LOS ANGELES — As planning got under way for this week’s Summit of the Americas — the first to be held in the U.S. in nearly three decades — the Biden administration circulated an agenda identifying its major themes: improving healthcare, addressing climate change, enhancing democracy and expanding access to technology.
Members of civil society and advocates planning to participate in the summit in Los Angeles noticed a glaring omission for a hemisphere mired in crisis: migration.
The politically fraught and regionally complex issue, which has vexed the U.S. and Latin America since the summit was first created, has loomed large over this week’s conference. Though the summit has been dogged by regional rifts over who was invited, advocates and some involved with the planning say a reluctance to spotlight migration has undermined U.S. leadership on the issue. It also has limited the chances the Biden administration can build a coalition to address the problem, they said.
