MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining the call this morning.
Apologies for the rescheduling from yesterday. This call will be on background, attributable to “senior administration officials.” For your awareness, not for reporting purposes, on the line we have [senior administration official], we have the [senior administration official], and the [senior administration official]. Again, that is not for reporting purposes and this call will be attributable to “senior administration officials.”
As a reminder, the contents of this call will be embargoed until the end of the call. With that, we will get started.
I would like to start this is — I would like to start this morning by stressing that the U.S. government’s delegation attending the third Los Angeles Declaration Ministerial in Guatemala — which will be led by the President’s top diplomat, Secretary Blinken; along with Special Assistant to the President and Los Angeles Declaration Coordinator, Marcela Escobari; and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristie Canegallo — demonstrates the priority that the President places on addressing migration in a humane way.
With that, I’ll pass it over to our first speaker.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Great, thank you. Thank you and good morning. I would like to start off by reinforcing that the efforts to advance a regionally coordinated and humane approach to managing migration is a top priority for the President.
We are thrilled to be here in Guatemala City and deeply grateful to President Arévalo (inaudible) for hosting us and over 20 countries for this third ministerial of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection. The declaration is based on the premise that by working together with our partners across the hemisphere, we can address the challenge impacting all of the Americas and that our coordinated efforts can be more than the sum of our parts.
President Biden, alongside 20 partners in the region, launched this hemispheric initiative in 2022, pledging to manage migration in a safe, humane, and orderly way.
(Inaudible) migration present a complex challenge but one we believe we can manage if we coordinate our efforts while creating lawful alternatives — while we coordinate our efforts on enforcement while creating lawful alternatives for people to migrate, settle, and thrive, and, of course, addressing the root causes.
For the next couple of days, the 22 endorsing countries to the LA Declaration will share the progress we’ve made through our combined efforts and identify next steps. Let me share and highlight some of that joint progress around the three pillars of the Los Angeles Declaration, and there will be a factsheet of some of the deliverables tomorrow.
Under the first pillar, we’re working to foster regional stability by addressing the root causes driving people to leave their homes and supporting the integration of migrants into host communities. Tracking root causes for migration was a priority for President Biden when he was vice president, and it remains a priority today. He built a bipartisan coalition in support of this work to foster economic opportunity, good governance, and citizen security across Central America. The democratic renewal in Guatemala is a prime example of that progress.
What’s new is that we’re not doing this work alone. For example, we have united forces with Mexico partnering with their development agency, AMEXCID, to support at-risk populations in Central America.
And while we know that the factors driving people to migrate are complex, we see encouraging signs that this work is bearing fruit. We saw a 30 percent decrease in the number of Central Americans at the border from fiscal year ‘21 to fiscal year ‘23, and a double-digit decrease in Central Americans’ intention to migrate in a similar period.
The United States remains committed to supporting our workers within Latin America and the Caribbean as they integrate millions of migrants, mostly from Venezuela.
As you know, the region is becoming home to some of the most generous and pragmatic policies around the world when it comes to stabilizing and integrating migrant populations, efforts the U.S. government is proud to support.
Colombia has provided 10-year legal status to over 2 million migrants, and, last month, they extended eligibility to migrants with children enrolled in schools.
Brazil’s Operation Welcome matches migrants to labor programs across Brazil with some of the highest rates in (inaudible) employment.
Ecuador, along with other — many other countries in the region, provide migrants immediate access to public services and has launched a fast and efficient process that provided legal status — status to 100,000 migrants.
Peru’s pioneering work on degree validations allowed migrant doctors and nurses to convert their credentials and deploy across the country to treat COVID patients during the pandemic.
And there’s a lot more going on that we hope to hear about during the ministerial.
The data is overwhelming that these policies improve security and lead to economic growth. Colombia’s approach is already paying dividends. A recent IOM study found that these Venezuelan migrants contributed almost 600 million to the Colombian economy in 2022 with an employment rate of 90 percent.
