Americas Migration Brief - May 5, 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
🇨🇴 Colombia
“On the surface, Colombians’ attitudes towards displaced Venezuelans seem to have hardened… yet these attitudes have not translated into immigration restrictions or a desire to reverse many elements of the warm policy welcome Colombia has offered Venezuelan migrants, for which it has received international praise. Most Colombians still support allowing newcomers to access services such as education and health care, and many also say immigration has benefits, even if these do not always outweigh potential harms,” explains MPI, noting on the basis of focus group research that “most Colombians lie somewhere in the middle. Many simultaneously express compassion toward migrants, pride in their country’s welcoming response, and fear of increased crime or competition for scarce jobs in relation to immigration from Venezuela.”
An IMPACT Initiatives brief focused on the experiences of migrant children in Colombia includes recommendations such as calling for improving “access to quality education” and “the safety of public spaces.”
🇨🇱 Chile
Chile’s 2024 census registered 1.6 million migrants in the country, with 42% Venezuelan, followed by 15% Peruvian and 12% Colombian. (SJM; see AMB 3/31/25 for official overall estimates)
Housing precarity and encampments are reaching historic highs, reports El Mostrador, noting the prevalence of the issue for migrants, in particular. (see also BioBioChile)
An op-ed at El País expresses concern about restrictionist and criminalizing attitudes and policies in Chile, arguing that as the country ages, it is ever-more dependent on immigration
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
“A joint initiative by UNICEF and the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) has helped 149 Venezuelan children born in Trinidad and Tobago receive their birth certificates, giving them legal identity and access to essential services such as healthcare, education, and protection… The initiative focused on addressing barriers that migrant families face in the birth registration process, including financial hardship, lack of documentation, administrative complexities, and language barriers,” explains UNICEF.
🇺🇸 United States
A Cato analysis shows that despite perceptions by some that migrants bring crime, “all immigrants—legal and illegal—are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans.”
An MPI report maps state and local government efforts to promote language access.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Threats, stigmatization, xenophobia and lack of resources are the issues that most affect defenders of people in forced human mobility in Latin American and Caribbean countries,” finds CODHES.
The controversial granting of political asylum by Brazil to a former Peruvian first lady convicted for money laundering is once again sparking conversations about regional trends in granting potentially questionable political asylum. “Asylum should not be used as a tool to obstruct the ordinary administration of justice, as established by the International Court of Justice in 1951,” says an IDEHPUCP analysis. (see also AMB 4/28/24 on this issue)
🇧🇷 Brazil
UNHCR “welcomes the arrival of the first Afghan refugee families under Brazil’s newly launched Community Sponsorship Programme, a pioneering initiative within Latin America to resettle, protect and integrate people forcibly displaced by the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.”
🇲🇽 Mexico
A UNHCR report finds that “Mexico processed 40% more asylum applications in 2024 than the previous year, with nearly 80,000 received,” reports EFE, noting that applicants mainly come from Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, El Salvador, and Venezuela. The report also highlights increases in displaced Mexicans, too.
UNHCR has closed 4 “major migrant care offices in Mexico” and laid off nearly 200 employees in the country due to budget cuts. (Aristegui)
Based on interviews with migrants that made it to the US, the Immigration Lab highlights the protection challenges faced by migrants in their journey through Mexico.
“The UN has called on the Mexican government to investigate local authorities for the detention of migrants who later died at the INM facility in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua,” reports Animal Politico. (see UN report here, which also covers Jamaica)
🇯🇲 Jamaica
Following the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers’ recent visit to Jamaica, the committee recommends “decriminalising irregular migration, ending discriminatory provisions against migrants with disabilities, and phasing out immigration detention, especially the separation of children from undocumented migrant parents,” reports Radio Jamaica News. (see report here, which also covers Mexico)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
“In December 2024, we (the Observatory for Caribbean Migrants (OBMICA)) carried out interviews in the east of the Dominican Republic with Haitian migrant women regarding the obstacles they face in accessing public health–especially sexual and reproductive health. Often, they reported feeling as if they are stuck between a rock and a hard place: conditions do not exist for them to remain in or return to Haiti, but they simultaneously endure a confrontational context in the Dominican Republic. Sadly, the situation these interviewees face has since worsened. In recent weeks, many of them (those that have not been deported) have had their modest communities bulldozed in violent anti-migrant actions undertaken by the authorities,” writes Bridget Wooding at Global Detention Project.
🇺🇸 United States
“A federal judge on Thursday permanently barred the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans it has deemed to be criminals from the Southern District of Texas, saying that the White House’s use of the statute was illegal,” reports New York Times.
