Biden seeks consensus at fractured Americas summit

Los Angeles: President Joe Biden plunged into the Summit of the Americas aiming to push for regional progress in addressing economic development, climate change and migration despite the absence of some notable counterparts from Latin America.

With the U.S. playing host to the gathering for the first time since 1994, Biden and his team set about strengthening relationships and moving past the considerable drama over which world leaders would participate.

“At this summit,” Biden said in his opening remarks Wednesday night, “we have an opportunity for us to come together around some bold ideas, ambitious actions and to demonstrate to our people the incredible power of democracies to deliver concrete benefits and make life better for everyone. Everyone.”

Biden said that democracy is an “essential ingredient” for the Western Hemisphere’s future as he welcomed leaders to the Summit of the Americas, an implicit rebuttal to those who boycotted the gathering because authoritarians were not invited.

He also drew sharp contrasts around one of the issues central to the summit, immigration, saying “safe and orderly migration is good for all of our economies” but “unlawful” forms are unacceptable. “We will enforce our borders through innovative, coordinated action with our regional partners,” Biden said at the opening ceremony of events that run through Friday in Los Angeles.

Biden has tried to ease many of the hardline immigration policies instituted by his predecessor, Donald Trump, and used his first days in office to propose a sweeping immigration proposal that would have created a pathway to U.S. citizenship for millions of people in the U.S. illegally. But it has stalled in Congress and the president’s attention has largely turned to other issues, including spiking inflation and Russia’s war with Ukraine.

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