McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. officials are in Guatemala City, Guatemala, this week to participate in talks with other nations from the Western Hemisphere regarding ways to combat irregular migration and strengthen regional border security.
The third Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection Ministerial begins Tuesday in Guatemala with representatives from over 20 countries, but some meetings start Monday, senior administration officials said during a call Monday morning with media.
Two previous talks — held in 2022 at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, and another held that year in Lima, Peru — set the stage for regional discussions, and “regional collaboration is working,” a senior administration official said, in helping to reduce migrants from trying to illegally cross borders, including the Southwest border of the United States.
“All of these efforts and what we are doing regionally is working. We are seeing a significant reduction so far this year as opposed to the previous two years and we attribute that to consequences we are imposing at our border, as well as the enforcement efforts our partners in Mexico and further south are taking as well,” a senior administration official said. “This is a shared responsibility for the U.S. and the region and we look forward to the meetings today and tomorrow in Guatemala to continue to have these conversations with our partners.”
At the first meeting in Los Angeles, a migration pact was signed by President Joe Biden and 20 other leaders across the region.
The United States, at that time, also announced it would provide millions of dollars in assistance to help humanitarian efforts and supporting labor pathways.
On Monday, senior administration officials said another announcement involving “a multi-hundred-million dollar commitment tomorrow, providing humanitarian and development assistance to foster assimilation of migrant communities … and efforts to fully integrate migrants,” will be announced Tuesday.
No other information was given, except that officials said this is new funding, not previously announced.
In 2022, the United States pledged $331 million in humanitarian and long-term development assistance across the region. The U.S. Agency for International Development also pledged at the time:
- $171 million in humanitarian assistance to what it called the “Venezuela regional crisis,” which included $72.7 million for health care, food nutrition and other services through United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, and $98.2 million for Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
- $35.9 million to promote the social and economic integration of millions of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in South America through policy reform, pathways for legal status, professional certification, job training and placement.
- $4.1 million in Central America to expand work opportunities in Belize, Costa Rica and Panama.
“Migration presents a complex challenge but one we believe we can manage if we coordinate our efforts while creating lawful alternatives for people to migrate, settle and thrive, and, of course, addressing the root causes,” a senior administration official said. “We’ll share the progress we’ve made with our combined efforts, and identify next steps.”
Main emphasis during this week’s talks will center on these three discussions:
- Fostering regional stability by addressing the root causes driving people to migrate, and helping to support communities where migrants are going.
- Establishing refugee resettlement programs and lawful pathways to the United States.
- Strengthening enforcement of borders and working with regional partners to manage migration “in a humane way,” officials said.
Officials touted a 40% drop in encounters along the Southwest border in the first four months of Fiscal Year 2024, from Fiscal 2023.
They cited aggressive repatriation of individuals not qualified to remain in the United States “resulting in record use of expedited removal at our border and record removals and repatriations of individuals.” That includes removals to 170 countries.
From May 12 — when Title 42 was lifted — until April 3, DHS has removed or returned over 690,000 people, most of whom crossed the Southwest border, including over 105 ,000 family members, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports.
But DHS has permitted over 435,000 nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to arrive at the border using the U.S. humanitarian parole processing requirements, the official said.
Also, 547,000 migrants have been allowed to schedule asylum interviews via the agency’s CBP One app since last May, the official said.
The agency reported that in March, Border Patrol recorded 137,480 migrant encounters between U.S. ports of entry on the Southwest border — a 45% drop from December 2023, and a 16% drop from March 2023.
Sources tell NewsNation that the number U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions in April fell to 128,949. The San Diego Sector led with 37,374 encounters, followed by Tucson with 31,245; and El Paso with 30,411.
Officials on Monday also announced that the State Department imposed visa restrictions on executives of several Colombian transportation companies who are accused of moving migrants illegally by sea and transporting them to the dangerous Darrien Gap in Panama.
“We will work globally with our partners to share information so we can take real-plan action to deter and stop irregular migration and better identify and expel various actors,” the senior official said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@Borderreport.com.
