Italy, led by the notionally populist Giorgia Meloni, and Greece, led by a center-right government that emphasizes border control, will start taking migrants directly from Latin America to ease the strain of illegal immigration on Joe Biden.
Migrants hoping to come to the United States will be processed at four immigration centers in Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Some will fly to the U.S. after processing, but others will be settled in Italy or Greece instead. Socialist-led Spain and Canada have already signed up to the scheme.
The plan could prove extremely unpopular in Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ran as an anti-mass migration populist. Illegal immigration has only worsened since she was elected, as she has focused on currying favor with Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky while largely abandoning her immigration pledges.
Italy and Greece have borne the brunt of the European Union’s migrant crisis for years. The bloc recently imposed a migration pact on all member states, requiring them to either accept a share of the migrants in Italy and Greece or make “solidarity contributions” to assist the two countries.
Poland and especially Hungary, which opposed the pro-migration and weak border enforcement policies that caused the migrant crisis, were against the pact. Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán compared its imposition to being “legally raped.”
News that Italy and Greece will be taking Latin American migrants as a favor to Biden, despite claiming they cannot cope with the migrants they already have, will likely cause further tension within the EU.
CBS News has exclusively learned that the Biden administration is planning to refer some migrants in Latin America for resettlement in Greece and Italy, as part of an effort to discourage migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.@Camiloreports has the story:… pic.twitter.com/Srrq0ipxh9
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 30, 2024