On July 30 and 31, 2026, Mexico City brought together for the first time in person the mayors of the Coalition of the Americas on Migration: Bogotá, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, Saint Louis (Missouri), and the Mexican capital itself, as reported by El País. The objective: to forge a common migration management agenda and create an international observatory against discrimination and xenophobia.
The coalition, founded in September 2024 with the backing of CAF, the development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, seeks to coordinate local responses to human mobility from a rights-based approach, independent of the policies defined by federal governments. The incorporation of Saint Louis as the first U.S. city in the initiative extends its reach toward cross-border cooperation. For Mexico, the meeting positions Mexico City as the coordinator of a hemispheric dialogue that recognizes cities as the spaces where migration is lived day to day.
Among the summit announcements, the international observatory stands out: it will document cases of discrimination and share experiences among the coalition's 12 cities, according to La Crónica de Hoy. Clara Brugada, Head of Government of Mexico City, proposed an "urban rights passport" to allow people on the move to access health, education, and employment in participating cities. The Mexican capital assisted more than 5,600 migrants in the first half of 2026 through shelters and humanitarian brigades. Carlos Fernando Galán, mayor of Bogotá, noted that his city has received nearly one million Venezuelan migrants over the past eight years. Claudio Orrego, governor of Santiago, indicated that the metropolitan region concentrates 58 percent of Chile's migrant population, around 1.1 million people.
The coalition will continue with technical meetings and CAF-cofinanced projects in Bogotá and Quito, focused on socioeconomic inclusion. Montevideo will advance the "Montevideo sin Fronteras" program to connect migrants with jobs in sectors facing labor shortages. The anti-xenophobia observatory stands as the flagship project of this first in-person summit.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.