U.S. Rep. Greg Casar leads proposal for more collaboration with Latin America on forced migration

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A new congressional caucus charged with finding solutions on immigration reform introduced its first resolution this week.

Congressman Greg Casar, the Democrat representing District 35, led the recently formed Global Migration Caucus to introduce a legislative roadmap that proposes solutions to the root causes of forced migration from Latin America and the Caribbean to the U.S.

“The American people deserve to hear a real plan around how it is we are going to make our immigration system throughout the Americas more humane and orderly and stable,” Casar explained. “The American people know that immigration doesn't begin at the border. It begins in people’s home countries.”

The Migration Stability Resolution proposes a broad range of reforms, including a move away from U.S. military interventions in the region, increased oversight on firearms to reduce trafficking south of the border, and a greater collaboration on building climate resilience and economic stability across the region.

“The old way of thinking about U.S.-Latin American relations was the Monroe Doctrine,” Casar said, referring to the historic pattern of disruptive U.S. military intervention in Latin America. “That’s the idea that the United States’ job was to essentially dominate the Western Hemisphere. But what’s bad for people in Latin America is also bad for the United States, because that instability ends up costing us one way or the other.”

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Latin America and the Caribbean are now the second-most disaster-prone regions in the world. They face an unprecedented multidimensional crisis, with more than 29.2 million people in need across the region in 2023.

The Migration Stability Resolution also calls for reducing U.S. reliance on economic sanctions, which are rules that stop trade and investment with other countries to place political pressure on their governments. However, these sanctions often affect ordinary people by limiting their access to food, medicine, and jobs.

Delia C. Ramirez, a U.S. representative from Illinois, who co-chaired the resolution with Casar, said that the economic sanctions that the U.S. has placed on a number of Latin American countries have led to a deep economic depression that has displaced millions, many of them forced to migrate, including to the U.S.

“Migration was really created by many of our policy choices,” Ramirez explained. “There’s a correlation between sanctions and embargoes and migration. We have to really be clear that if we're going to address issues of migration, we have to start seeing Latin America, particularly Mexico and so much of Central America, not as our backyard, but as a partner.”

Comprehensive congressional action on immigration reform has been proposed many times over the past few decades but has historically stalled amid partisan gridlock on conflicting priorities over border security and pathways to citizenship.

California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, the third co-chair of the resolution, is calling on both parties to focus on actionable and collaborative efforts to address immigration issues.

“We don't want concepts. We want plans. And we want more than plans. We want action,” Kamlager-Dove explained. "My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have never had a plan, only hateful rhetoric about mass deportation. So if Republicans want to point fingers about immigration, then they need to start pointing them at themselves and their caucus. It is time to stop demonizing. It is time to stop fear mongering, and it is time to get to work.”

The resolution also focuses on creating global partnerships that can help mitigate climate instability, which drives displacement and migration due to factors like droughts, floods, and natural disasters.

For the first time since 2001, Latin America experienced extreme climate shocks precipitated by the warming global weather pattern known as “La Niña,” which persisted for three years beginning in 2020. Droughts, flooding, and severe hurricanes followed. The phenomenon destroyed infrastructure, agriculture and livelihoods, disproportionately affecting the poor and increasing food insecurity for years to come.

“The climate crisis doesn't know borders,” Casar said. “There are leaders in the United States and in Latin America who want to work together on these issues because we're tied together by land. Our futures are tied together, and so we should be working together.”

Because of climate shocks, poverty and inequality have significantly deepened in Latin America since 2020. In turn, these factors have exacerbated socioeconomic challenges, such as gender-based violence, homicide rates, democratic instability, and widespread gang violence.

“The challenges of democratic backsliding, the climate challenges in Latin America coupled with corruption, poverty, lack of economic development, and all of the things that often force people to leave their home are interconnected,” Ramirez added.

UNOCHA reported that the flow of irregular migration, not just to the U.S., but across the Americas has grown exponentially due to these challenges.

UNOCHA has said that growth in human movement is expected to keep increasing.

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