But we also know it can be difficult because the costs are today and the benefits are tomorrow. What the United States sees is a coalition (inaudible) forming in the region, countries doing the right thing, recognizing that the benefits to their societies will outweigh the short-term costs.
With regards to the second pillar, President Biden has rebuilt Our Refugee Resettlement program and led a historic expansion of lawful pathways to the United States and partner countries.
Like our regional partners, the President recognizes that lawful migration not only advances our national security and our values as a nation of laws and immigrants, but also strengthens our economy. Refugees and SIVs contributed almost $124 billion to our economy from 2005 to 2019, according to an HHS study.
Migrants fill labor gaps and ultimately boost wages and employment of U.S. foreign workers, spurring investment and innovation, according to recent research at UC Davis.
Migration also contributes to cooling inflationary pressures.
For that reason, this administration has pioneered innovative approaches to expand lawful pathways. Under the CHNV initiative, we’ve reduced irregular migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela while enabling 435,000 individuals in lawful pathways to come to live and work in the United States for a two-year period.
And we see a huge opportunity to expand these efforts across the region as both advanced and emerging economies have significant labor needs and could really benefit from a marketplace to match the skills of workers with labor gaps. (Inaudible) this work would improve lives and reduce the need for people to make the dangerous journey north.
Lastly, we are working with our partners to strengthen enforcement and manage migration at the border throughout the region in a humane manner.
We continue to take aggressive steps to crack down on smugglers and traffickers profiting off of vulnerable migrants.
Just a few moments ago, we announced that we have imposed visa restrictions on executives of several Colombian transportation companies moving migrants by sea. We are working closely with our partners to share information so we can take real-time actions to deter and stop irregular migration and better identify and expel nefarious actors.
My colleagues will expand on our joint efforts throughout the region. These efforts have contributed to lower numbers of encounters at our southwest border, an almost 40 percent decrease in the last — in the first four months of this year, compared to the four months immediately prior.
So, as we enter tomorrow’s ministerial, there is a momentum in the region around efforts to coordinate enforcements, expand lawful pathways, and address root causes. And we want to strongly rally behind them.
To that end, the United States will be making a multi-hundred-million-dollar commitment tomorrow to provide humanitarian and development assistance to foster stabilization of migrant communities and support partner country efforts to fully integrate migrants.
Today, we will have three side events with academia, civil society, and the private sector, all who want to be part of the solution.
And we’ll also announce new enforcement partnerships, steps to institutionalize the LA Declaration to a — with a permanent secretariat, and ways to further our commitment to expand lawful pathways for protecting labor rights.
So, I’ll just conclude by reinforcing that we are making progress, and we look forward to a substantive ministerial and the continued work ahead to fulfill the promise of the LA Declaration. We share the belief that, together, we can respond to the historic challenge of migration in a humane, orderly, and safe way.
Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Good morning. I want to thank President Arévalo, Foreign Minister Martínez, and their administrations for their leadership in restoring trust in their country’s institutions and providing Guatemalans a sense of hope and opportunity.
The United States appreciates the Guatemalan government’s efforts to champion democracy and its commitment to coordinate closely on our shared challenges, which include irregular migration and displacement.
I want to begin by sharing the progress made through our Root Causes Strategy that my colleague just mentioned. Vice President Harris leads the implementation of the Root Causes Strategy, which aims to address the drivers of irregular migration and displacement by improving conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras so citizens in those countries do not feel compelled to leave their homes and undertake dangerous journeys north.
Our work on the Root Causes Strategy provides hope and opportunity to the people of Central America by addressing economic, government, and security challenges.
In addition to continuing to meet President Biden’s commitment to request $4 billion over four years to address the root causes of irregular migration, Vice President Harris has developed an innovative public-private partnership known as Central America Forward, which has brought $5.2 billion in private-sector investment to the region.
Under the Vice President’s initiative, a U.S. multi-agency delegation will visit Guatemala in the coming months to support clean energy and infrastructure development and to facilitate private-sector investment and also to promote sustainable economic development.
