U.S. Rejects U.N. Migration Declaration, Citing Sovereignty Concerns

Washington refused to sign on to the United Nations’ latest migration declaration, turning a routine multilateral review into a direct challenge to global migration governance. The State Department said the United States did not participate in the International Migration Review Forum and would not support its May 8 progress declaration, arguing that the Trump administration sees mass migration as a sovereignty issue, not a technocratic problem for international management.

The move marked a sharp break with a forum designed to review how countries carry out the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which was adopted in 2018 in Marrakech, Morocco. The second International Migration Review Forum took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from May 5 to May 8, preceded by an informal multistakeholder hearing on May 4. The forum is the main intergovernmental platform for measuring implementation of the compact, and its outcome text said heads of state, government and high representatives met in New York to guide cooperation on migration over the next five years.

The State Department went beyond a simple boycott. It said the United States objects to U.N. efforts it says advocate and facilitate “replacement immigration” in the United States and the broader West, and it pointed back to Donald Trump’s rejection of the Global Compact on Migration in 2017. That language signals a policy frame that treats migration less as a humanitarian or labor-market question than as a test of border control, national cohesion and political legitimacy.

The declaration the United States rejected reaffirmed the compact and set out an agenda meant to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration while reducing irregular migration. The International Organization for Migration said governments from around the world adopted the Progress Declaration at the close of the forum, and an IOM report released during the week argued that safe and regular migration pathways continue to support economic growth and development worldwide. That puts Washington at odds with a mainstream U.N. process that links migration governance to labor supply, development and the protection of migrant workers.

The diplomatic fallout reaches beyond New York. Local leaders from 14 cities and regions brought more than 50 new pledges to the forum, bringing the total to 181 local commitments since 2022, while Norway praised the negotiation process as inclusive and transparent. For allies that favor coordinated standards, Washington’s rejection suggests a harder line on asylum coordination, border diplomacy and the place of international obligations in migration policy.