Americas Migration Brief - May 19, 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
🇦🇷 Argentina
In a radical shift from longtime norms in Argentina, “Javier Milei's government has adopted an anti-immigration discourse for the legislative election campaign,” reports El País, with a new Necessity and Urgency Decree that includes new limitations on access to permanent residency and citizenship, facilitating deportations of migrants with convictions, and eliminating universal access to public health care for irregular migrants and migrants with temporary legal status. (AP, AFP, BBC, El País; see AMB 12/9/24 on initial announcements of this agenda)
“Representatives of the humanitarian organization Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) questioned the announced measures and said that several require congressional approval because they entail reforming current legislation,” reports AP.
Members of the Mercosur regional bloc will look to discuss the new decree and its implications at an upcoming meeting, reports H2Foz.
🇨🇴 Colombia
An IDOS discussion paper explores social cohesion and Venezuelan immigrants’ integration in Colombia based on interviews and focus groups in the cities of Bogotá, Barranquilla, and Riohacha. (see also AMB 5/5/25)
A Fundación Ideas para la Paz report explores educational inclusion for migrant youth in Colombia.
A working paper by Lukas Delgado-Prieto investigates the labor market integration of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, finding that “migrants are nearly twice as likely to work informally as their comparable natives. Despite regularization amnesties intended to promote formality, only 10% of regularized migrants had formal jobs by 2021. Those entering the formal sector typically work in minimum-wage jobs and within small, low-paying firms, earning around half of the formal wages of natives.”
🇺🇸 United States
“New MPI-Penn State projections show that ending birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children with parents who are either unauthorized or are temporary immigrants (or a combination of the two) would increase the unauthorized population by an additional 2.7 million by 2045 and by 5.4 million by 2075. Each year, over the next 50 years, an average of about 255,000 children born on U.S. soil would start life without U.S. citizenship based on their parents’ legal status.” (MPI)
States across the US are taking diverging approaches to policy related to immigration, explains Immigration Impact, highlighting key bills from across the country’s state legislatures.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
IDMC’s annual report on internal displacement identified 1,466,000 and 13,058,000 cases of internal displacement in 2024 across the Americas due to violence and environmental disasters, respectively.
“The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expresses concern over the increase in practices of forced returns, deportations, and expulsions of migrants and refugees, both to their countries of origin and to third countries, without the guarantees of due process or the respect for their human rights.” (press release)
“Lawyers for 252 Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration and imprisoned in El Salvador for two months have failed to obtain a response to the habeas corpus petitions filed before El Salvador’s Supreme Court, reports AFP.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇧🇷 Brazil
An increase in asylum applications by Cubans has seen the nationality surpass Venezuelans as the leading group seeking protection in Brazil so far in 2025, reports Folha BV. Many of these Cuban asylum seekers are entering Brazil’s Roraima state irregularly from Guyana.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
In order to prevent the common occurrence of hours-long lines outside of the Refugee Unit office, Costa Rica’s government has launched a new site online so asylum seekers and refugees can view their files. (Confidencial)
🇨🇼 Curaçao
Curaçao’s new migration policy (not yet formal legislation) “on paper… appears admirable—legal, regulated, transparent. But behind this modern-sounding façade lies a painful truth: the migration policy remains deeply undemocratic, opaque, and detached from the rule of law. Migrants in Curaçao—especially those fleeing crisis in neighboring Venezuela—are not treated as human beings with rights, but as case numbers with no voice,” says an op-ed at Curaçao Chronicle, adding, “The island still lacks a comprehensive asylum law, a modern immigration law, or any independent body to review the decisions made by immigration authorities.”
New policies “make deportation more likely, extend the maximum duration of immigration detention, and impose stricter conditions for repeat asylum requests,” as well as restricting access to protection from deportation when making appeals to the European Court of Human Rights, reports Curaçao Chronicles in one article, adding, “Despite these stricter measures, the policy also includes procedural improvements aimed at increasing transparency and legal certainty. The application process is now clearly outlined, helping to prevent arbitrary decisions and providing migrants with a better understanding of their legal pathway.”
