Biden to host first-of-its-kind Americas summit to address immigration struggles
President Biden is set to host a first-of-its-kind summit with representatives of 11 countries next month to address the hemisphere's growing immigration struggles.
The Americas Summit is set to be held Nov. 3 in Washington and hosted by the president, who has invited leaders of Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay to attend, the White House tells CBS News.
The countries are members of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), launched last year at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles to address concerns about economic development, inequality, and the fate of hemisphere's democracies.
A senior administration official said in a statement that the summit would provide an opportunity to deepen economic integration among western hemisphere countries. The official said the aim of the summit is to "drive more inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and tackle the underlying economic drivers of irregular migration in our hemisphere."
During the summit, leaders are expected to establish three discrete tracks, in finance, trade and foreign affairs, for countries to quickly begin to set specific goals and the processes to start executing them, the official also said.
The gathering comes as the president is asking Congress for roughly $6.4 billion to shore up border security programs, a response to growing bipartisan concerns on Capitol Hill, plus notable public ire from Democratic governors and big-city mayors about how the Biden administration is struggling to respond to a record-setting number of illegal border crossings. Republican presidential candidates continue to criticize the Biden administration's immigration and border security policies — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has even called for the use of U.S. military forces along the southern border to keep drug cartels from smuggling across fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
A record approximately 50,000 migrants from crisis-stricken Venezuela crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in September, while thousands are still coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and other countries. In response, the Biden administration this week restarted direct deportations to Venezuela, resuming a practice suspended amid strained relations with the government of the country's leader, Nicolas Maduro. Amid a widespread economic crisis, Venezuelans are leaving their homeland in record numbers, the largest refugee exodus recorded in the Western Hemisphere according to the United Nations.
But this week, Maduro's government and representatives of opposition parties agreed to restart negotiations that could lead to free presidential elections next year and the release of political prisoners, moves that could prompt the Biden administration to ease sanctions on the country's oil industry. That relief is also dependent on whether Maduro follows through with the release of three Americans — Eyvin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore, and Joseph Cristella — who are classified by the State Department as "wrongfully detained."
The emergency spending request submitted Friday by the White House to Congress asks for $4.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security to build new immigrant holding facilities and to reimburse the Pentagon for military support along the border.
The administration's request includes a $1.9 billion ask for the Department of Health and Human Service's ongoing care and support for unaccompanied migrant children and families, plus a $204 million request to pay for a Trump-era policy requiring the Justice Department to collect DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants crossing annually.
It is not yet clear if the leaders of all 11 countries plan to attend the summit, but invitations to various events to be held on the sidelines of the summit began circulating around Washington this week. The meetings are the brainchild of Christopher J. Dodd, a special presidential adviser for the Americas whose State Department perch gives him wide latitude over western hemisphere policy. A longtime friend of the president and former Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, he's one of the most seasoned American policymakers on Latin America.
Leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – three countries from whom tens of thousands of people have fled in recent years and through which tens of thousands of others must traverse on their way to Mexico and the United States – were not invited to the summit because they did not join the APEP accords last year, according to diplomats familiar with the planning. All three countries have frosty relations with the Biden administration given concerns about a loosening of democratic norms and tougher law enforcement policies that have led to the wrongful imprisonment of thousands of people, especially in El Salvador.
