The Costa Rican ambassador in Washington, D.C. says the United States can learn from his country as it tries to address complex issues surrounding immigration.

His Central American country is a "destination for migrants of all types," and Costa Rica's immigrant population includes up to 120,000 American expatriates, Ambassador Román Macaya Hayes told an audience at the Ronald Reagan Building on Jan. 20, the Tico Times reported.

Congressmen 'impressed' with Costa Rican approach

Macaya recounted a recent trip to Costa Rica, during which he was accompanied by two Texas congressmen, Reps. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, and Kay Granger, a Republican.

The ambassador showed the lawmakers a number of immigration-related sights in his country, including shelters housing Cuban migrants and the border with Nicaragua, and Cuellar and Granger later also had a meeting with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís.

"They were very impressed with how we took care of these migrants, making sure they were documented and legal, and taking them in an orderly fashion through this process," Macaya noted.

U.S. rapprochement with Cuba spells trouble for Costa Rica

Costa Rica has seen a huge influx of migrants recently because the rapprochement between Washington and Havana made many Cubans worried that the unique immigration benefits they enjoy in the United States might soon go away, the diplomat explained.

"With the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, a lot of people in Cuba who might have thought of immigrating to the U.S. have started to fear that the Cuban Adjustment Act ... might disappear," he said.

Migrant crisis resolved by regional cooperation

Many of those trying to escape the communist island now travel to Ecuador and then try to make their way north to the U.S., Macaya explained. "Suddenly, thousands of migrants sort of surfaced in Costa Rica, and they didn't have anyone to lead them. They went to the border with Nicaragua to continue north, and Nicaragua shut the border on them," he reported.

Late last year, Costa Rica had been the site of a migrant crisis when thousands of Cuban migrants ended up stranded in the country, Reuters recalled. The situation was eventually resolved when several Central American nations reached a deal to jointly address the issue.