A second article notes, “While the policy builds in part on a previous framework drafted by Minister of Finance and Public Health Javier Silvania, it abandons much of the earlier emphasis on social integration and labor regularization.”
Curaçao authorities detected 450% more cases of human trafficking from last year, with (Venezuelan) migrants frequently the victims, per Crónicas del Caribe.
🇺🇸 United States
“Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Relations said the number of Mexican migrants who have died while unlawfully crossing into the United States has doubled since President Donald Trump took office,” reports BorderReport. This comes despite the fact that migration numbers have been falling since early 2024.
TPS for Afghans officially ends on May 20th, notes Fragomen. More than 9,000 could lose protection and be forced to return “back to a country where 50% of the population is in need of humanitarian aid,” warns IRC.
“The deportation over recent months of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States of America, especially to countries other than those of their origin, raises a number of human rights concerns, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said on Tuesday.” (press release)
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for safeguarding unaccompanied migrant children, is “undergoing a stark transformation” and being pushed to provide information “to target sponsors and children for deportation.” (Texas Tribune)
The Supreme Court ruled to keep in place a temporary block on deportations of Venezuelans through the Alien Enemies Act. (New York Times)
“If there has been a common theme in the federal courts’ response to the fallout from President Trump’s aggressive deportation policies, it is that the White House cannot rush headlong into expelling people by sidestepping the fundamental principle of due process” (New York Times)
“An appeals court’s directive has led a district court judge in Seattle to vastly lower the number of approved refugees the Trump administration must admit, reports Monique Merrill of Courthouse News Service. Plaintiffs had identified and estimated 12,000 refugees "conditionally approved and set to travel," but the government narrowed its scope to comprise only 160.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
“A new report by a coalition of nonprofits details how the freeze on asylum has put people in danger, exposing them to abuse from criminal groups and authorities at the southern border, reports Julian Resendiz of Border Report. "We wanted to shed light on what is happening and bring forward people’s testimony," said Jesus de la Torre, assistant director for global migration at Hope Border Institute. "We wanted to do them justice and for Congress to uphold asylum and refugee law regardless of manner of entry."” (via The Forum Daily)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “The House of Representatives is edging closer to passing a bill that would inject more than $150 billion in new resources into the Trump administration’s border-hardening and “mass deportation” priorities. A new provision added this week would tax non-citizens’ remittance payments. The bill could pass the House by the end of next week, and may pass the Senate in July, as it will not need a single Democratic member’s vote.”
Additionally, the House Committee on Agriculture’s budget reconciliation proposal would take away access to the SNAP food assistance program for several categories of immigrants with legal status. (Migrant Insider)
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“Venezuela is preparing repatriation flights from Bolivia for its nationals in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, whose governments ‘do not allow’ planes sent by (Venezuela) to land in their territories,” reports EFE. Venezuela also continues to receive deportations from the US via Honduras. (see last week’s AMB)
Border officials from across CARICOM visited Barbados to learn about the country’s immigration entry processes and share best practices ahead of plans to expand to full free movement. (Observer)
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
An MPI policy brief explores US-Mexico relations and cooperation on migration, including opportunities for collaboration on “(establishing) a transparent, shared border infrastructure at the Mexico-Guatemala border… (combatting) cross-national migrant smuggling organizations… (and strengthening) labor pathways between Mexico and the United States.” (press release)
“Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated Thursday that U.S. deportations to Mexico have increased in recent weeks, particularly by air, but remain lower than levels recorded at the end of President Joe Biden's administration,” reports The Latin Times.
A Refugees International and Women’s Refugee Commission report outlines how “recent U.S. policy reversals and aid cuts have eliminated protection pathways and strained an already overburdened asylum system in Costa Rica.” (press release; see last week’s AMB)
In a similar vein, “Trump’s aid freeze has gutted the humanitarian and integration programs that support Venezuelans in Colombia. The drop in funding has led to massive staff cuts at nongovernmental organizations across the country, suspending services at clinics along the border. It has even temporarily halted the government’s rollout of migrant permits for recent arrivals,” reports Foreign Policy.