“While Judge Rodriguez’s decision applied only to Venezuelan immigrants in the Southern District of Texas — which includes cities like Houston, Brownsville and Laredo — it could have an effect, if not a binding one, on some of the other cases involving the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.”
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow for deportations of Venezuelans with TPS, reports New York Times, noting, “the court ordered the challengers to respond to the application by May 8.”
“A Haitian woman who was among those held in allegedly inhumane conditions has died after more than 10 weeks in immigration custody,” reports USA Today.
In a landmark case, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has found that US immigration officials were responsible for torturing and killing Mexican national Anastasio Hernández Rojas when deporting him in 2010. (Capital & Main, IACHR)
“A Guatemalan woman who gave birth in Tucson on Wednesday — days after entering Arizona through the desert and getting arrested by border agents — is facing rapid deportation proceedings under Trump's "expedited removal" policy, which could put her and her baby's health and safety at risk,” reports Tuscon.com. Arizona’s governor successfully intervened to stall the removal, per Reuters.
“The removal of three children with U.S. citizenship with their families to Honduras last week has prompted alarm that President Trump’s strict immigration enforcement may have crossed “illegal and unconstitutional” lines, as a federal judge in one of the cases put it. Lawyers for the two families involved said the mothers were not given an option to leave their children in the United States before they were deported,” reports The New York Times.
Immigration Hub published a living archive of nearly 700 individuals “detained, disappeared, or deported without warning” thus far during the Trump administration, calling for a fight against disappearances and the admin’s tactics.
“As the Trump administration races to fulfill its promise of mass deportations, over a dozen U.S. citizens have already been swept up in the immigration crackdown,” reports Washington Post, highlighting their stories.
“ICE Has Detained and Deported Thousands of US Citizens Since Its Founding” (Immigration Impact)
“Ice seeking out unaccompanied immigrant children to deport or prosecute: Moves sparking fears of a crackdown on such children and prompting alarm about ‘backdoor family separation’” (The Guardian)
“A federal judge in California ordered that the federal government continue to fund legal assistance for unaccompanied migrant children as several lawsuits play out, reports Victoria Albert of The Wall Street Journal. In March, the Trump administration discontinued part of a contract that funded organizations providing such children with legal assistance. With about 26,000 children at risk of losing their legal representation, many organizations are suing against the decision. The administration agreed to resume offering funds for a shorter period of time. However, budget legislation currently in Congress could put those funds in jeopardy, reports Suzanne Gamboa of NBC News,” explains National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily.
“House Republicans are proposing to charge migrants $1,000 to claim asylum, one of a series of new or increased fees on immigrants seeking to gain legal entry into the United States,” reports New York Times.
Several high-profile immigration detention cases under the Trump administration all have seen the detained sent to Louisiana, reports New York Times, noting, “Louisiana is notorious for a trifecta of compounding barriers to effectuate the rights of immigrants: conservative courts, scarce access to legal support and horrific detention conditions.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “The Trump administration claims to have deported 142,000 people during its first 100 days, but experts find the number confusing. Perhaps 50,000 people have been deported aboard about 400 ICE aircraft, and Mexico’s President said that nearly 39,000 more have been returned to her country. Those numbers fall far short of 142,000.”
🇨🇦 Canada
“How Canada could modernize and streamline its asylum claims system: Issuing refugee claimants a digital ID upon arrival would free up a huge amount of resources—and make the process more dignified for new arrivals” (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
A RINDHCA statement reaffirms the importance of the regional Cartagena +40 Process (see AMB 12/16/24) and calls for regional cooperation efforts and initiatives to protect migrants and promote human rights.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“Rwanda's government and the Trump administration are discussing details about a potential agreement for Kigali to accept deportees from the U.S., including Africans and other non-Rwandan nationals,” reports CBS. (see last week’s AMB on the deportation of an Iraqi refugee to Rwanda)
Rwanda is apparently just one of multiple countries the Trump administration is talking to about conducting third-country deportations (in addition to those already doing so in Latin America), per AFP. CNN says Libya is another of the countries, and the Trump administration is looking to set up a “safe third country agreement” to send asylum seekers there.
Mexico has received 5,446 third-country nationals deported by the US for “humanitarian reasons,” reports Border Report, adding, “Most of the foreign nationals opt for returning to their countries, Sheinbaum said.”
The Washington Post reports on the short turnaround “scramble” to conduct deportations of Venezuelans from the US to El Salvador under the Trump administration, explaining that “despite the administration’s claims, many of the immigrants sent to El Salvador had entered the United States legally and were actively complying with U.S. immigration rules.” The New York Times uncovered the negotiations, noting, “Bukele wanted assurances from the United States that each of those locked up in the prison was members of Tren de Aragua… To determine their gang affiliation, the Homeland Security Department had created a scorecard in which the men were assigned points for different categories. A broad range of tattoos were worth four points. A tally of eight points was considered evidence of gang membership.”
