A new multimillion-dollar contribution from the US to solve the serious immigration crisis that affects Latin America was announced on Wednesday in New York, during a meeting with the signatory countries of the Declaration of the Angels and includes funds for the care of immigrants in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that the United States will allocate a new allocation of $685 million dollars to help Latin American and Caribbean countries welcome migrants passing through their territories, at the Fourth Ministerial Meeting on the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, in which foreign ministers and senior officials from 22 countries met to address together the challenge of migration and the forced displacement of thousands of people in Latin America.
The Los Angeles Declaration is an initiative of President Joe Biden’s government to address regional migration flows and create the conditions for safe migration, orderly, humane and regular and strengthen international protection and cooperation frameworks.
In the last two years, the 22 countries that have signed it have made substantial progress in the three fundamental pillars of the Los Angeles Declaration:
- address root causes and support migrant integration to foster long-term stabilization
- expand legal avenues for migration and protection
- strengthen law enforcement in a humane way
Blinken detailed in the meeting held within the collateral agenda of the 79th UN General Assembly, that the new funds include $369 million to help refugees and vulnerable migrants in their host countriesas well as $228 million dollars in food assistance for displaced Venezuelans in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The United States contribution will also provide $10 million for a World Bank program that promotes economic development for refugees and their host communities.
With this new contribution, Blinken said, the United States has invested more than $1.2 billion dollars in 2024 to advance the Los Angeles Declaration, signed in 2022 by twenty countries that committed to cooperating to fcurb irregular migration and expand legal avenues for migrants.
Blinken also added that two years of work after the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, at the initiative of President Joe Biden, there is “a clear impact of our collective efforts,” although he noted that there are great challenges in the face of an unprecedented global migration phenomenon.
“I am confident that together we can move toward a hemisphere where migration is a choice, made freely, carried out legally, and where people – all people – can live with security, dignity and opportunity,” Blinken said.
The White House published a fact sheet about the meeting in which it also The progress made in the management of irregular migration and the forced displacement of people is detailed.
New secretariat chaired by Colombia
The Secretary of State also announced the creation of a new secretariat, chaired on a rotating basis by Colombiawhich will be in charge of establishing the priorities of the Los Angeles Declaration for 2025.
“I am confident that together we can move towards a continent where migration is a free and legitimate option, where all people can live with security, dignity and opportunity,” Blinken concluded.
Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said at the meeting that The creation of a secretariat is “very important to advance institutionalization” of the Los Angeles Declaration.
Murillo claimed that Colombia has welcomed almost 3 million Venezuelans, of which 2.5 million have already been regularized, and that it has dedicated 1% of GDP to assist migrants.
Among other challenges on that front, the South American country has become a transit territory for hundreds of thousands of migrants who are trying to cross the region heading to the southern border of the United States.
The Colombian foreign minister explained that his country is overwhelmed by having large amounts of resources to “respond to the needs of migrants.” especially when providing health and education services.
“And we do it because that is our commitment to respond to the challenge of the hemisphere. In this, Colombia demonstrates the principle to which we committed ourselves in the Los Angeles Declaration. However, we need to expand the ways to respond to migrants who are already in transit,” he said.
Interregional cooperation focuses on the Darien Strait where it is estimated that about 500,000 migrants cross the dangerous jungle each year on their way to the United States. “We are reducing that number. And we are working with our partners in Panama to have greater immigration control in those areas,” said Murillo.
Cooperation also extends to thousands of kilometers away with the country converted into a funnel for arrivals, Mexico.
Murillo explained that this cooperation is key to addressing the problem by also detecting migrations from other regions of the world that seek to use South American countries as an entry point to the continent.
Keep reading:
• Why the immigration crisis in the US became the crucial issue in the race for the presidency
• The United States allocates $578 million more to Latin America to stop irregular immigration
• The US expands sanctions on those who facilitate “irregular migration”, mainly via Nicaragua