Leaders across the United States, including Prime Minister Justin Trindade, on Friday signed what US President Joe Biden called a “historic commitment” to easing immigration pressure north. The deal, the central achievement of the US Summit in California, commits Canada to spending $ 26.9 million this year to slow the flow of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. The Los Angeles Declaration on Immigration and Protection also includes a Canadian promise to welcome an additional 4,000 migrants from the region by 2028, as well as a pre-existing plan to attract 50,000 more farm workers from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean. “Each of us signs commitments and recognizes 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 growing immigration pressure on the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and what he called the “upheaval” caused by totalitarian regimes in the region. Colombia, he said, hosts millions of refugees from Venezuela, while 10 percent of Costa Rica’s population is made up of immigrants – a problem he says requires a collective approach to the hemisphere’s health and prosperity. “Our security is linked in ways that I do not think most people in my country fully understand, and perhaps not in your country,” Biden said. “Our common humanity demands that we take care of our neighbors by working together.”
New Canada funding will be available for programs to improve integration and border management, protect the rights of immigrants and host communities, promote gender equality and tackle human trafficking. Secretary of State Melanie Jolie was asked Friday about the seemingly insignificant number of new immigrants that Canada has agreed to bring in over the next six years. Canada is already doing a lot, he said. “Immigration is definitely an issue across the hemisphere, but we also know that we play our part every year by taking one percent of our population as new immigrants,” Jolie said. “At the same time, we want to do it in a way that respects the system,” he said, noting that Canada and the United States continue to negotiate the terms of the Safe Third Country Agreement, which currently allows immigrants to seek refugee status. . Canada if they enter the country from the US at unofficial crossing points. The Los Angeles statement is based on four key pillars, Biden said: stability and assistance to communities, broader legal migration routes, humane immigration management and a coordinated emergency response. It seeks to mobilize the entire region around bold actions that will transform our approach to managing immigration to America, the White House said in a news release earlier in the day. It includes commitments from a number of Latin American and Caribbean countries on everything from economic stabilization and humanitarian aid to the “legalization” of migrants living illegally in host countries. Colombia, for example, has already legalized 1.2 million immigrants and refugees from Venezuela and agreed to do the same for another 1.5 million by the end of the summer. Unsurprisingly, the US is making the biggest increase, including $ 25 million to support countries implementing new legalization programs, $ 314 million to stabilize efforts and a $ 65 million pilot project to support agricultural workers. The Biden administration is also committed to resettling 20,000 refugees from the United States over the next two years, three times the current rate of resettlement, the White House said. At the same time as funding and resettlement efforts, the United States plans to crack down on human trafficking, including a new “unprecedented” campaign to stop and dismantle criminal smuggling operations in Latin America. Earlier in the day, Trinto met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who warmly welcomed him as he met with the congressional delegation to the summit. “We can no longer imagine being islands or isolated from what is happening in the rest of the world – our pandemic has taught us this, climate change is teaching us that,” Trindo said. “We all have a responsibility to each of us.” Trinto was also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. On Thursday, Trinto met for an hour with Biden, who agreed on 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 feeling that the potential for our hemisphere is limitless,” Biden told Trinto, calling it “the most democratic hemisphere in the world.” Trinto responded by saying it was “extremely important” for close partners such as Canada and the United States to be there for each other and for allies around the world. “The work we can do to support, promote and share our values is a way to really support and influence citizens around the world,” Trinto said. That, he said, helps to argue that “democracy is not only fairer, it is also better for the people, putting food on the table, putting the future ahead of them.” The official reading of the meeting of the federal government mentioned their mutual support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia and that Trinto also referred to Canada’s support for NATO and the plan to modernize the continental defense system known as Norad. Trinto “also expressed support” for Biden’s proposed hemisphere “Partnership for Economic Prosperity”, but the reading did not say whether Canada had been invited to take part. This Canadian Press report was first published on June 10, 2022.
