Americas Migration Brief - March 24, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Members of Nicaragua’s Indigenous Miskito community face “unemployment, poverty, overcrowding, and insecurity” in Costa Rica, reports Artículo66, highlighting various challenges, including language barriers.
Miskitos have fled Nicaragua due to the violence of settlers invading their territory with the protection of the Ortega dictatorship, says Artículo66.
Regularization is key to integration, but an estimated 40% of Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica lack proper documentation, reports La Estrella de Panamá.
🇨🇴 Colombia
Al Jazeera highlights the impacts of the US foreign aid freeze on Colombian responses to Venezuelan migrants, explaining new limitations on access to legal status—and thus also health care and other services.
🇧🇷 Brazil
São Paulo-based NGO Missão Paz worked with the Haitian embassy in Brazil to provide documentation-related services to the Haitian community in the city, reports MigraMundo, noting that the annual partnership has been in place since 2016.
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexico City government officials dismantled a migrant camp in the city on March 13, highlighting the precarious conditions of irregular migrants inside the country,” reports Aztec Reports.
🇺🇸 United States
Recently arrived refugees in the US will now have more difficulty integrating and achieving self-sufficiency due to a pair of new Trump administration policies highlighted by HIAS: “The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) announced plans to dramatically shorten the eligibility window for Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) from 12 months to four months. The changes are set to go into effect on May 5. TORR, meanwhile, will also cut refugee aid organizations out of serving as designated organizations to administer Refugee Support Services (RSS) funding for newly arrived refugees. This funding includes coverage of time-limited housing assistance, employment training services, and interpretation and translation services.”
“Twenty-nine percent of adults in all immigrant families and 60 percent in mixed-status families worried “a lot” or “some” about participating in essential activities in their communities because they did not want to draw attention to their or a family member’s immigration status,” according to an Urban Institute brief based on a December 2024 survey.
Niskanen Center explores how states in the US can reduce the underemployment of foreign-born/trained healthcare professionals and facilitate their practice in the healthcare sector so as to reduce labor shortages.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
At least 1,233 migrants died in 2024 on migration routes in the Americas, according to new IOM data. “IOM believes that ‘the true number of migrant deaths and disappearances is likely much higher, as many have not been recorded,’” notes La Tercera.
🇭🇹 Haiti
“In just one month, intense violence has forced over 60,000 people to flee—yet another record in Haiti’s worsening humanitarian situation,” says IOM.
The US foreign aid suspension has affected access to clean water for displaced persons, notes MSF, adding, “the arrival of the rainy season increases the risk of flooding sanitation systems, deteriorating hygiene conditions, and outbreaks of deadly diseases, including cholera.”
An IOM report analyzing the profiles of Haitians deported back to the country in 2024 finds that “16% have been internally displaced (IDPs) in Haiti in the past (due to violence for 74% of them).”
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
“Amnesty International reiterated its condemnation of racist immigration policies in the Dominican Republic on Friday, urging its government to comply with its ‘international obligations’ to respect and guarantee ‘the right to defend human rights without discrimination for those fighting against structural racism in the country,’” reports EFE. (see Amnesty statement here)
🇧🇷 Brazil
The Brazilian government has signed community sponsorship agreements to provide humanitarian visas, financial aid, and shelter support, among other services, to hundreds of Afghan fleeing the Taliban. (Agência Brasil)
A UNU-CPR and INURED policy brief and graphic novel investigate the risk of modern slavery in Brazil for migrants without documentation.
🇨🇴 Colombia
Asylum requests can currently take up to three years to resolve, reports La Patria, highlighting a recent decree meant to improve capacity at the national refugee commission and speed up processing. (see AMB 2/10/25)
“In an unprecedented decision, the Colombian Constitutional Court issued a ruling protecting the fundamental rights of migrants in transit,” says Universidad de los Andes.
A CODHES report looks at forced displacement trends in Colombia in the first eight years since the historic 2016 peace accord.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
El País highlights the harsh, violent realities facing Ecuadorian migrants deported by the US.
🇺🇸 United States
The Trump administration is revoking the status of over 530,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants that entered the US through the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program, reports CBS.
“U.S. officials appear to be targeting Venezuelans with tattoos for deportation, saying the body art is evidence that they are members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. (El País) But experts say there are no tattoos associated with the group, which originated in a Venezuelan prison, reports the Guardian. … Numerous accounts from family members of the 238 people deported by Trump to El Salvador last weekend dispute the alleged gang affiliation of the deportees, reports Reuters,” explains Jordana Timerman at Latin America Daily Briefing.
