Americas Migration Brief - February 24, 2025
Welcome to the Americas Migration Brief! If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing with a friend or colleague.
Se puede acceder aquí a una versión en español del boletín traducida por inteligencia artificial.
Consulte aqui uma versão em português do boletim traduzida por inteligência artificial.
Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
It is Latin America, not the US, that is receiving the vast majority of Latin American migrants, explains The Economist, highlighting recent trends in migration and integration efforts, responses, and outcomes.
🇵🇪 Peru
“In the bustling emergency unit of Lima's Jose Casimiro Ulloa Hospital, Venezuelan surgeon Yoalexis Tovar examines a young woman experiencing food poisoning. The 40-year-old doctor brings his expertise to the forefront of patient care by being part of a one-month training programme supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in agreement with Peru’s Health Ministry and the Hospital,” explains IOM, highlighting the contributions of Venezuelan health care workers in Peru.
🇧🇷 Brazil
Across 3 years and 12 phases, Operação Horizonte has conducted over 25,000 appointments and completed nearly 17,000 processes to help regularize the status of migrants in São Paulo, reports MigraMundo.
MigraMundo reviews Brazil’s response to receive deported migrants returning from the US, including pending legislation sitting in the Chamber of Deputies to potentially provide economic support.
🇨🇱 Chile
“It is imperative that Chilean politics address migration from a comprehensive perspective and not just as an electoral tool. To do so, it is essential to build public policies that guarantee the real inclusion of migrants, ensuring their access to basic rights such as housing, work and health, and fostering a discourse that promotes coexistence instead of confrontation,” writes Jose Gregorio Rodriguez at El Mostrador.
🇺🇸 United States
“President Donald Trump has signed an order aimed at ending federal benefits for people in the country illegally… but it was not clear which benefits will be targeted. People in the country illegally generally do not qualify except for emergency medical care,” reports AP. (see also the MPI report Immigrants’ Eligibility for U.S. Public Benefits: A Primer)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“A Venezuelan girl died and 20 other people were rescued after a boat carrying migrants headed to Colombia sank in the Panamanian Caribbean on a return trip after being unable to enter the United States,” reports SwissInfo. “The Ombudsman of Panama on Saturday called for an investigation and determination of responsibilities,” notes Efecto Cocuyo.
In a separate incident, a boat of Venezuelan migrants heading to Trinidad and Tobago capsized, with 8 unable to be found by a rescue mission, per El Pitazo.
🇨🇴 Colombia
UNHCR calls for an end to the conflict fueling displacement in the Catatumbo region, noting that there are more than 4,600 Venezuelan migrants among the 80,000 affected (including more than 52,000 displaced).
“People displaced by violence in Colombia’s Catatumbo region fear returning home because of landmines, reports La Silla Vacía.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Human rights organizations are working to translate asylum request forms in Costa Rica from Spanish to Miskito to support displaced Indigenous Nicaraguans. (100%Noticias)
🇲🇽 Mexico
Migrants stranded in southern Mexico have become more vulnerable to organized crime and violence due to new restrictions placed by Trump administration in the US. (EFE)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration is throwing out protections that shielded roughly half a million Haitians from deportation, meaning they would lose their work permits and could be eligible to be removed from the country by August,” reports AP, noting that a lawsuit has already been filed to block the move to limit TPS.
CLINIC “strongly condemns” the decision, explaining, “Haiti continues to endure severe challenges, including widespread gang violence, political unrest, and the lingering devastation from hurricanes and earthquakes. The country's fragile infrastructure and deteriorating security situation make safe return impossible for many Haitian nationals currently protected under TPS.”
The Trump administration has paused applications for benefits or other immigration statuses for migrants that entered the US under a humanitarian parole program, reports CBS, noting that this includes halting applications for TPS, asylum, or permanent residency.
