Americas Migration Brief - November 10, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
An IDB blog highlights the prevalence of migrant women in domestic care industries across Latin America and the Caribbean, noting the need to guarantee rights and the opportunity to professionalize and formalize these jobs.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
“Trinidad and Tobago has drastically reduced the number of work permits issued to Venezuelans, from 4,275 in 2024 to just 757 this year,” reports EFE. As the government has adopted a more restrictive tone (see last week’s AMB), Venezuelan migrants are considering leaving—leaving employers concerned over a lack of workers, per Guardian.
“The Children’s Authority has begun gathering data on child exploitation among Venezuelan migrants, amid growing concerns about children—some as young as five—begging on the streets across Trinidad,” reports Guardian. (see AMB 10/13/25)
🇵🇪 Peru
UNHCR signed a cooperation agreement with the Peruvian government “to promote the inclusion of vulnerable refugees in Peru’s social protection systems. The agreement seeks to facilitate access to a socioeconomic classification and inclusion in the Social Information Registry (RIS) for those who had to flee their countries and found protection in Peru, a key step to participate in social programs and other state interventions,” per a press release.
🇨🇴 Colombia
A Fundación Santo Domingo and Fundación ANDI report explores the labor inclusion and socioeconomic integration of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. Findings include that just over half of Venezuelans aged 25-54 years old have faced difficulties finding employment in Colombia, reports El País.
🇧🇷 Brazil
A g1 series investigates “the stories of migrant children and families, volunteers, and healthcare and education professionals who work directly with them” in the Brazilian state of Paraná.
🇭🇳 Honduras
An IDB technical note “analyzes the return processes of Hondurans between 2016 and 2024, using the Comprehensive System for Attention to Returned Migrants (SIAMIR), managed by the Social Development Observatory (ODS), as its primary source of information. The study offers a descriptive characterization of the adult returnee population based on more than 345,000 records, with an emphasis on their sociodemographic, educational, and employment profiles, as well as their migration and return patterns.” (see also last week’s AMB)
🇺🇾 Uruguay
Amid concerns of demographic decline, Uruguay is considering proposals to attract migrants and to promote their long-term residency, including “generating benefits and improvements in the housing conditions of those who decide to live in Uruguay,” per Infobae.
🇨🇱 Chile
“Migration has become a central issue in the Chilean presidential debate. All the platforms include proposals that generally address borders, deportations, registration, and migration flow control, demonstrating that the issue is a major concern—and rightly so—for a large part of the population. However, a review of the proposals reveals a common pattern: migration continues to be treated primarily as a security problem and not as a challenge of development, governance, and social integration,” writes Juan Pablo Ramaciotti at El País.
“Migration is not confined to the border and requires an institutional framework that combines effective control with sustainable integration policies. A realistic, responsible, and strategic migration policy cannot address order without addressing integration, deportation without addressing justice , or technology without addressing development. A comprehensive migration policy must recognize that security and inclusion are not opposites, but rather complementary conditions for the country’s social and economic development.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Hurricane Melissa struck western Jamaica on 28 October and moved across eastern Cuba the following day, affecting more than 5 million people across Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti. The storm killed at least 75 people, displaced or forced the evacuation of over 778,000, and destroyed tens of thousands of homes, schools, and other buildings,” said OCHA on November 8th. (see last week’s AMB)
On a similar note, IOM highlights the persistence of challenges from the destruction of Tropical Storm Erika in Dominica a decade later.
Latin Americans are increasingly applying for asylum in OECD countries, led by nearly 245,000 Venezuelans and 157,000 Colombians in 2024. “Mexico (85,000 applicants), Haiti (84,000), Nicaragua (82,000), Honduras (79,000), Peru (59,000), Ecuador (53,000) and Guatemala (49,000) are also among the top 15 countries of origin for asylum seekers in the OECD last year,” reports RFI, noting that most applicants arrive to the US, but that Spain is also a growing destination, particularly for Venezuelans and Colombians. (see the full OECD report here)
The Spanish government resettled 245 Nicaraguan refugees from Costa Rica last week. About half of Spain’s nearly 700 resettlements this year have come from Costa Rica. (Confidencial)
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Applications for political asylum in Mexico are taking up to two years for a resolution, according to Darinka Carballo, director of the Gaia Migrant Foundation in Baja California,” reports Border Report.
🇦🇷 Argentina
“Argentina has emerged as a surprisingly prominent, if geographically distant, haven for L.G.B.T.Q. Russians escaping President Vladimir V. Putin’s escalating anti-gay crackdown,” highlights The New York Times.
🇸🇻🇺🇲 United States and El Salvador
“In March, the U.S. government sent more than 200 Venezuelan men to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. It was part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration to ship migrants to third countries — and deter others from coming. We interviewed 40 of the men who were imprisoned: They described being beaten, sexually assaulted by guards and driven to the brink of suicide,” reports The New York Times, adding, “A team of independent forensic analysts examined their testimony. The experts called it consistent and credible, saying most of the acts described met the United Nations’ definition of torture.”
🇺🇸 United States
“The United States federal government’s violent campaign of raids and detentions during the summer of 2025 in Los Angeles set the stage for similar and subsequent abuses in cities around the country,” says Human Rights Watch.
As aggressive tactics by ICE acting as a form of secret police have continued, there is now a trend of criminals impersonating ICE agents while committing crimes such as assault and kidnapping. The FBI is now calling for ICE agents to “clearly identify themselves while they’re in the field,” reports LA Times.
