Biden will host Summit of the Americas on immigration

Next month, US President Joe Biden will host a first-of-its-kind 11-nation summit on immigration issues in the Western Hemisphere. Writes about this CBS News.

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According to the White House, the Summit of the Americas will be held on November 3 in Washington under the leadership of the president, who has invited the leaders of Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay to participate.

These countries are members of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), created last year at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California, to address economic development, inequality and the fate of democracies in the Western Hemisphere.

A senior administration official said in a statement that the summit will provide an opportunity to deepen economic integration among countries in the Western Hemisphere. According to him, the goal of the summit is “to ensure more inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and to address the economic causes of illegal migration in our hemisphere.”

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During the summit, leaders are expected to create three separate tracks - in the areas of finance, trade and foreign affairs - so that countries can quickly begin setting specific goals and processes for achieving them.

The meeting comes as the president is asking Congress for roughly $6,4 billion to bolster border security programs, responding to growing bipartisan concerns on Capitol Hill as well as visible public dissatisfaction among governors and major city mayors over the Biden administration's mismanagement with record numbers of illegal border crossings.

Republican presidential candidates continue to criticize the Biden administration's immigration and border security policies, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis even calling for the use of U.S. military forces on the southern border to stop drug cartels from smuggling fentanyl and other illegal drugs.

In September, some 50 migrants from crisis-stricken Venezuela crossed the US-Mexico border, with thousands more arriving from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador and other countries. In response, the Biden administration this week again resorted to direct deportations to Venezuela, resuming a practice suspended amid tensions with the government of leader Nicolas Maduro. Amid a widespread economic crisis, Venezuelans are fleeing their homeland in record numbers, the largest refugee exodus recorded in the Western Hemisphere, according to the United Nations.

But Maduro's government and opposition parties agreed this week to resume talks that could lead to free presidential elections next year and the release of political prisoners, which could prompt the Biden administration to ease sanctions on the country's oil industry. The easing of sanctions also depends on whether Maduro releases three Americans - Eivin Hernandez, Jerrel Kenemore and Joseph Cristalla - whom the State Department classifies as “unjustly detained.”

The emergency spending request submitted by the White House to Congress on Oct. 20 asked for $4,4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security to build new immigration detention centers and reimburse the Pentagon for military support at the border.

The administration's request includes a request for $1,9 billion to help the Department of Health and Human Services provide ongoing assistance and support to unaccompanied migrant children and families, and a request for $204 million to pay for a policy under Donald Trump requiring the Justice Department to collect samples. DNA from hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants crossing the border each year.

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It is unclear whether the leaders of all 11 countries plan to attend the summit, but this week Washington began extending invitations to various events that will be held on the sidelines of the summit.

The leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - three countries from which tens of thousands of people have fled in recent years and through which tens of thousands of others have been forced to pass on their way to Mexico and the United States - were not invited to the summit because, according to diplomats familiar with the planning, , they did not join the APEP agreements last year.

All three countries have strained relations with the Biden administration, which is concerned about weakening democratic norms and tougher law enforcement policies that have led to the wrongful imprisonment of thousands of people, especially in El Salvador.

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