Migration gets top billing at meeting as US leader eyes plan to manage impact

While the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles contains all the pomp of a major international gathering, it takes place against the backdrop of an ongoing crush of migration to the United States' southwest border.

The US Department of Homeland Security plans to transport migrants awaiting immigration proceedings from US cities along the southern border farther into the nation's interior, starting with Los Angeles in the coming weeks, according to internal documents obtained by NBC News.

The plan, officials said, would help alleviate overcrowding along the border, at times leading the Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, to release migrants on the street.

The new model would use federal funds to send migrants to shelters in cities farther inside the country before they go to their final destinations. They will also be sent to Albuquerque, Houston, Dallas and other cities.

US President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 pledging to reverse many of the hard-line immigration policies of his predecessor Donald Trump. But he has struggled to contain record numbers of border crossings.

The CBP encountered migrants for a record 234,088 times in April. Through April this year, there have been close to 1.5 million encounters.

"The Biden administration's total lack of leadership has isolated the few governments that were working with us to curb illegal immigration just a few years ago. Those countries perceive weakness in the Biden administration, so there is no incentive to cooperate on US interests," Mateo Haydar, a research assistant on Latin America at The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.

"It's also delusional. The Biden administration claims to be signing a 'historic migration declaration'. What it expects to negotiate or agree on without the presidents of Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries is totally unclear."

Biden was expected to close the summit on Friday with a declaration on migration.

Some nations were poised not to sign the summit declaration, according to a Reuters report citing a person familiar with the matter. Some Caribbean countries would not approve it, an official at the summit said.

The boycott of the summit by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador over the snubbing of the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela over political ideology highlighted the divide in the region.

Also not attending the June 6-10 event were the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador－countries of origin for much of the migrant flow to the US.

'Crime against humanity'

Biden heard even more direct criticism from one of the hemisphere's smallest nations, Belize, whose representatives told him it was "inexcusable" not to invite all countries and called the half-century US pressure campaign against Cuba a "crime against humanity".

Belizean Prime Minister John Briceno also questioned if Biden would follow through financially on lofty promises.

"We know that money is not the problem. In less than three months, two countries in this hemisphere committed $55 billion to Ukraine," he said, referring to the US and Canada.

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, who was persuaded to attend by Biden, said: "Being the host country of the summit doesn't grant the ability to impose a right of admission on member countries of the continent."

For Daniel Kovalik, a lawyer who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, the summit illustrates the hegemonic power's shrinking impact on the Western Hemisphere, exposing the fact that "the Emperor has no clothes".

"The truth is the US influence has been declining for a long time. The only way it's maintained its influence is by sheer brute force. That's true now pretty much throughout the world. All it has is brute force, and that's not working because you can't control everyone all at once. I think the US will continue to find its influence waning in Latin America," the expert added.

Agencies and Xinhua contributed to this story.

hengweili@chinadailyusa.com