Trudeau sat down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who gave him a warm welcome as he met with the congressional delegation at the summit.
“We can no longer imagine that we are isolated or isolated from what is happening in the rest of the world; the pandemic has taught us that climate change is teaching us,” Trudeau said.
“We all have a responsibility to each of us.”
Trudeau also had to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
On Thursday, Trudeau met for an hour with Biden, who accepted a visit to Canada in the “coming months,” his first since becoming president amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we both share the same sense that the possibilities of our hemisphere are limitless,” Biden told Trudeau, calling it “the most democratic hemisphere in the world.”
Trudeau responded by saying that it is “extraordinarily important” that close partners such as Canada and the United States be there for each other and for allies around the world.
“The work we can do to support, project and share our values is a way to support and impact citizens around the world,” Trudeau said.
Doing so, he said, helps to argue “that democracy is not only fairer, but also better for citizens, putting food on the table, putting the future ahead of them.”
The official reading of the federal government of the meeting mentioned their mutual support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, and that Trudeau also raised Canada’s support for NATO and the plan to modernize the continental defense system known as to Norad.
Trudeau also “expressed support” for Biden’s hemispheric proposal “Association for Economic Prosperity,” but the reading did not mention whether Canada has been invited to participate.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 10, 2022.