On the topic of lawful pathways. When done in a lawful manner, migration can fuel economic prosperity in host countries by bringing diverse skills, talents, and entrepreneurial spirit energy into the workforce, driving innovation, enhancing productivity, and contributing to sustained growth and competitiveness.
But our message is absolutely clear: Take advantage of lawful pathways rather than make a dangerous, irregular journey north, where there will be consequences. Individuals seeking international protection and other lawful pathways into the United States have many options, including refugee resettlement, humanitarian parole, family reunification, labor pathways, and seeking asylum in host countries, as well as various other support services provided by international organizations and NGOs. Taken together, these initiatives are the largest expansion of lawful pathways to the United States in decades.
In addition to our funding to support safe, orderly, and humane migration and to provide protections to refugees and vulnerable migrants, our groundbreaking Safe Mobility Initiative, Movilidad Segura in Spanish, is significantly expanding access to lawful pathways throughout the region through our offices in Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Safe Mobility offices facilitate expedited refugee processing via the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and provides information and referrals to humanitarian parole, family reunification, and labor programs at no cost to applicants.
At the same time, we continue to robustly enforce U.S. immigration laws. There are serious consequences, including removal, for those who do not use lawful pathways and do not have a legal basis to remain. In the enforcement space, we’ve sharpened our focus on charter companies, some of whom, in cooperation with Nicaragua’s Ortega-Murillo regime, have offered flights from Managua and charged extortion-level prices that put migrants onto a dangerous overland path north to the U.S. border. While these migrants predominantly come from the Caribbean, others come from Africa, Asia, and elsewhere.
In response to this disturbing trend, on March 4th, Secretary Blinken took steps to impose visa restrictions on air charter company executives for facilitating irregular migration to the United States. These visa restrictions were later expanded to also target owners, executives, and senior officials of companies providing transportation by land and sea, designed predominantly for individuals intending to migrate irregularly to the United States.
As my colleagues mentioned, today the United States took critical steps to impose visa restrictions on executives of several Colombian transportation companies moving migrants by sea. These companies facilitate irregular migration and expose migrants to exploitation and violence. Colombia has been an important partner on migration management, both on enforcement and its expansion of lawful pathways for Venezuelans. Today’s action demonstrates the U.S. commitment to hold accountable those who smuggle migrants by sea in Colombia.
In closing, let me say again that our message is clear. We urge individuals to take advantage of lawful pathways rather than make a dangerous, irregular journey north.
We’ve seen far too many tragic cases of migrants losing their lives while making the trip, women facing gender-based violence, and vulnerable people extorted by gangs and criminals.
The good news is that countries in the Americas have come together in an unprecedented manner to collaborate in managing the migration challenges our countries face. This collective action is more important now than ever, which is why we’re so pleased to be here in Guatemala with our host this week.
Thank you very much.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you, [senior administration official], and thank you, [senior administration official]. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today.
As I think my colleagues noted, we believe that these ministerial — this ministerial in Guatemala is going to be a critical meeting to continue to drive forward our key goals in the region. And that includes, as we’ve discussed, strengthening enforcement of borders, not just our own and not just Mexico’s borders, but borders throughout the region, as well as continuing to expand lawful pathways, which, as [senior administration official] noted, we have done in record form and continue to do today.
I will also — I want to commend our colleagues at the State Department for today’s announcement on the sanctions for ferry operators in Colombia who are ruthlessly smuggling migrants into the Darien jungle and fueling what is a humanitarian and ecological crisis there. As we’ve discussed before, we are seeing historic levels of displacement and migration across the world, including in our hemisphere, and we have been working with foreign partners in our hemisphere and, frankly, all over the world to address these flows.
We continue to be committed to our approach, which, as we’ve discussed before, combines this historic expansion of lawful pathways to provide migrants who need protection or otherwise intend to migrate with safe and orderly mechanisms and means to do so, with strengthened consequences at our land border, which include the circumvention of lawful pathways rules, which is resulting in record use of expedited removal at our border and record removals and repatriations of individuals we encounter.
