US Reportedly Talking to Madrid About Resettling Latin American Migrants in Spain

Border Patrol reported over 1.6 million migrant encounters along the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2021, the highest rate on record. President Biden’s push to scrap Title 42, a Trump-era expulsion tool whose status is in limbo after a judge ordered its extension, has sparked attacks from the GOP accusing him of deliberately aggravating the crisis.

The United States and Spain are discussing a “historic” agreement that would commit Madrid to accept and resettle refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean, Axios reports, citing internal planning documents.

Under the deal, which is expected to be formally announced at the Summit of the Americas next week, Spain would accept a “modest” but “symbolically important” number of refugees, and double or even triple the number of worker permits it issues to people from Central America to help resolve the Iberian nation’s labour shortages.

Washington also expects Canada to pitch in, according to the report, with Ottawa set to announce plans to take in some 5,000 refugees from the Western Hemisphere over a multiyear period –including a special “recruitment and promotion” strategy targeting Haitians specifically. Canada accepted less than 1,500 refugees from the Western Hemisphere between 2015 and March 2022, a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of thousands Ottawa has taken in from Asia and Europe over the same period, and the 405,000 immigrants arriving in the country in 2021 alone.

The resettlement programmes are expected to be added to the ‘Los Angeles Declaration’ – the document signed by the Summit of the America’s participants. Migration issues are expected to be a central theme of this year’s event, which many Latin American countries have threatened to boycott over Washington’s snub of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The potential deal with Spain and Canada could be the life preserver the Biden administration is looking for amid looming midterms as it struggles to tackle or absorb the hundreds of thousands of would-be migrants clamouring to enter the United States via Mexico.

Attempted migrant crossing data has topped figures from last year every month so far in 2022, with Customs and Border Patrol reporting over 234,000 stops on the border in April – 5 percent more than the 221,303 observed in March, and well above the 157,555 encounters reported in April 2021.

Illegal immigration began to animate Biden administration’s critics almost immediately after the Democrat stepped into office and proceeded to dismantle a series of Trump-era federal directives on the matter in January 2021, including the Republican’s famous “border wall” and the “Remain in Mexico” programme.

The Department of Homeland Security and the US Centers for Disease Control announced plans to scrap Title 42 –a Trump-era immigration directive which allowed border officials to expel over 80 percent of immigrants caught trying to enter the country illegally under the pretext of Covid-related health concerns. A federal judge blocked the measure’s repeal late last month, with the White House vowing to appeal the ruling.