{O/C} A new round of measures aimed at tackling the influx of migrants and refugees were unveiled on the last day of the Summit of the Americas despite a major spat over the exclusion of three countries.
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The chill wind of the migration conundrum has long buffeted America.
As such, the highly-touted Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection is the most notable achievement wrapping up the four-day Americas summit.
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JOE BIDEN, United States President:
Twenty countries coming together to launch the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. We're transforming our approach to managing migration in the Americas. Each of us, each of us is signing up to commitments that recognises the challenges we all share and the responsibility that impacts on all of our nations. This is just a start, to state the obvious.
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Washington has earmarked 314 million US dollars to assist countries in contending with an influx of refugees and migrants or reuniting Haitian and Cuban families.
Costa Rica has pledged to step up protections for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who had arrived by March 2020.
In addition, Mexico will raise temporary worker visas to up to 20,000 Guatemalans every year.
Among those allowing in Venezuelans was Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso, who promised to give 500,000 Venezuelans temporary status in Ecuador.
And Spain plans to double the number of labour pathways for Hondurans.
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Meantime, crowds demonstrated outside the summit venue here in Los Angeles into the evening today to make their gripes about migration and global trade loud and clear.
Back inside, more discord surfaced at the summit as a multitude of countries like Chile and Bolivia criticised the exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the summit, and Brazil from the joint commitments.
The irony is, Biden called on more countries in the continent to join.
Some analysts are sceptical of the pledges' effectiveness.
Republicans have given Biden an earful for the unfettered flow of immigrants that could potentially inundate America.
The leaders also vowed to cement multi-pronged efforts to weed out unlawful migration.
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