CNN —
The Biden administration will introduce additional measures to block migrants from traveling to the U.S. southern border during Tuesday’s North American Leaders’ Summit.
The latest effort comes at a time of unprecedented movement in the Western Hemisphere and is designed to curb border crossings and make legal migration programs to the United States, Mexico and Canada more accessible, according to a senior administration official.
However, the success of these measures depends on migrants seeing these options as viable, especially when they are urgently fleeing deteriorating conditions in their home countries.
During his presidency, Joe Biden has faced changing migration patterns that have presented unique administrative challenges and strained federal and local resources. The issue, in turn, has increasingly become a political soft spot for the government – which has been heavily criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike – and has been a major point of discussion with partners in the South, most notably Mexico.
Ahead of Tuesday’s summit, government officials stressed the need for a regional response that shares responsibility for stemming the flow of migration between hemisphere partners. Tuesday’s announcement reflects this.
The Biden administration is expected to announce a virtual platform that will serve as a one-stop shop for migrants to find information about legal avenues they may be eligible for — either in the US, Mexico or Canada — and opening of a new resource center in southern Mexico, the senior administration official said.
“The US, Mexico and Canada will all commit to allowing migrants to access our legal pathways through one platform,” the senior administration official told CNN.
The virtual portal is, in part, an acknowledgment of the challenges migrants face when trying to find legal ways to get to the US and then navigate the often difficult and arduous process. Instead, people often turn to smugglers who spread misinformation about US policy to travel north — a hurdle for the Biden administration as it seeks to discourage migrants taking that route.
“This is an experiment,” the senior government official said, referring to recently launched programs for certain nationalities wishing to come to the United States.
Work is underway to expand the portal and it is expected to be brought together over the next few months.
“We’re always in competition with the smugglers, so we think it’s really important to have easy-to-access, user-friendly, virtual platforms … but then centers where people can go and they know they trust the people there and accurate.” Information obtained can be transferred even on the basis of recordings and interviews,” the official added.
As part of this effort, the US is also working with Mexico to open residential centers where migrants can receive information on how to apply to migrate to the US, mirroring the migrant resource center established in Guatemala. A new center will be built in Tapachula, a city in southern Mexico through which thousands of migrants pass on their way to the US-Mexico border.
“We know it’s a transit site, so the center can help people stay where they are and apply from there,” the senior administration official said.
John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, said Monday that migration will be “a key topic of discussion” during this week’s summit.
“There is no doubt that migration will be a hot topic here in the next 24, 36 hours. It’s clearly on everyone’s lips here in the hemisphere,” Kirby told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Monday, citing a recent pledge by Mexico to accommodate thousands of non-Mexican migrants who cross the border illegally and fail to apply to enter the country USA introduce new programs.
Kirby said the leaders would also discuss the causes of migration and tout Vice President Kamala Harris’ work on the issue, while noting that the issue would be a key topic of conversation throughout the trip.
Tuesday’s summit builds on last year’s meeting in Los Angeles, where countries across the western hemisphere committed to the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. The summit was a point of contention between the US and Mexico, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador snubbed the gathering over disagreements over who was invited. Mexican officials still attended the summit.
The North American Leaders’ Summit marks the six-month anniversary of that declaration.
“We have a very ambitious agenda and that’s why the US has so many commitments on the table right from the start, and we’re pushing other countries forward,” the senior government official said, stressing that the challenge cannot be solved overnight.