Using funds from the US via the 2024 memorandum of understanding, Panama is offering “voluntary return” to Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Venezuelans currently residing in the Central American country. (Eco TV; see last week’s AMB)
Panama “is calling on the Trump administration to help clean up the Darién Gap and parts of the country's rainforest that were heavily damaged by mass migration… Panama's government estimates that more than 2,500 tons of trash have been left behind, including gasoline containers, mountains of plastic, and even human skeletons,” reports Newsweek.
“The U.S. government’s efforts to deport migrants to “third countries” could be understood as an attempt to “create an outsourced global detention system where rights to due process effectively do not exist, one run by mostly authoritarian governments that are trying to curry favor with President Trump,” according to the New York Times.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇪🇸🇭🇳 Honduras and Spain
The Honduran ambassador to Spain met with authorities in the Spanish province of Huelva to “explore new strategies to expand the participation of Honduran workers in the upcoming agricultural campaign.” (IOM)
Labor Migration
🌎 Regional
Investment in Argentina’s mining sector may prompt the recruitment of high-skilled migrants from neighboring Peru and Chile, reports Revista Economía.
🇨🇱 Chile
“The National Migration Service (SERMIG) and the National Agricultural Society (SNA) signed an important agreement today that seeks to strengthen the integration of Bolivian migrant workers into Chile's agricultural and forestry sector, especially during the harvest season… The agreement highlights Bolivia's role as the main country of origin for migrant workers in Chilean agriculture and aims to jointly coordinate the use of International Reciprocity Permits, promoting orderly, safe, and regular migration,” per a press release.
🇨🇦 Canada
“Much of Canada’s ability to produce food hinges on hiring migrant agricultural workers from countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and elsewhere. Yet, housing for migrant agricultural workers in Canada is often overcrowded, dangerous and undignified,” per The Conversation.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration’s crusade against top U.S. universities and some international students has created chaos in American academia—and an opening for countries who have long been eager to recruit top U.S. research talent,” reports Foreign Policy.
Migrants in Transit
🇵🇦 Panama
The Panamanian government closed down the Lajas Blancas shelter at the exit of the Darien Gap migration route due to the sharp drop in migration over the past year. (EFE)
Borders and Enforcement
🇺🇸 United States
“The Department of Homeland Security has requested more than 20,000 National Guard members to help with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,” reports New York Times, noting that DHS had also “moved to enlist about 2,000 agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration to help with arrests,” Reuters adds, “The FBI ordered agents on Monday to devote more time to immigration enforcement and scale back investigating white-collar crime.”
Despite the rhetoric and action, “Trump’s average daily rate of removals currently is around one (1) percent below what was Biden’s average daily rate of removals,” says TRAC, asserting that the Trump administration has made claims about deportation levels that are “not simply untrue but preposterous.”
Austin Kocher and Adam Sawyer developed “a new way to calculate recent detained population numbers at ICE detention facilities. We call this number Interval Average Daily Population (Interval ADP), and we believe it's a more accurate and timely facility-level data point than what ICE currently provides in its biweekly detention spreadsheet,” they write on Substack.
“A federal magistrate judge in Las Cruces, New Mexico has thrown out charges against 98 migrants whom the Trump administration had sought to prosecute for trespassing on a military installation. The “installation” in question is a very narrow fringe of territory stretching along the border from the New Mexico-Arizona line to about 50 miles east of El Paso, Texas. An April 11 presidential memo had declared that this stretch of territory is now considered an extension of existing military bases for at least the next three years. As a result, anyone setting foot in this area could be charged not just with improper entry, but with trespassing on a military facility, a misdemeanor carrying penalties of up to a year in prison.” (via Weekly Border Update)
“Judge refuses to block IRS from sharing tax data to identify and deport people illegally in U.S.” (AP)