President Biden will host Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves at the White House on Tuesday as their countries try to contain a wave of migration in the Western Hemisphere.
Mr Biden and Mr Chaves, who was elected last year, will also discuss economic ties and job creation, government officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to get a taste of the meeting.
The Biden administration’s plan to halt illegal migration in the United States involves cracking down on asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border while working with Central American countries, such as Costa Rica, to find ways development on which migrants can apply for protection closer to their home country.
Costa Rica recently agreed to build two centers where migrants can apply for such legal protection without crossing the border.
Mr Chaves hopes the sites will also ease the strain on his country’s asylum system. Costa Rica, a popular tourist destination, is struggling to cope with the number of migrants fleeing violence in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there were more than 270,000 migrants in Costa Rica seeking protection at the end of 2022. As the country struggled with the surge, Mr Chaves introduced several restrictions on the country’s asylum system, including a 30-day deadline for migrants to apply for asylum and strict rules on issuing work permits.
The number of illegal border crossings at the US-Mexico border rose in July, following a sharp drop the previous month. June’s more than 99,500 crossings were a 42 percent drop from May, which the Biden administration attributed to a new asylum rule that raised the bar for a migrant to qualify for asylum in the United States. However, the number of crossings increased in July to more than 132,000.
The White House considers Costa Rica one of the strongest democracies in a region that has descended into authoritarianism in recent years. Mr Chaves, who promised to upend the Latin American political establishment and big business, attended Mr Biden’s Summit of the Americas, which was rejected by other key countries in the region, including Mexico.
But Mr Chaves has also launched attacks against journalists investigating allegations of sexual harassment and financial misconduct, using executive powers to limit their sources of income. During his campaign last year, he also tried to downplay a World Bank investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against him.
