The United States Department of State reaffirmed its position on international migration after declining to participate in a review forum and adopt its Progress Declaration, describing mass migration as a “grave mistake” in a statement released by the Office of the Spokesperson on Monday, 11 May.

The declaration, negotiated by member states on 8 May, reaffirmed commitments under the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which outlines future actions on labor rights, legal identity for migrants, and strengthened migration pathways.

“Every sovereign state has the right to set its own migration priorities. Every migrant has the right to be treated with dignity. This Forum showed that these two truths are not in tension – and that when countries work together, both can be upheld,” said Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration and coordinator of the UN Network on Migration.

In response, the U.S. Office of the Spokesperson criticized the Global Compact for Migration, arguing that mass migration is not “safe, orderly, or regular.” The statement claimed that migration pressures have affected jobs, housing, and social services for Americans.

“Much of this was driven by UN agencies and their partners, which did not just facilitate the invasion of our country, but proceeded to redistribute our own people’s wealth and resources to millions of foreigners from the worst corners of the world,” the statement read.

The State Department also said the U.S. priority is “remigration” rather than migration. Remigration refers to the voluntary return of immigrants to their countries of origin.

However, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism described remigration as a white supremacist policy and warned against what it called the normalization of ethnic cleansing rhetoric.