Every year, hundreds of thousands of people in the Western hemisphere flee their home countries to escape violence or poverty. They travel long distances in search of a new homes, frequently under terrible conditions and often through dangerous territory. Along the way, hundreds die.
That’s why, in June 2022, the Biden Administration joined 21 other leaders to sign the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. This is “very much … a regional challenge, really a global challenge, and something that’s a shared responsibility,” said Katie Tobin, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Los Angeles Declaration at the National Security Council.
“The Los Angeles Declaration … focuses really on stabilizing populations where they are, making it easier for them to rebuild their lives where they are; expanding legal pathways across the region, not just to the United States but to places where they can reunite with families, obtain a job, seek protection throughout the hemisphere; and then to collectively, humanely manage our borders,” she said.
So, for example, “We are also working closely with countries like Panama and Colombia to address the humanitarian challenge in the Darién Gap,” said Deputy Assistant Tobin. The Darién Gap, a nearly impassable region of mountains and jungle on the border between Panama and Colombia, is the world’s most dangerous migratory corridor.
“Two concrete ways in which we’re approaching this is in Panama, supporting the government there to increase repatriations of people that arrive to the Darién and don’t have a legal basis to remain,” she said. “In Colombia, we have a shared interest in giving people an alternative to go through the Darién Gap, and so we’ve been working hand-in-glove with the Colombians on the expansion of legal pathways.”
We are also working closely with Mexico on addressing the root causes of migration, said Deputy Assistant Tobin:
“It’s something both President Biden and President López Obrador have a real strong interest and conviction in the need to invest in root causes. And so, we have signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding between our development agency, USAID, their development agency, AMEXCID, and we have continued to expand that partnership in Central America and hopefully elsewhere in the hemisphere.”
“The challenge of migration will never be fixed by the U.S. and Mexico alone, at least in the Western Hemisphere,” said Deputy Assistant Tobin, “so we will continue to work to strengthen the partnerships with all 22 countries of the L.A. Declaration and really the entire hemisphere.”
