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
The latest Atlas Intel Latam Pulse Comparative Report for October 2025 polls public opinion on immigration across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Findings include that 92% of Chileans believe that immigration is a major problem for their country, compared to 32% of Argentines and Brazilians; 61% of Brazilians believe their country should welcome the entry of Venezuelan immigrants, compared to 5% of Peruvians and 10% of Chileans.
🇨🇱 Chile
El País highlights clashes of opinion between the Catholic Church and leading right-wing Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast on immigration, noting that Kast “has pledged not to carry out mass regularizations and to remove social benefits in health, housing, and education if he wins office.”
Kast has also suggested a constitutional amendment to get rid of birthright citizenship in the country.
🇨🇴 Colombia
The eighth round of DANE’s survey of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia finds that “only 65% of the migrant population has a Temporary Protection Permit (TPP). Among those who do not yet have one, 43% attribute the situation to difficulties with the institution in charge, 17% do not meet the requirements, and another 17% are in process of obtaining the document. Even with these challenges, nearly nine out of ten Venezuelans say they plan to remain in Colombia for the next year,” reports El Espectador.
Research by IPA and partners on Venezuelan migrants in Colombia finds that “Migration often meant losing financial products previously held in Venezuela—such as savings accounts, credit, or insurance. Twenty-four percent of migrants who had at least one financial product in Venezuela reported having none in Colombia. Losses were particularly high among women, young people, and the economically active. At the same time, many migrants became new users of financial services in Colombia. Digital wallets emerged as the most common entry point. Their use grew by 24 percentage points after migration, and for 35 percent of migrants, wallets were their first financial product in Colombia. Wallet ownership also increased the likelihood of opening a savings account, highlighting wallets as a gateway to broader financial inclusion. However, use remains limited despite access.” (policy brief, academic paper)
🇭🇳 Honduras
An IOM report finds that “returning Honduran migrants face “structural obstacles” that hinder their reintegration into the formal labor market and reduce their economic opportunities,” reports EFE.
🇧🇷 Brazil
“Although Brazil’s legal frameworks formally guarantee refugees the right to work, access public services, and acquire legal status, the actual mechanisms for socioeconomic inclusion remain fragmented and largely ineffective. Refugee labour market integration is mostly delegated to civil society organisations rather than being treated as a state responsibility. The result is a landscape in which most refugees experience underemployment, informal labour, and a profound mismatch between their skills and available opportunities,” says Angelo Martins Junior at Open Democracy.
🇧🇿 Belize
The Statistical Institute of Belize published a report based on the 2022 census, characterizing the country’s migrant population.
🇺🇸 United States
“The unauthorized immigrant population has grown sharply, from 10.7 million in 2019 to 13.7 million as of mid-2023, MPI analysts find. Still, even as the unauthorized immigrant population has experienced the sharpest growth since the early 2000s, a full 80 percent have at least five years of U.S. residence—with 45 percent living 20 or more years in the United States,” explains MPI.
“In a sweeping victory for immigrant communities and the rule of law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit today upheld an injunction blocking Iowa’s SF 2340. This law, Iowa’s worst-ever on immigration, would have made it a crime for certain immigrants to live in Iowa, even if they are now authorized to be in the United States,” says American Immigration Council, adding, “The law would also have allowed local officials to handle arrests and deportations. This is something that they do not have power to do under the Constitution.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
A Colectivo #HaitianosRD report examines the human rights situation faced by Haitian migrants amid states of exception and mass deportations in the Dominican Republic, documenting the deaths of 51 Haitian-origin individuals between 2021 and 2025, per a press release. One of the report’s authors told Acento that the Abinader administration’s efforts are “in relative terms, ten times more ambitious than (Donald) Trump’s,” additionally highlighting the role of civilian paramilitary groups.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
“On October 22, Ecuador’s National Assembly approved reforms to the Human Mobility Law that toughen immigration policy, speeding up deportations, and establishing stricter entry requirements,” reports El Espectador. Infobae adds, “The reforms also recognize the concept of ‘abusive or illegitimate asylum claims,’ which will allow the State to reject or revoke requests deemed fraudulent or intended to evade judicial proceedings. This provision was questioned by legal experts and human rights organizations, who warned that it could restrict the principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee protection law.”
“The document includes articles that were recovered from the Public Integrity Law, which became void after the Constitutional Court (CC) declared it unconstitutional,” notes Primicias.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration imposed a new annual $100 fee on asylum seekers earlier this summer. But more than three months later, immigrants and their attorneys say they can’t figure out whether they owe the money or how to pay the fee. The confusion is the latest example of how the Trump administration’s efforts to curb legal pathways for immigrants have trapped people in a bureaucratic maze… The fear is that these new fees create a way for the Trump administration to deny asylum claims and quickly deport some immigrants,” reports Politico.