“A federal lawsuit claims that the administration is unlawfully deporting survivors of crime and abuse with pending protective visas, including U visas, reports Rachel Uranga of the Los Angeles Times. Nearly 500,000 immigrants await decisions on such visas, which Congress created to ensure immigrant survivors could help law enforcement without fearing deportation.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
“Senate Investigations Find Medical Neglect and Other Human Rights Violations in Immigration Detention Centers: Two reports find that the detention system is failing to provide detainees with adequate food, water, and medical care.” (Reason)
Immigration judges with a history in immigration defense are being disproportionately fired: “NPR has independently identified 70 immigration judges who received termination notices from the Trump administration between February and October… An analysis of each of the 70 immigration judges’ professional backgrounds found that judges with backgrounds defending immigrants, and no prior work history at DHS, made up about 44% of the firings — more than double the share of those who had only prior work history at DHS.” (NPR)
Over 250,000 Venezuelans that previously benefitted from TPS now have officially lost their protection from deportation. (CBS)
“The TPS holders join another 350,000 Venezuelans who were granted the benefit in October 2023 and lost it in April 2025,” notes Miami Herald.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, including “Links to coverage of tactics in the administration’s ongoing ‘blitz’ in Chicago, incidents elsewhere in the United States, arrests of U.S. citizens, conditions in ICE detention, concerns about the organizational culture at Border Patrol and ICE, and polling showing increased disapproval of the ‘mass deportation’ effort.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“The Peruvian government will present a proposal to the Organization of American States (OAS) to modify the 1954 Caracas Convention, on political asylum, aiming to prevent misuse of the rule that distorts its essence,” reports Andina, Peru’s state-owned news agency, highlighting concerns that the convention has “(allowed) individuals who have committed crimes to escape judicial decisions.”
The move comes after Peru’s former prime minister sequestered herself in the Mexican embassy to seek asylum while facing criminal charges surrounding her role in a 2022 self-coup (autogolpe) attempt. Peru has broken off diplomatic relations with Mexico as a result of the incident. (Reuters)
“Under the Caracas Convention, only the asylum-granting state—Mexico in this case—has the authority to determine the nature of persecution against asylum seekers,” says a press release from the Mexican government.
Since Belize and three other Caricom nations expanded to full free movement on October 1 (see AMB 10/6/25), Belize has seen 45 arrivals under the new regime, primarily with the intent of short-term visits. (GBM)
Ahead of the CELAC-EU summit, a coalition of civil society groups called for governments to “Recognise that (Latin America and the Caribbean) is facing several protection crises together with their causes of displacement. Such causes seriously affect the stability of the region and should be an issue of fundamental interest to the European Union and the countries in LAC.” (document)
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
Belize’s Senate is deliberating over the signed Safe Third Country Agreement with the US and in the process of amending the country’s Refugee Act “to include key protections and operating procedures” so that the agreement may be implemented. (GBM)
🇧🇴🇻🇪 Venezuela and Bolivia
“Venezuelan Embassy in Bolivia suspends immigration and apostille procedures: The Venezuelan embassy’s decision comes after Bolivia’s president-elect, Rodrigo Paz, sought to distance Bolivia from the Nicolás Maduro regime.” (Correo del Sur)
Labor Migration
🇬🇾 Guyana
As Guyana looks to attract migrant labor, the country’s government is considering “the option of granting migrant workers residency but not affording them the right to vote in elections,” which is currently granted to Commonwealth citizens after one year of residency in Guyana. (Demerara Waves)
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canada will aim to admit only 385,000 temporary residents next year — about 43 per cent less than the 2025 target… The new targets suggest the government is shifting its focus to temporary residents as it attempts to reduce the number of immigrants Canada welcomes,” reports CBC, adding, “Tuesday’s budget said that the number of temporary foreign workers had already been halved this year compared to 2024, and there has been a 60 per cent reduction in the number of international student arrivals. Asylum claims have also been reduced by about a third this year compared to 2024.”
“The budget also indicates that the government will launch a new accelerated pathway for U.S. H-1B visa holders — workers for specialized occupations, including in the technology sector.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
The Dominican government is announcing nighttime immigration operations as part of its mass deportation efforts that have been in place since October 2024. (EFE)
🇨🇦 Canada
“The federal government is seeking the power to cancel applications for groups of visa holders at least in part due to concerns of fraud from India and Bangladesh,” reports CBC.
🇺🇸 United States
“More than 100 federal judges have now ruled at least 200 times that the Trump administration’s effort to systematically detain immigrants facing possible deportation appeared to violate their rights or was just flatly illegal,” reports Politico, explaining, “Since July 8, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement reversed 30 years of practice and determined that ICE must lock up everyone facing deportation — even if they’ve lived in the country for decades and have no criminal record — federal courts have issued increasing warnings. The new ICE policy, they note, doesn’t just subject millions more people to detention while they fight deportation, it also bars them from even asking an immigration judge to consider releasing them on bond.”
“Despite the regular rhetoric from White House and DHS officials that detainees are “criminal illegal aliens,” nearly three-quarters of ICE detainees as of September had no criminal conviction, and many of those who did were for minor crimes such as traffic violations,” finds MPI.
Crucial public data sources about US immigration enforcement are not being updated as a result of the government shutdown—despite enforcement efforts continuing—notes Austin Kocher at his Substack.