Biden, leaders reach migration pact despite attendance flap

President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees

President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce on Friday what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees.

“The Los Angeles Declaration” is perhaps the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas, which was undercut by differences over Biden’s invitation list. Leaders of Mexico and several Central American countries sent top diplomats instead after the U.S. excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

A set of principles to be announced Friday on the summit's final day includes legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, humane border management and coordinated emergency responses, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters ahead of an official announcement.

It is a blueprint already being followed to a large extent by Colombia and Ecuador, whose right-leaning leaders were warmly greeted at the summit for welcoming many of the 6 million people who have left Venezuela in recent years.

President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador last week announced temporary status for Venezuelans in his country, estimated to be around 500,000. He said at a panel discussion Tuesday that his country was paying back the generosity of Spain and the United States for welcoming large numbers of Ecuadoreans who fled more than two decades ago.

President Ivan Duque of Colombia got standing ovations at an appearance Thursday for describing how his government has granted temporary status to 1 million Venezuelans in the last 14 months and is processing another 800,000 applications.

“We did it out of conviction,” Duque told The Associated Press, saying he couldn't be indifferent to Venezuelans who lost their homes and livelihoods and was prepared to suffer in approval ratings.

“They were invisible (in Colombia),” he said. "They couldn't open bank accounts, they couldn't work, they couldn't get health care. They were practically a community with no future."

While the measures are not universally popular, Venezuelans have assimilated without major backlash.

“The two most dangerous phenomena are xenophobia and indifference, and I believe we have managed to conquer both (in Colombia),” Duque said.

The United States has been the most popular destination for asylum-seekers since 2017, posing a challenge that has stumped Biden and his immediate predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

But the U.S. is far from alone. Colombia and neighboring South American countries host millions of people who have fled Venezuela. Mexico fielded more than 130,000 asylum applications last year, many of them Haitians, which was triple from 2020. Many Nicaraguans escape to Costa Rica, while displaced Venezuelans account for about one-sixth the population of tiny Aruba.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that the summit declaration acknowledged migration's regional dimensions.

“It’s a hemispheric challenge,” he said in an interview, singling out Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica for hosting large numbers of migrants.

The responses of Colombia and Ecuador cannot be replicated, said José Samaniego, the U.N. refugee agency's regional director for the Americas. Each country is different, and migration from Central America is more complicated than Venezuela.

“You don't want to copy and paste," he said, “but there are good practices.”