In fact, from May 12th of last year, when the public health emergency was lifted and we returned to Title 8 processing at our border — from May 12th to April 17th of this year, we have removed or returned over 690,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border, and that includes more than 105,000 family-unit individuals, and that includes removals to more than 170 countries around the world.
Even as we have focused on enforcing these consequences at our border, we have also permitted more than 435,000 nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to arrive in a safe and orderly mean using our humanitarian parole processes, which require a U.S.-based supporter, and we have allowed at the land border through our mobile one — mobile application, CBP One, more than 547,000 individuals to schedule appointments to present in a safe and orderly manner, as is called for by the Immigration and Nationality Act, at our ports of entry.
We recognize that there are significant challenges throughout the region and all over the world that are fueling these trends, and that our frontline personnel, including officers and agents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, our asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and our personnel at Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been on the frontlines under a great deal of strain, and they are doing, frankly, heroic work on our border.
As [senior administration official] noted, all of these efforts — what we’re doing on our border and what we’re doing regionally — are working. We are seeing a significant reduction thus far this year in encounters compared to the previous two years, and we attribute that to the consequences we are imposing at our border, as well as the enforcement efforts our partners in Mexico and further south are taking as well.
I think all of these data points show that this regional collaboration is working, that this is a shared responsibility for the United States and the region, and we look forward to the meetings today and tomorrow in Guatemala to continue to have these conversations with our partners.
Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much to all of our speakers. Could you please, Moderator, go over the instructions on how folks can ask their questions, please?
Q Hi. Thanks to all for doing this call. In these discussions, will there — are you anticipating at least discussing repatriation that other countries can be doing? And is there a discussion over what support the U.S. would provide, if any, for them to do that?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi, Priscilla. I can start. And, [senior administration official], please feel free to jump in. We always engage our foreign partners on repatriation issues, and that includes, obviously, kind of streamlining repatriations from the United States. And we have also been encouraging our foreign partners to enforce their borders and undertake repatriations.
We’ve seen a of countries step up over the last two years and begin repatriations. Obviously, the government of Mexico has been doing so for quite some time. The government of Guatemala engages in some, and the government of Panama, as well, has been undertaking their own repatriations.
We will continue to encourage those efforts and support with technical assistance and capacity-building whenever we can.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Great. And I would just add that we continue to look to work with countries in the region to support the repatriation efforts and working with Congress precisely on this effort.
Q Hi, folks. Thanks for doing this. You mentioned that lawful pathways are a key component of your strategy to address migration.
Are there any plans to expand the number of people who can come to the U.S. under these pathways, including by, for example, increasing the number of CBP One spots or adding additional countries to CHNV? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thanks, Camilo. We are always looking at what we can do to continue to build on the lawful pathways that we have put in place, but we don’t have anything to announce on that today. Thanks.
Q Hi. Thank you. Can you share a bit more detail about these sanctions against the Colombian companies?
Are you able to share the names of the companies or the executives as well as the scope of this? I mean, I know you — the U.S. has been pressuring both Colombia and Panama to take action on slowing down the people transiting through the Darién for the last year, but when you look at the numbers, they haven’t changed very much. And I’m wondering, do you think this will be significant and actually lead to some sort of change?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you very much. So, under the 3C authority in which these individuals were designated, we’re unable to share their names, but I think this does show a key commitment to ensure that those who are facilitating irregular migration and exploiting migrants and exposing them to violence are held accountable. And this is something that we do in close partnership with Colombia, with Panama, with other countries in the region, and we do think our efforts have had a real impact and will continue to do as much as possible, which is, in part, why Secretary Blinken put in place this new authority and is using it robustly at this time.
Q Hello, and thanks for doing the call. I wanted to ask about the Root Causes Strategy, which emerged in the spring of 2021 when we saw so many Central Americans coming, but now migration is more global, right? We’ve got record numbers of people coming from all over the world — sorry about the background noise here — and some of the highest numbers we’re seeing are from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru right now.