NYT further reveals that “Bukele had his own request: a list of MS-13 leaders that he wanted released from U.S. custody and sent to El Salvador, where he said they could be interrogated by his security officers,” thus avoiding the opportunity to talk in the US. Reporting reveals that Bukele had secretly received electoral support from gangs through agreements “that were instrumental to his political accent,” as explained by Jordana Timerman at Latin America Daily Briefing.
“Human rights activist Kerry Kennedy said she was not permitted to meet with ten Venezuelan men sent by the U.S. government to a prison in El Salvador, who she is representing legally. She said the Salvadoran government denied her access to meet with her clients, reports Reuters.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
“UN experts alarmed by illegal deportations from the United States to El Salvador” (press release)
In one of the most controversial cases, “President Donald Trump on Tuesday acknowledged that he could secure the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador last month but refuses to do so,” reports CNN. “Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, said that if Kilmar Ábrego García was sent back to the US, the Donald Trump administration ‘would immediately deport him again,’” adds The Guardian.
The Telegraph notes, “El Salvador has no “proof” that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, the country’s security minister has admitted.”
“Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told Migrant Insider that the $45 billion immigration enforcement package Republicans are pushing in the budget bill includes additional funding for detention services in El Salvador.” (Migrant Insider)
Following previously floated concerns surrounding the continuation of visa restrictions for Chileans to enter the US due to a string of robberies, Chilean and US authorities cooperated to take down “an international gang of thieves that carried out robberies in the United States.” (Reuters)
🇧🇴🇨🇱 Chile and Bolivia
Six months after a landmark agreement between Chile and Bolivia to facilitate migrant returns (see AMB 12/23/24), the Chilean government is shutting down facilities meant to help receive irregular migrants in the north, instead shifting focus to returns back to Bolivia. (EFE)
“Those working on the ground question the actual effectiveness of the regulation and fear a possible "boomerang effect" because, they say, those who are redirected "will try to re-enter Chile again and again, and that could collapse the border again."”
Some Chileans in Colchane are critical that the recently launched Neighboring Border Card (TVF) between Chile and Bolivia does not sufficiently consider their local needs, says Vilas Radio.
🇸🇷 Suriname
Suriname is developing a National Migration Policy Plan with the support of IOM, reports Suriname Herald. According to IOM’s Jan-Willem Wegdam, “Caricom sees this plan as an example for other member states.”
Labor Migration
🇨🇦 Canada
Following the Liberal Party’s election victory and continuation in power, CIC News reviews their plans for immigration policy, including ““Stabilizing” permanent resident admissions… Reducing temporary resident levels… Increasing francophone immigration… [and] revamping the Global Skills Strategy to help “attract top global talent.””
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
An IOM brief using DTM surveys from 5 key migration monitoring points in Guatemala finds an average monthly reduction in migration of 26% since October 2024. The surveys also observe migration both northbound en route to the US, Mexico, and Canada and southbound in return to countries of origin.
“The number of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border unlawfully continued to be at a historically low level in April,” reports CBS.
“Thousands of migrants from Venezuela and other countries are stranded in southern Mexico, forbidden to travel or work, but lacking the papers or money to go back to their home countries,” reports New York Times.
Borders and Enforcement
🇦🇼🇨🇼 Dutch Caribbean
“The Dutch Ministry of Defense is significantly reinforcing the Caribbean Coast Guard,” with a particular concern about Venezuelan migration and human trafficking. (Curaçao Chronicle)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
About 20,000 Haitians were deported by the Dominican Republic in April, the highest monthly figure this year, explains IOM, noting plans to scale up the agency’s humanitarian response.
🇺🇸 United States
“An anonymous Reddit user has developed an interactive map titled "Who Profits From ICE?" to highlight companies and entities involved in contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” reports Migrant Insider in a Q&A with the creator.
“Not In Our Backyard: Some Pro-Trump Towns Push Against Detention Centers” (The Marshall Project)
“The Justice Department has begun the first criminal prosecutions of migrants who breach a newly expanded military zone at the southern border that is patrolled by U.S. troops,” reports Washington Post.
“The Rising Cost of ICE Flying Immigrants to Far-Flung Detention Centers: The increase in long-distance transfers makes it harder to fight deportation and boosts the cost to taxpayers.” (Bloomberg)
More on Migration
🇳🇮 Nicaragua