1st LD Writethru: U.S. ends participation in Global Compact on Migration

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States has decided to end its participation in the UN process to develop a Global Compact on Migration (GCM) which it claimed could undermine its "sovereign right," according to a statement by the State Department on Sunday.

The United States cannot "support a process that could undermine the sovereign right of the United States to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders," said State Secretary Rex Tillerson in the statement.

The U.S. participation in the process started last year following the Obama Administration's decision to join the UN's New York Declaration on Migration.

Tillerson in the statement called the declaration containing "a number of policy goals that are inconsistent with U.S. law and policy."

The U.S. withdrawal came ahead of a global conference on migration which is slated on Monday in Mexico.

The decision also followed an announcement in October by the United States of pulling itself out of the UNESCO, a Paris-based landmark UN cultural organization, a move that many countries felt regretful. Enditem