Latin America’s historic current levels of migration were a central concern at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in early June 2022. The Summit produced a declaration endorsing the idea of shared responsibility for attending to migrant flows, but there’s a lot of uncertainty about concrete commitments.
Maureen Meyer, WOLA’s vice president for programs, and Lesly Tejada, WOLA’s program assistant for Mexico and Migrant Rights, were in Los Angeles for the summit, and share their views of what happened there.
Meyer and Stephanie Brewer, who directs WOLA’s Mexico and Migrant Rights program, were in Tapachula, a city along Mexico’s border with Guatemala, in late February and early March. In early June, they published a report about what they saw, called “Struggling to Survive,” together with Tejada. The report describes a plainly untenable situation for tens of thousands of migrants stranded in the city.
Podcast host Adam Isacson has also paid two recent visits to the U.S.-Mexico border since March, one of them with Tejada. There is a lot to discuss about the state of migration, border policy, and regional relations, and we get into some detail on what we’ve been seeing.
Some links:
- “Summit of the Americas: Urgent Need for a Human Rights Centered Migration Policy,” June 6, 2002.
- “Struggling to Survive: the Situation of Asylum Seekers in Tapachula, Mexico,” June 2, 2022.
- “Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Border: Migration Trends in the Americas, Explained,” May 26, 2022.
- “Three Consequences of Keeping Title 42 in Place at the U.S.-Mexico Border,” May 23, 2022.
- “Capacity, Security, and Accountability at the U.S.-Mexico Border’s Western Edge,” May 18, 2022.
- “U.S. Migration Policy is Enriching Cartels at the Busiest, and Most Dangerous, part of the U.S.-Mexico Border,” April 5, 2022.
- “Q&A: The Post-Title 42 U.S.-Mexico Border,” March 31, 2022.
- “Vulnerable people, unmet protection needs, and a wasteful security buildup at the busiest section of the U.S.-Mexico border,” March 21, 2022.
Download the podcast .mp3 file here. Listen to WOLA’s Latin America Today podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you subscribe to podcasts. The main feed is here.