So, are we preparing a Root Causes Strategy for those countries? And, if not, I mean, is it still a useful framework for addressing migration that’s become more global than ever?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Let — let me take that and give a little background. So, the Root Causes Strategy was focused and is focused on Central America, and it is, we think — we believe, bearing fruit. We have really robust development programs in Colombia, in Ecuador — I mean, USAID states.
You know, if you think about the things that we do in the region, it — you know, Root Causes is the bread and butter of dealing with security, dealing with governance, and improving economic opportunity. So, it is part of our programming and efforts throughout the region. We are also –- and it’s part of the announcement tomorrow –- really focusing their efforts — on supporting their efforts to integrating migrants in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Brazil, in Peru, which hosts, you know, 82 percent of the migrants dislocated throughout the region.
And that also affects economic opportunity within their countries, because we’re working with communities that –- when we work on integration, we help the communities as a whole that include Colombians and include the migrant population.
So, all of that is part of our — of our strategy to really help countries on the root causes that are driving people to leave.
Q Yes, thank you very much for doing this call. I wanted to ask [senior administration official] about the multimillion-dollar –- I believe you described it –- commitment that will be announced tomorrow. And if you could elaborate a little bit more on –- or provide a bit more detail on exactly how much that commitment is going to be, what the money will go towards, and what the funding faculty is for this.
I mean, is it –- is this already announced USAID or already authorized-by-Congress USAID money or where this money is coming from and whether it’s, you know, new money or something that, you know, has previously been approved by Congress that you’re elaborating or providing more details on the use on?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, thank you for the question. We are really proud of the commitment that we are going to announce tomorrow. There will be more details about the amount and purpose, but this is money that has not been announced before.
And the focus of it is, again, a lot of humanitarian support for the most vulnerable migrants, to help these communities be able to absorb them in response to their needs: food, shelter, conditional cash transfers, and just get them into the path toward integration and stabilization.
And it’s also development funding in the number that we will provide tomorrow that, again, is working with technical assistance, is providing integration capacity from the policy to literally what we did with Colombia when they instituted their policy in 2021, which is providing them surge staff, helping with integration centers. It’s continuing that work as their policies expand and the needs of the region expand.
But we will be issuing a factsheet tomorrow with the details of the funding as well as the commitments from throughout the region, which will have additional information on the (inaudible) of the money and the purpose.
But, again, all of this are funds that have not been notified or have not been announced before.
Q Thank you so much for this. I wanted to ask this question to [senior administration official]. I have been asking this question for months without luck.
How many nationals of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba has DHS deported to Mexico since the end of Title 42 in May 2023? Is there any particular reason why the administration is refusing to publish this number?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hi. I am sorry. I don’t have that number with me. I’m sure our Office of Public Affairs can follow up with you.
Thanks.
Q Thank you. As I think you know, Mexico today is going to begin requiring visas for Peruvians, as they have done previously for Ecuadorians, Brazilians, and Venezuelans. I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on that, if you had any input or spoke with Mexicans about that prior to it.
And just as a tag-along to that, whether you expect other nationalities to face these travel restrictions to Mexico, specifically Colombians and if this issue has come up at all in your talks, including countries like Ecuador, El Salvador, and Nicaragua that have been very open in allowing people to come on their way to the United States.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can start on that. And (inaudible). I (inaudible) greatly appreciate efforts by countries in the region to put in place visa restrictions, including for extra-hemispheric actors. So, very grateful to Mexico in particular and remain committed, as enduring partners with Mexico, to humanely reduce the unprecedented irregular migration flows in the region and also to work together on root causes.
And specifically on the transit visa issue, this is something that is a priority for us, is a priority for our partners in the region, and certainly something that has been discussed over recent months and will continue to be discussed here in Guatemala City.
