United States

The United States announced it doubled legal labor pathways for Central America in FY2022 while enhancing worker protections. The United States issued more than 19,000 seasonal labor H-2 visas to northern Central American nationals in FY2022 compared to 9,796 in FY2021 – a 94 percent increase.  Legal labor pathways provide an alternative to irregular migration while meeting domestic labor needs for employers who can demonstrate no U.S. workers are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work, and the United States is working to further expand those pathways in FY 2023 in addition to collaborating with interagency partners to help reduce H-2 workers’ significant vulnerabilities.  The United States government is working concurrently to improve safeguards for ethical recruitment and to strengthen worker protections and will have additional announcements on these steps soon.

The United States dramatically expanded refugee resettlement in the Western Hemisphere. The United States resettled 2,485 individuals in FY 2022, a 521 percent increase over FY2021 and an eight-year high for the region.  The United States will further expand protection pathways in FY2023.

The United States began refugee resettlement for Haitian refugees. In September, the United States began refugee resettlement interviews for Haitian refugees.

The United States announced the resumption of processing immigration visas in Cuba and accelerated processing of Cuban family reunification. The United States announced in September an expansion of legal pathways available to Cubans wishing to come to the United States and an increase in personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Havana.  Beginning in early 2023, the U.S. Embassy in Havana will resume full immigrant visa processing for the first time since 2017.  Additionally, following the successful resumption of the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) program in August, the United States announced it will increase the number of personnel in Havana to efficiently and effectively process cases and conduct interviews.

The United States will conduct six refugee processing trips in Latin America to interview more than 2,500 refugee applicants in the first quarter of FY 2023.