WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014\u00a0President Joe Biden\u00a0commended\u00a0Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u00a0for his country\u2019s collaboration with the United States and Canada to establish migration hubs in Latin America where asylum seekers fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries can apply for protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two leaders sat down at the White House on Friday for wide-ranging talks on\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, climate change and other issues. But efforts by the U.S. and Spain to\u00a0cooperate on asylum processing\u00a0loomed large over the discussion as the Biden administration rolls out new immigration measures now that\u00a0COVID-19 immigration restrictions\u00a0have ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new efforts are designed to crack down on illegal border crossings while opening legal pathways to give migrants incentives to apply for asylum online where they are, instead of making the dangerous journey to the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Migrants caught illegally crossing the southern U.S. border cannot return for five years, and they face criminal prosecution if they do. And migrants will be barred from seeking asylum at the border if they do not first ask for protection in a country they traveled through or apply online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A major piece of the expanded legal pathway is the creation of\u00a0processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala\u00a0and up to 100 others in the Western Hemisphere where migrants can go to apply to enter the U.S., Spain or Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both facing the challenges of migration in the Western Hemisphere,\u201d Biden told Sanchez at the start of the Oval Office meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a huge step for the White House to get Spain and Canada to agree to take in asylum seekers from Latin America. And it helps reinforce the Biden administration\u2019s argument that the current migration quandary facing the Americas is a global problem that needs a global solution \u2014 much like the refugee crises that have\u00a0impacted Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The State Department on Thursday announced\u00a0a website\u00a0where asylum seekers can now find information on the process and will eventually be able to request appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. has increasingly seen migrants arrive at its southern border who are from China, Ukraine, Haiti, Russia and other nations far from Latin America and who are increasingly family groups and children traveling alone. Thirty years ago, by contrast, illegal crossings were almost always single adults from Mexico who were easily returned over the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spain, though it has high overall unemployment, needs workers for agriculture and other hard-to-fill fields, and it will be able to accept migrants who want to go there and have needed skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Spanish ministry has said the pathway will only apply to those who have already received international protection status. That means the migrants it accepts will need to be considered refugees and will be treated in much the same way that Syrian asylum seekers, traveling via Turkey, have been treated by Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSpain and the U.S., we have common interests about democracy, prosperity and safe, regular and orderly migration patterns,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plans for the processing centers to be established in Guatemala and Colombia were announced last month, but the centers have yet to begin operating. Once up and running, they are expected to process thousands of applicants a month. United Nations organizations will operate the centers, but U.S. officials will be present as well to help with processing of applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the White House expects that the processing centers will open in the \u201crelatively near future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Biden predicted this week that the situation at the border\u00a0could be \u201cchaotic for a while,\u201d\u00a0his administration is looking to discourage migrants from paying smuggling operations to help them journey to the U.S., particularly through the Darien Gap. Officials hope that by cracking down at the border and opening up other ways to the U.S., they will be able to bring a measure of order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The coronavirus restrictions, known as Title 42, were a Trump administration endeavor that went into effect in March 2020 amid the global pandemic. Title 42 allowed border officials to turn away migrants to help stop the spread of COVID-19. But there were\u00a0concerns the policies were put into place merely to keep people out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Title 42 was used to deny asylum more than 2.8 million times, it carried no legal consequences, which encouraged repeat attempts by migrants to enter the U.S. The public health emergency officially ended on Thursday night, and with it the restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine was also high on the agenda for Biden and S\u00e1nchez, two NATO allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S\u00e1nchez told reporters following the meeting that he and Biden discussed their countries\u2019 continuing efforts to support Ukraine as Russia\u2019s invasion grinds on. S\u00e1nchez recently met with Chinese President\u00a0Xi Jinping\u00a0and Brazilian President\u00a0Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, both of whom have put forward ideas to end the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White House officials have dismissed China\u2019s 12-point peace plan, and called on Beijing to use its influence to urge Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S\u00e1nchez said that Spain, which will assume the rotating presidency of the European Council in July, is committed to a \u201clasting and just peace\u201d to resolve the Ukraine crisis. He made clear that he sides with Biden and other Western allies in condemning Russian aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMake no mistake, in this war there is an aggressor and victim,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cAnd in this war the aggressor is President Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On another subject, Spain has called on the U.S. to conduct further cleanup of contaminated soil left\u00a0after a nuclear accident in 1966. A midair collision dumped four U.S. hydrogen bombs near a southern Spanish village. None of the bombs exploded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kirby said the White House anticipates negotiations between the two countries on the matter will begin soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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