Top officials from the United States, Mexico and Guatemala met recently in Washington for their first trilateral ministerial conference on migration.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the three countries wanted “to double down on the collaboration that we have in dealing with migration flows.”
“Around the world, more people [are] on the move than at any time in recorded history, and the same is true, of course, in our own hemisphere. We have a shared commitment to safe, orderly, humane migration, and we want to make sure that the work that we are doing continues to move in that direction,” he said.
All three countries, he said, recognize the importance of focusing on root causes:
“People should have the right to remain in their own countries, but that means that the conditions have to exist that really make it not only possible but attractive for them to remain. The bottom line for so many people around the world is, if you can’t put food on the table for your kids, you’ll try to figure out anything necessary to do that ... So creating those opportunities is a critical piece of addressing this challenge.”
Secretary Blinken pointed to the major effort led by Vice President Kamala Harris in her Central America Forward Initiative, which has promoted $4.2 billion in new private sector investment in northern Central America. “We’ve already seen results,” said Secretary Blinken, “and those results are translating into new opportunities for people at home.”
Addressing root causes of irregular migration means more than creating good jobs. It means supporting democratic governance, protecting human rights, and improving security to help people build better lives at home.
In a joint statement following the meeting, the three delegations also committed to expanding lawful pathways to migration, as well as to upholding international human rights and protections standards to ensure the dignity and well-being of migrants. The three countries determined to share data about migration flows by launching a new dashboard, and to establish a trilateral working group to improve security, law enforcement processes, and infrastructure along their international borders.
“In all of these areas our countries are working together,” said Secretary Blinken, “because no single country can effectively deal with this challenge alone.”
