Greece, Italy deny report about U.S. plans to resettle Latin American migrants on their territories

Greece and Italy denied on Friday an article claiming that they had accepted resettling some Latin American migrants on their territory, Reuters reported on Friday.

They were referencing a report by CBS News, which on Thursday said the program would see the European countries receive a small number of people to deter migrants from making the journey up north. The migrants targeted would be nationals from four Latin American countries (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala) where U.S. authorities have set up safe mobility offices to process asylum requests, the report added.

"The CBS report is untrue. There is neither an agreement nor a request from the U.S. to resettle legal immigrants in Greece," Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis wrote on X. U.S. ambassador to Greece, George Tsunis, also denied the report, saying "there is no such agreement."

A source close to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meoni told the American outlet that the story was "completely misleading," but he did acknowledge ongoing discussions about a "very small-scale migrant exchange" program.

He explained that the agreement would see the U.S. take migrants from Libya while "some European Mediterranean states would host a few dozen" Latin American asylum seekers. Italy would be expected to take in "around 20" Venezuelans of Italian origin.

"Italy would never agree to relocate hundreds of people on its territory given the already very considerable efforts it is making in terms of welcoming migrants," said a separate Italian source.

The Biden administration is, however, implementing several measures aimed at stemming the flow of migrants reaching its territory. On Friday, The Associated Press reported that the government is close to implementing a series of additional programs, including suspending asylum requests and automatically denying entrance to migrants arriving after reaching a certain threshold. President Joe Biden could sign off on them as soon as next Tuesday, but no final decision has been made.

Administration officials told the outlet that the threshold could amount to 4,000 migrants per day over a week, with doubts persisting about whether that figure includes those coming with appointments through U.S. Customs and Border Protection's CBP One app (1,450 a day).

Moreover, expelled migrants would find it harder to return. Mexico has reportedly agreed to take back migrants from other countries, including Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorians, as well as its own nationals.

Mexico has been instrumental in the decrease of arrivals to the southern border over the past months, with local authorities stopping nearly three times as many migrants within its territory compared to the previous year, according to a report by NBC News.

Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena has said the country committed to helping the U.S. reduce the flow of migrants to its southern border to 4,000 a day at most, the same figure mentioned in the AP report.

The effects are already showing, with unlawful crossings at the southern border decreasing by more than half compared to December's record-highs during the first three weeks of the month, according to government internal figures reported by CBS News.