“Last month, officials authorized federal immigration agents to seek the deportation — including in an expedited fashion in some cases — of those permitted to enter the U.S. under the CHNV program and other Biden administration parole policies. The administration has also drafted plans to revoke the parole status of many of those who've come to the U.S. under CHNV,” notes CBS. (see more on this at Immigration Impact)
An Amnesty International briefing finds that “the right to seek asylum in the United States is non-existent at the U.S.-Mexico border, in violation of U.S. human rights national and international obligations.” (press release)
In addition, “CNN reporter Priscilla Álvarez revealed that the administration is about to unveil a new block: a public health order banning asylum seekers and other undocumented migrants “as risks for spreading diseases.” Although there is no pandemic threat, sources told Álvarez that internal discussions have cited measles and tuberculosis. (Scholars have pointed out that the racist notion that migrants spread disease has a long history in the United States.) Meanwhile, even as it professes concern for cross-border spread of disease, the new administration has fired hundreds of federal health inspectors who had been posted at ports of entry to detect communicable diseases in arriving cargo and people, the New York Times revealed.” (via WOLA)
Asylum seekers deported from the US to third countries such as Panama and Costa Rica are left in “legal limbo,” per Washington Post. “Because the deported migrants are no longer on U.S. soil, Washington is not legally obligated to make sure they are treated humanely or have the chance to seek asylum,” notes The New York Times. (see more below in the section on Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation)
An 11 year old girl in Texas “took her life after experiencing months of relentless bullying from her sixth grade classmates over her family's immigration status, with some students even threatening to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” reports The Latin Times.
Despite massive backlogs, particularly for asylum cases, “the Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges without explanation,” reports AP.
“The State Department office overseeing the resettlement of Afghans in the United States has been told to develop plans to close by April,” reports Reuters, noting, “Family members of Afghan-American U.S. military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year war are among those who could be turned away if the office is shut.”
A small number of Chinese nationals have taken a dangerous maritime route to the US territory of Guam in order to seek asylum, reports VOA.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “The Senate passed a framework bill that could pave the way for $175 billion in new border hardening and “mass deportation” spending, which could pass without a single Democratic vote. The timetable is uncertain, though, as House and Senate Republican leaders disagree on the way forward.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
The CARICOM summit in Barbados last week included discussions of migration. “Prime Minister Mia Mottley [of Barbados] – the CARICOM chair – placed the free movement of Caribbean peoples at the apex of any necessary changes which must be made,” reports Barbados Today. Free movement was also reportedly an important point of agenda for others, including the leaders of Dominica and Guyana.
Mottley said, “If that protocol for enhanced cooperation is completely ratified by the end of March, it opens the way for a number of countries to…the possibility of freedom of movement for CARICOM nationals from June 1, with the according rights of primary and secondary education, emergency health care, and access also to primary health care.” (WIC News)
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
Migrants from Asia and elsewhere deported by the US to Panama have been stripped of their passports and many of their phones and locked in a hotel room before being sent to the San Vicente shelter in the Darien Gap, reports The New York Times, noting that “At the hotel, at least one person tried to commit suicide, according to several migrants. Another broke his leg trying to escape.” (see last week’s AMB)
175 of the 299 migrants have agreed to return to their countries of origin voluntarily, with Panama already booking flights for Turkey, India, China, Georgia, Nepal, and Kosovo, per El País. Nearly 100 of the migrants have been sent to the Darien. El País adds that one of the migrants had escaped the hotel but was later found in Costa Rica and returned to Panama.
“Minister Ábrego denied that the migrants detained by the government had been deprived of their freedom, but he could not explain precisely under what legal umbrella Panama is acting. Neither he nor anyone in the government responded whether there is a document specifying the agreement by which they agreed to do the work requested by Trump,” reports El País. The New York Times notes that some of the migrants are looking to apply for asylum in Panama, but officials have blocked lawyers from entering the hotel where migrants are housed.
Costa Rica has agreed to receive 200 third country deportees from the US. Similar to the process for Panama, “Costa Rica said its territory would ‘serve as a bridge’ for the migrants’ return to their countries of origin, and that the repatriation process would be ‘fully funded by the U.S. government, under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration,’” reports The New York Times. The first flight was nearly half children (65/135), with migrants from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Georgia, reports El País, noting that the migrants will be housed in the CATEM shelter along the Costa Rica-Panama border.
“Costa Rica could hold US deportees for up to six weeks, president says” (Reuters)
“Many migrants arrived in Costa Rica without even knowing where they were and were desperately seeking to reach their relatives to let them know their circumstances… many people ‘expressed visible distress,’” according to Costa Rica’s Ombudsman. (New York Times)
Jesuit Migrant Service in Costa Rica expresses concerns about the conditions deportees are subjected to and calls for human dignity and transparency surrounding this cooperation and the treatment of migrants.
“The U.S. government and a Venezuelan state airline flew 177 Venezuelan migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras and on to Venezuela on Thursday,” reports Reuters, noting, “the transfer took place at Soto Cano, a joint U.S.-Honduras military air base.”
