The announcement comes after a meeting at the White House between the Colombian foreign minister, Álvaro Leyva, and the Colombian ambassador to the US, Luis Gilberto Murillo, with the “number two” of the White House National Security Council, Jon Finer, and the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Neither the US nor the Colombian Executive had previously reported on this meeting, in which both parties decided to start the pilot program as of June 19, as announced by the White House.
Meanwhile, at the beginning of the month, the governments of the United States and Guatemala announced that appointments for their immigration program would be available starting Monday, June 12.
The start of these pilot programs comes after the application of the so-called Title 42 was suspended a month ago, which allowed the automatic deportation of migrants to Mexico without giving them the opportunity to request asylum and with the argument that it was necessary to isolate the country. because of the pandemic.
In April, before the suspension of Title 42, the United States announced the opening of centers in Colombia and Guatemala in order to facilitate regular migration and stop the massive arrival of migrants, many of them from Venezuela, Haiti or Central American countries. .
Spain and Canada have also announced that they will welcome some people who need to leave their countries of origin.
In fact, Spain already has circular migration agreements with several Latin American countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala, which allow between 2,000 and 3,000 nationals of those countries to work temporarily in Spain, especially in the agricultural sector. , among others.