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Julia V. Taft, Assistant Secretary of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Vice-Ministerail Meeting, Fifth Regional Conference on Migration Washington, DC, March 23, 2000

I am Julia Taft, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration; and along with the Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner, Doris Meissner, we are both delighted to serve as co-chair of this Regional Conference on Migration (RCM) session. In the United States, we are very pleased to be hosting this Vice-Ministerial. We are doing it for the first time and hope you and your delegations will benefit from the meeting and also have the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of springtime in the city. For the vice ministers, I want you to know that your team, over the past couple of days, on the technical consultative side has worked very hard and they have had no break, and they haven’t even had a chance to see the cherry blossoms. So, obviously, the weather did not provide the right timing but, fortunately, we all know that the powers that be, with vice ministerial level chain of command, have now effected a more cooperative weather pattern for us and we hope that you’l have a chance to see the cherry blossoms. If I can just sort of divert for just a minute on cherry blossoms, this is the best time of year to be in Washington, D.C. We weren’t quite sure that the blossoms would cooperate with the timing of this conference, but they certainly have. And my family has a very special affiliation with the cherry blossoms that you might be interested in because it shows a personal story of how government doesn't always talk to each other; the U.S. Government doesn't always talk to each other. My husband’s great-grandmother was President Taft’s wife, and when he had been Governor General of the Philippines they had a chance to go to Tokyo. This was at the turn of the century. And when she was in Tokyo, she saw the wonderful, wonderful cherry blossoms. When President Taft became President, there was a major renovation of what we call the Tidal Basin, which was just a terrible swamp. It probably had malaria and other things, but it was a terrible swamp. They decided to drain it and put up the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Mrs. Taft looked at the setting for the Tidal Basin and she said, "You know what we really need are cherry trees." So, she mentioned to the Japanese Ambassador how very much she loved cherry blossoms and maybe Japan would like to give a few trees to decorate the Tidal Basin. Well, the Ambassador immediately got in touch with the mayor of Tokyo, and the next thing you know, 3,000 cherry trees were sent to Washington, D.C. But because they had to come on a very slow boat from the Far East, by the time they arrived in the United States they were all diseased. So, the Secretary of Agriculture told the White House that there was no way that we would accept these cherry trees and they would disease our whole city of Washington. And this became quite a diplomatic problem. So, Mrs. Taft wrote the mayor, thanking him very much but that, in fact, one part of our government was not as cooperative as the Japanese Government had been, and if it would be possible could he send another shipment. So he did send another shipment and we have the trees now. Actually, there is only a handful from the original batch. Many of the ones along the Tidal Basin are grafted from the original trees, and if you do have a chance to go and see them after our meeting tomorrow, I think you’ll find, perhaps unfortunately, that that’s the highlight of your trip to Washington. But please do go. But back to RCM and why we are here. We have come a very long way since our first meeting in Puebla four years ago. At that time, there were doubts about whether such a dialogue was useful or even possible. And there were widely varying perspectives among us about the causes and effects of migration in the region, and some believed that the differences in our experiences and interests would overwhelm any effort to reach consensus. The fact that we are all here together again four years later with a new member, the Dominican Republic, and with observers from many other countries, governments and international organizations and nongovernmental organizations, this has put to rest any doubts that we had about our collective enterprise. We’ve shown ourselves and the world that there is great benefit to such a regional dialogue on migration. Indeed, our success is borne out by the number of countries and regions that have sought to establish similar forums in their own regions. Moreover, thanks to the hard work of representatives from each of our member countries and especially the government of El Salvador, we now have our own fabulous Internet website, a true sign in this day and age that we have arrived. We will be receiving a demonstration of our virtual secretariat later today, and I hope you are all as thrilled with it as we are. Let me take a moment to review with you, as I did with the consultative group a couple of days ago, why I think our dialogue has been so successful. First, despite our differences, I believe we have made a conscious effort to focus on our common interests. Rather than allow our differences to divide us, we have sought to respect and honor our diversity, to recognize the strength that can be drawn from sharing the uniqueness of each of our perspectives and experiences. Much of our success in this regard stems from the fact that from the very beginning we have continued to remind ourselves that migration is not exclusively a problem but, when managed appropriately, is also a significant benefit to each of our societies. Second, we have drawn strength from our comprehensive approach. Unlike some regional migration dialogues, we have sought to broaden our focus beyond law enforcement and border control. For instance, we have remained attentive to the crucial relationship between migration and development and, importantly, we have sought to honor and ensure respect for the human rights of migrants, whether they are children, women, refugees or migrant workers. Third, unlike any other multilateral organization, we have made special effort to include civil society in our dialogue. Nongovernmental organizations have assumed a central role in our process, which is evident from their presence here this morning, and I welcome them. The strength of any democratic process depends on its ability to allow interested citizens and organizations to have a voice in that process, and I think we have gone a long way in honoring that principle. I am impressed by the proposed project that I heard of last night on minimum standards to observe during the detention and seizure of migrants. The so-called network of civil organizations shared with the consultative group yesterday this concept, and I think it was a very useful contribution to our dialogue. Over the course of the next day and a half, there will be additional opportunities to exchange views with our NGO colleagues on this proposal and other issues, and I encourage all of us to take advantage of them. But having noted the reasons for our success, let’s not rest on our laurels. We have work to do. The consultative group has labored long and hard over the last two days to refine and sharpen our agenda. I would particularly like to express my thanks to my Deputy, Marguerite Rivera Houze, who tried to steer this process. And thank you, Marguerite. We will be reviewing the work of the consultative group later this morning. Before closing, let me suggest the general direction the U.S. Government believes the RCM should go in the near term to capitalize on our past success. I understand that the consultative group reached a similar conclusion. Following our first session in Puebla, Mexico, we developed a highly principled and very ambitious plan of action. For the past four years, we’ve devoted time and resources to exploring various aspects of this plan. We’ve had numerous workshops, very valuable, on many different issues. But now we are ready, I believe, to consolidate the work of the Plan of Action. We can best do this by evaluating the activities we’ve completed so far and identifying those parts of the plan of action where we should take further action. We can move forward the goal to which we are all committed: the implementation of concrete measures consistent with the plan of action. And I look forward to discussing these with you in the next day and a half. [end of document] Remarks Index | Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration | Department of State