One of those detained and suspected of deportation to El Salvador includes “EM,” a Venezuelan who had been granted refugee status alongside his girlfriend and was to resettle to the US before being detained at the Houston airport over his decade-old tattoos. He had no criminal record in any previous country of residence. (Miami Herald)
Ernesto Castañeda highlights at The Immigration Lab the story of Venezuelan migrant Julio Zambrano’s “state-led disappearance” by the Trump administration, explaining Zambrano and his family’s path from Venezuela to Peru to Chile and ultimately to the US, fleeing insecurity and crime in the process.
“A federal judge on Thursday accused the Trump administration of evading its obligations to provide him with information on whether officials disobeyed his ruling this weekend temporarily blocking the deportation of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act,” reports Washington Post. (see last week’s AMB)
Cristosal warns in a statement that the deportations to El Salvador “could constitute short-term enforced disappearances,” while the executive director Noah Bullock writes at Foreign Policy about the gross human rights abuses committed in Salvadoran prisons.
Reason highlights concerns that the Trump administration may try to use the Act as justification for warrantless raids in possible violation of the Fourth Amendment.
“Trump Declares War on Immigration Attorneys: In one of his most dangerous orders so far, Trump instructed the DHS and the DOJ to use "professional ethics" as a mechanism for silencing lawyers who challenge him in court or represent immigrants.” (Austin Kocher)
More than 67,000 White South Africans have expressed interest in refugee resettlement to the US given the Trump administration’s announcement last month that it would prioritize their resettlement, reports AP. It is unclear how they would technically qualify for refugee status, and the Trump administration has moved to dismantle the US refugee resettlement program. (see AMB 2/10/25)
“The Trump administration shut down three watchdog agencies in the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, gutting the offices responsible for conducting oversight of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The cuts affect the civil rights branch of D.H.S. and two ombudsman offices: one overseeing immigration detention and another responsible for scrutinizing the administration’s legal immigration policies,” reports The New York Times.
“Immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and created warrants after an arrest, lawyers say in court: Chicago attorneys were in federal court Thursday accusing federal agents of violating immigration law and the constitutional rights of at least 22 people since January.” (WBEZ)
“Experts and advocates are warning that the Trump administration’s extreme immigration policies and tactics make it more likely that American citizens could be swept up in immigration raids, reports Nicole Foy of ProPublica. While there isn’t available data for how many citizens have been impacted so far, the United States has a history of detaining and even deporting its own citizens, Foy notes. A report from the U.S. Accountability Office found that during President Trump’s first term, around 600 likely citizens were detained.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
A Strauss Center report updates on asylum processing at the US-Mexico border, explaining, “Since the Trump Administration assumed office and halted asylum processing at the border, the conditions along the border have changed dramatically. The administration cancelled approximately 30,000 scheduled CBP One appointments and closed the pathway for an estimated 200,000 to 270,000 asylum seekers in Mexico who were actively seeking these appointments. Many of these individuals have left Mexican border cities, with some traveling to larger interior cities—such as Monterrey and Mexico City—and others returning to their cities of origin. A small number of asylum seekers have also crossed into the United States as clandestine migrants between ports of entry. This report estimates that approximately 13,000 individuals remain in Mexican border cities. These individuals are concentrated in Reynosa, Ciudad Juárez, and Tijuana.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting that the “U.S. military presence at the border continues to expand: The administration may be planning to declare a 60-foot buffer zone along much of the border to be a “military installation,” allowing soldiers to “hold” migrants there. A Navy destroyer is to carry out a mission where the border meets the Gulf of Mexico.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
ECLAC and IOM hosted the Second Regional Review of the Global Compact for Migration in Chile last week. (press release)
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
Despite criticizing the deportation of Venezuelan nationals from the US to El Salvador, the Venezuelan government has agreed to continue receiving deportation flights from the US. The US had threatened additional sanctions in the case of a lack of cooperation. (DW, Reuters)
“Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and China deported from the United States and dropped into limbo in Panama hopped door-to-door at embassies and consulates this week in a desperate attempt to seek asylum in any country that would accept them,” reports AP. (see also New York Times)
A coalition of NGOs calls for Panama and Costa Rica to uphold their international obligations and ensure the protection of migrants, both those deported by the US and those independently returning to South America. In a similar vein, Human Rights Watch calls for Costa Rica to allow migrants deported by the US to seek asylum.