“Mexican and U.S. authorities are continuing "mirror operations" on the border, reports EFE.
The Mexican government has proposed that the US “diversify” the destinations of deportation flights of Mexican nationals in order to land them closer to their communities of origin. (El Universal)
“Over the last four years, the U.S. has deported more Guatemalans than any other group, and since Trump took office, multiple U.S. military planes carrying deportees have already landed in Guatemala City. As the Trump administration undertakes what it touts as the largest deportation effort in recent U.S. history, Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo has been careful to avoid confrontation. Instead, the Arévalo administration seems committed to discreet diplomacy and pragmatic engagement,” including on says Americas Quarterly.
“Instead of condemning the deportations, Arévalo has announced a plan to support deportees. The administration is expanding consular services in the U.S. and Mexico, establishing temporary shelters in Guatemala City, and undertaking a skill-certification program to offer recognition for the trades and language skills they have practiced in the U.S.”
🇭🇳🇬🇹 Guatemala and Honduras
The foreign ministers of Guatemala and Honduras met to discuss migration, among other topics. (Canal8)
🇪🇺🇨🇷 Costa Rica and European Union
The EU has strengthened its cooperation with Costa Rica on migration, among other topics, reports EFE, highlighting “the ‘HOPE’ programme, which aims to support the regularisation and socio-economic integration of migrants in the border area with Nicaragua.”
Labor Migration
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada’s immigration system is in crisis and difficult to access because of complex and numerous pathways and bureaucratic overload, leading many to take alternative routes to enter the country, including university visas and asylum applications, according to a long-form op-ed by Doug Saunders at The Globe and Mail explaining the recent trajectory of immigration in the country and challenges plaguing the system.
Another key challenge: efforts to facilitate transition from temporary labor pathways to permanent residency have stuttered, as “the requirements for permanent residency, and the limited numbers of spots, mean that very few temporaries have been able to become permanent. And in November, Ottawa closed down the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway.”
Sanders writes, “Both the federal Conservatives and the major Liberal leadership candidates appear to be united (though they might not admit it) around a common set of aspirations: a return to a focus on permanent, citizenship-focused immigration of intact families and a reduction of temporary migration to a minimum; immigration targets tied to economic conditions and population-growth needs; a refugee policy driven by genuine humanitarian need and not by irregular border crossings or opportunism.”
Migrants in Transit
🇪🇨 Ecuador
“High turnout in Ecuador’s presidential election, over 80 percent is a good indication that citizens have faith in political solutions to their crisis — “But should this electoral process frustrate an already impatient public, many might “vote with their feet,” exacerbating Ecuador’s already-high levels of irregular migration,” writes Michael J. Fitzpatrick in the Wilson Center’s Weekly Asado.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇺🇾 Uruguay
El Observador highlights how Spain has replaced Argentina as the principal destination of Uruguayans migrating abroad. (see also Infobae)
Borders and Enforcement
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
“The Dominican Republic government announced Monday that it will extend the wall it is building on the border with Haiti by 10 to 12 kilometers, bringing it to about 176 kilometers along the border zone,” reports AFP.
🇨🇴 Colombia
“Colombia will not admit Venezuelans deported or expelled from other countries” (El Universal)
🇵🇪 Peru
A proposed bill in Peru’s Congress would expel foreigners caught and arrested in the act of committing a crime, reports Infobae.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration is ramping up plans to detain undocumented immigrants at military sites across the United States,” reports The New York Times.
“The military transported about 15 immigration detainees from Texas to the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday, bringing in new migrants who have been designated for deportation days after it cleared the base of its first group of deportees,” reports The New York Times.
TRAC explores “strange inconsistencies” in ICE detention statistics since the inauguration of the Trump administration.
“House Republicans are preparing to call a vote within weeks on the “No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act” — legislation that would target jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement priorities. Advocates who want to preserve those cities’ ability to protect undocumented immigrants are pushing Democrats to stand firm against the bill — and avoid a repeat of the mass defections seen on other immigration votes this year,” reports Politico.
“ICE and Border Patrol agents will stop using body cameras: Trump's latest measure that leaves migrants unprotected: Migrant advocates say the use of these devices, approved under the Biden administration, helps ensure greater transparency during encounters between authorities and foreigners” (El País)
The U.S. blaming migrants for spreading disease while firing health officials en masse is classic U.S.