I’ll turn to [senior administration official], if he has anything else to add.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think the only thing I would add is that, you know, we continually discuss with our foreign partners how human smuggling networks are leveraging visa regimes in order to bring migrants from outside the hemisphere into the hemisphere and to move migrants within our hemisphere. And we will continue to engage all of our foreign partners on that issue moving forward.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sorry, maybe I can just add really quickly that, you know, we –- I talked briefly about –- spoke briefly about the charter airlines. We’re also working closely with commercial airlines. And the International Air Transport Association has put out a statement speaking to its efforts to deepen support to combat irregular migration in the Americas. And we think it’s critical to work both with charter airlines and commercial airlines.
So, we think it’s absolutely terrific that this statement is coming out as we’re here in Guatemala City, in line with the principles of the Los Angeles Declaration.
Q Thank you so much for taking my call. Going off of the extra-hemispheric migration, is there any -– are there any plans to treat separately immigration from countries like China and Iran?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure, I can start. Just to say that extra-continental irregular migration is a critical issue for us. In FY2023, more than 50,000 PRC nationals were encountered nationwide. And in FY24, we’ve already encountered nearly 30,000 PRC nationals.
So, from our perspective, that’s why it’s so critical to work together on putting in place visa requirements and also why we feel like this 3C visa revocation policy that was rolled out by Secretary Blinken is so critical, because we’re ensuring that we hold accountable charter flight companies and others who are taking advantage of these irregular migrants from some of these countries and ensuring that there’s accountability for those executives of air — charter airline companies and others.
I don’t know if my colleague [redacted] wants to add to that.
Great. Thank you.
Q Hi. Just following up on repatriation. You just talked about our partnerships and removal. The folks who are being repatriated, the folks who are being put under expedited removal — are there any resources available to them when they get back home?
So, a lot of them are coming here for economic reasons, (inaudible) them to come back. And if those resources are available, what are they?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you very much. Yes, absolutely. For example, USAID has a very strong reintegration program that essentially allows for safe returns for individuals, supports them when they’re on the ground, supports services for those individuals as they reintegrate themselves back to their host communities.
So, it’s something that we’re working on in Central America, but also elsewhere in the region.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And to add, increasingly, these folks that are coming back are being incorporated into other development programming within the region, so they can enter reskilling programs, you know, youth programs, jobs, to be able to get jobs and really reintegrate within their communities.
Q Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask specifically about migrants coming from the Middle East. How significant are their numbers? And is the plan to deal with them separate than migrants coming from Central and South America? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you very much. Certainly, there’s an impact of local conflicts on irregular migration, including extra-continental irregular migration from Asian and African countries. We’ve seen considerable increases since 2022.
According to public data from the Department of Homeland Security, in fiscal year 2023, nearly 100,000 Indian nationals were encountered nationwide, 150 percent more than FY2022. We’re also looking at irregular migration from certain African countries like Guinea, Angola, Mauritania, and Senegal, which has increased in the last two years.
So, this is certainly why we’re stepping up efforts both on visa transit regime, transit visa regimes, but also on accountability mechanisms for smugglers, including through the 3C visa restrictions.
Q Hello. Can you hear me? Hello?
OPERATOR: Yes, we can hear you.
Q Yeah, thank you very much. I wanted to ask — part of the question I wanted to ask you about: You talk about immigration from Angola. The follow-up question to that is: During Prime Minister of Italy’s visit to the White House, she mentioned that she would propose an immigration alliance through the G7 to deal with the immigration from Africa and around the world.
And with this announcement that you’re making, I wanted to find out if this is part of that proposal that she made during a bilateral meeting with President Biden.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you very much for your question. So, the efforts through G7 are very much — and more broadly, on migration management worldwide — are very much in alignment with the principles of the Los Angeles Declaration.
So, while these two things aren’t tied directly, we feel like the principles that Secretary Blinken and others are speaking to today in terms of shared responsibility, in terms of lawful pathways, in terms of enforcement, are very much in line with the broader G7 vision on these issues.
Q Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us. Again, as a reminder, the contents of this call are attributable to “senior administration officials,” and the embargo has now lifted.
Thank you. Have a great day.