Costa Rica’s agreement to receive 200 third-country deportees from the US was made informally, without a signed agreement. (La Nación, Tico Times)
“Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. urging it not to deport any Mexicans to Guantanamo Bay… They responded to the diplomatic note by saying that as long as Mexico accepted the repatriated individuals, they would return to Mexico” (EFE)
“The leaders of several Caribbean governments being targeted under a proposed U.S. travel ban — including Haiti, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia — say they have received no formal notifications from the Trump administration, reports the Miami Herald.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing; see last week’s AMB)
🇲🇽🇨🇴 Colombia and Mexico
The foreign ministers of Colombia and Mexico met to discuss migration, among other topics. Per a press release, “One of the most important announcements is the proposal to implement a pre-registration system for Colombian citizens traveling to Mexico” in order to address concerns surrounding treatment of Colombians at Mexican airports (see last week’s AMB). A high level working group on security, including discussions of migration, has also been restarted.
🇵🇦🇨🇴 Colombia and Panama
The presidents of Colombia and Panama will meet to discuss migration, among other topics. (EFE)
🇸🇽 Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten's Justice Minister has been working to drastically reduce immigration processing backlogs, including “a new digital immigration management system.” (Loop)
Labor Migration
🇸🇻 El Salvador
“The Ministry of Labor announced Spain as the fourth country to join the institution's Labor Migration Program, which seeks to legally place Salvadorans in foreign labor markets. Labor Minister Rolando Castro said the first group of 30 people left for the Iberian nation to work for eight months as lifeguards at a hotel chain in Mallorca.” (La Prensa Gráfica)
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
The director of the Venezuelan Diaspora Observatory, Tomás Páez, estimates that just over 9 million Venezuelans currently live abroad, with Spain becoming an increasingly targeted destination. (TalCual)
A Mixed Migration Centre report based on surveys and interviews of migrants in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay conducted between July and October 2024 “explores the use of smugglers by migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean on their journeys through South America.” Findings include that “Smuggler use increases when movements are more restricted, for example crossing into Peru and Chile, where migrants surveyed and interviewed commonly reported relying on smugglers.”
AP highlights the role of TikTok in the smuggling industry.
An INURED report investigates Haitian migration across Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Chile, since the 2010 earthquake, incorporating a Haitian household survey from 2020-2021 alongside ethnographic fieldwork and other research from 2019-2023.
“The number of migrants apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol after entering the United States from Canada dropped to the lowest point since 2022 last month… The number of those apprehended after crossing into Canada, however, appears to be ticking up,” reports Reuters.
🇧🇷 Brazil
An IDMS report finds that the Bolsa Familia conditional cash transfer program “helps beneficiaries to resist [migration] when the drought is severe but surmountable. On the other hand, in the case of rare, extreme drought, it helps them to migrate,” co-author Paulo Tafner explained to Folha.
Borders and Enforcement
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
277 Haitian migrants were apprehended at sea off the coast of Turks and Caicos in a coordinated effort by Turks and Caicos and US authorities. (Magnetic Media)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
“While the restrictive immigration measures imposed by the Donald Trump administration have posed an obstacle to migration, undocumented immigrants continue to seek ways to advance northward to the United States. One example is the arrest of 88 people aboard a bus that was searched in Guatemala,” says EjeCentral.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration sent a new group of migrants to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay,” reports The New York Times.
“The U.S. government is once again detaining mothers with children inside the largest immigrant detention facility in the country in southern Texas. For years, the controversial practice known as “family detention” represented one of the most harmful, expensive, and shameful parts of the immigration enforcement system. Widespread criticism from the medical community and years of lawsuits contributed to the Biden administration’s decision in 2021 to end family detention and replace it with electronic monitoring and case management services. Starting this month, however, the Trump administration is bringing back family detention,” explains Austin Kocher at his Substack.
“Under a draft of an agreement between the I.R.S. and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the tax agency would verify whether immigration officials had the right home address for people who have been ordered to leave the United States… Tax information is closely guarded because federal law bars improper disclosure. I.R.S. officials had resisted earlier requests from the Department of Homeland Security to turn over information about unauthorized immigrants, warning that doing so could violate federal law. But the Trump administration has since replaced the top I.R.S. lawyer,” reports The New York Times.
“As U.S. President Donald Trump pledges to deport “millions and millions” of “criminal aliens,” thousands of federal law enforcement officials from multiple agencies are being enlisted to take on new work as immigration enforcers, pulling crime-fighting resources away on other areas -- from drug trafficking and terrorism to sexual abuse and fraud,” reports Reuters.
The New York Times highlights how the Trump administration is increasingly targeting legal visa holders and even tourists over expressions of opposition to Trump’s policies.
“U.S. Allies Adjust Travel Advisories Amid Trump Immigration Crackdowns” (Foreign Policy)