17 NOV 2021
North American Leaders’ Summit is an Opportunity to Strengthen Regional Response to Global Migration
WASHINGTON, DC - As many families remember the anniversary of twin hurricanes that devastated Central America and displaced millions a year ago today, President Biden will host the North American Leaders’ Summit (NALS) to strengthen and address the regional responsibility to notable challenges, including migration policy.
“After four years of Trump’s failed leadership that showed little to no regard in addressing the causes of forced migration, we will finally witness an administration taking an innovative and meaningful approach to a global challenge,” stated Sergio Gonzales, Executive Director of the Immigration Hub. “NALS is an opportunity to bring together Canada and Mexico as partners to advance ideas, policies and cooperation aimed at tackling climate change and economic and political instability impacting regional migration. No country can do it alone. Just a year ago, the homes and livelihoods of millions of Central Americans were destroyed by two hurricanes. Haiti today faces the dangerous aftermath of an earthquake and a coup. President Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau and President López Obrador all share the responsibility to move forward a new vision for the region where all people can thrive and where migrants and refugees are welcomed with humanity and not as threats.”
The North American Leaders Summit serves as a launching pad for ongoing collaboration and commitments to create more safe, humane and orderly pathways for refugees and migrants, who are often displaced by climate, economic and political crises across the region. Top priorities for the Biden-Harris administration should include the following:
1. Regional and Coordinated Response to Refugee and Migration Crisis in the Americas.The growing refugee and migration crisis in the Americas requires a regional, coordinated response. In follow-up toNALS, the U.S. should request and prepare for a second meeting with Canada and Mexico to agree on shared leadership for regional migration and to discuss commitments toward responsibility sharing that each country could make, in consultation with civil society and UN agencies. These should include increased pathways for migration, refugee resettlement, and financial and technical support for humanitarian and development projects in countries with high outward migration, or high numbers of arrivals from other countries in the region.
Once they have committed to concrete, specific pledges, the U.S., Canada and Mexico should jointly pursue commitments from other governments in the region through sub-regional pledging conferences (e.g. “Central American and Caribbean Migration Conference”, “South American Migration Conference”), incentivizing strong pledges by offering increased financial, technical and migratory pathways to countries that make ambitious commitments.
In April or May 2022, regional discussions should culminate in anAmericas Migration Summit, where countries publicly make their pledges toward sharing responsibility in a multitude of ways, and engage in bilateral and multilateral negotiations to support the creation of regional and national plans of action consistent with the pledges made.
2. Re-Establish America’s Leadership on Refugee Resettlement.As an outcome ofNALS, the U.S. has the opportunity to re-establish its position as a leader on refugee resettlement globally ahead of the UN Refugee Summit in December. In fact, President Biden’s commitment to resettling 125,000 refugees in FY2022 is an important model for other countries and will return the U.S. to its traditional role as the top refugee resettlement country in the world. The Biden-Harris administration should be ready to speak to the goals of the program and the steady rebuilding of a resettlement program deeply damaged by the previous administration.
However, the U.S. cannot credibly make the case for a return to international leadership if U.S. asylum and border policies continue to deny asylum seekers access to protection based on the racist and xenophobic programs of the Trump administration. The critical need for a functioning asylum system makes terminating Title 42 urgent, on or before December 1 when the CDC will conduct its next 60-day review of the policy.
3. Complementary pathways for migration and funding are critically needed and should be pursued.Through swift action, robust staffing and the allocation of sufficient resources, hundreds of thousands of currently available migration pathways could be allocated to the region in FY2022, with a particular focus on El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras. Pathways could include the strategic use of refugee resettlement, CAM, the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, a new family-based parole program, and the use of the EB-3 permanent employment category.
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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.