“Immigrants’ Rights Organizations Submit Report to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Documenting Escalating Abuses by U.S. Government” (press release)
“The report documents worsening abuses in the immigration context including: Disappearances of immigrants who are unfindable in government custody for prolonged periods, causing severe anguish for families and making legal representation impossible. Recently, over 1,000 people reportedly disappeared from a single detention center.”
🇬🇫 French Guiana
Le Monde highlights the growth in asylum requests in French Guiana—mainly from Haitians—and the French department’s administrative capacity challenges.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew has indicated that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is carefully reviewing the CARICOM free movement initiative to ensure that the interests of smaller member states are safeguarded,” reports Observer. (see AMB 10/13/25 for more on the recent expansion to full free movement in four Caricom states)
Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister “accused the Venezuelan government of stalling the repatriation of around 200 Venezuelan nationals detained for criminal activity in T&T,” calling for Caricom to assist in negotiations, reports Stabroek News.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
Despite growing military tensions, the Venezuelan government has expressed its continued commitment to receiving deportation flights from the US, reports EFE.
Mexico and the US are approaching an agreement that includes “increased immigration surveillance along the Rio Grande,” among other economic-focused agreements. (El País)
“The Trump administration is quietly sending hundreds of Cubans and other immigrants with significant criminal records in buses across the border to Mexico, in an expansion of third-country deportations, reports the Miami Herald, explaining, “Although Cuba accepts deportation flights from the U.S., its longtime practice has been to reject deportees who have been convicted of certain crimes. That has left many of the island’s immigrants in limbo for years — unable to return to the island but stripped of their legal status to stay in the United States.”
In order to get El Salvador’s Bukele administration to accept the Safe Third Country Agreement with the US, the Trump administration returned nine MS-13 gang leaders that were in US custody, some of whom were acting as informants in US investigations, reports Washington Post. “The deal would give Bukele possession of individuals who threatened to expose the alleged deals his government made with MS-13 to help achieve El Salvador’s historic drop in violence, officials said. For the Salvadoran president, a return of the informants was viewed as critical to preserving his tough-on-crime reputation.”
Belize’s Opposition Leader has criticized a lack of transparency in the country’s new Safe Third Country Agreement with the US. (GBM; see last week’s AMB)
Grenadian civil society is concerned about a rumored proposal for a US-Grenada Safe Third Country Agreement. Previous attempts by the US earlier this year were reportedly rejected. (Barbados Today)
“Donald Trump’s administration said on Friday it has reached an agreement with Liberia to accept Kilmar Abrego, the migrant whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March became a flashpoint in the Republican president’s immigration crackdown,” says Reuters.
A Justice Department whistleblower said “he was put on leave and then fired after refusing to sign a brief in the mistaken deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” per CBS.
“A Cuban man deported by the Trump administration to the southern African country of Eswatini has started a hunger strike against his detention there… (he) was among five third-country nationals deported from the US to Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, in July,” reports The Guardian.
🇻🇪🇺🇾 Uruguay and Venezuela
Uruguayan and Venezuelan officials met to discuss the latter country’s consular services and the situation of Venezuelan migrants in Uruguay. (press release)
🇵🇭🇧🇸 The Bahamas and The Philippines
The Bahamas and the Philippines signed an MoU “to promote ethical recruitment, strengthen protection, and ensure safe deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) across industries in The Bahamas, including healthcare, tourism, domestic work, and hospitality,” reports The Filipino Times, noting that this is “the first comprehensive bilateral labor agreement (BLA) covering Filipino workers in the Caribbean.”
🇨🇴 Colombia
Colombia is establishing the Vice Ministry of Migration, Consular Affairs, and International Protection under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (El Tiempo, La Opinión)
🇧🇷 Brazil
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security has asserted that it will incorporate feedback from the 60 proposals approved by civil society at Comigrar as part of the construction of the National Plan for Migration, Refuge and Statelessness, reports MigraMundo, noting, “This is the first time since Comigrar took place in November 2024 that the federal government has more clearly expressed how it intends to leverage the contributions summarized by civil society during the conference.”
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
A Mixed Migration Centre report looks at migration across Latin America and the Caribbean in the third quarter of 2025.
Borders and Enforcement
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration is drawing up plans for a shake-up at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with officials looking to replace several senior leaders in field offices across the country,” reports The New York Times, explaining, “The proposal stems from frustration in the White House and the Department of Homeland Security over the pace of deportations, which are lagging behind President Trump’s goal of more than a million by the end of the first year of his second term.”
“ICE Spent Over $71 Million on Guns, Armor, and Chemical Munitions in 2025 So Far: The total is over 600 percent more than what the agency spent from January to October 2024.” (Reason)
More on Migration
🌎 Regional
Inter-American Dialogue explores preliminary projections for remittances from the US to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2026, expecting limited growth.