Americas Migration Brief - November 24, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇨🇱 Chile
Leading Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast proposed in an interview that under his administration, deported immigrant parents of Chilean-born children would be forced to choose between bringing their child with them during deportation or “(handing) over the care of their child to the (Chilean) State.” (Interferencia)
🇪🇨 Ecuador
The Noboa administration’s securitization of migration “may exacerbate the exclusion of a population that already lives in precarious conditions, without full access to education, formal employment, or health services. This marginalization not only violates rights but also weakens social cohesion and deprives the country of the talent and productivity of thousands of newcomers,” explains MPI, calling for a move “toward a second phase of its migration policy, one focused on integration. This means recognizing that a large part of the migrant population will remain in the country and that their social and economic inclusion is essential for national stability. A key element of this second-stage agenda would be the implementation of a regularization program that allows for the full integration of Venezuelan immigrants—benefiting not only those who migrate, but Ecuadorian society overall.”
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
“The Dominican Republic has among the lowest levels of public investment in health in Latin America and the Caribbean. But instead of strengthening its system, the government has blamed the population perceived as Haitian and has introduced a protocol in public hospitals that ties care to migratory status and puts these people at risk of being arrested and deported,” says Amnesty International, critiquing stigmatization of Haitian migrants and Haitian-descendant Dominicans and the impact on health care access. (report, press release)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
Guatemalan returnees face challenges in reintegrating, reports EFE, highlighting efforts to promote entrepreneurship and skills training and noting the importance of local-level collaboration and policy.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration on Monday proposed giving immigration officers authority to deny permanent residency to lawfully present immigrants who use Medicaid or other food and housing assistance programs,” reports Politico, explaining, “It’s a twist on the so-called public charge rule from Trump’s first term, which the Biden administration stopped enforcing in 2021 and rescinded in 2022.”
A group of Senate Democrats are “challenging” the Trump administration’s revised civics exam for citizenship applications, reports Migrant Insider, noting, “The Institute of Citizens & Scholars found that only about one in three Americans could pass the revised civics exam.”
A survey by New York Times and KFF of immigrants in the US finds that “Forty-three percent of immigrants say they worry that they or a family member could have their legal status revoked… And for many, financial concerns are also mounting. Nearly half of immigrants, including 62 percent of undocumented immigrants, say it has been harder for them to earn a living since January.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Seventy per cent of people displaced in Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico were forced to flee their homes by violence and the presence of criminal groups… ProLAC partners, a regional protection monitoring initiative led by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), warns that displacement in Latin America is no longer a series of isolated events—it has become a widespread and systemic outcome of persistent violence. The failure to establish effective legal frameworks to recognise and protect internally displaced people leaves thousands without access to the support and safeguards they urgently need.” (press release)
An IOM study “examines the internal displacement of women in Mexico, emphasizing how violence, climate change and disasters, combined with structural inequalities, forces them to flee their homes.”
A Red-LAC and R4V report reviews protection issues across Latin America and the Caribbean.
🇺🇸 United States
“The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by President Donald Trump’s administration of the government’s authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border,” reports Reuters, explaining, “The court took up the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s determination that the “metering” policy, under which U.S. immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law. The policy was rescinded by former President Joe Biden, but Trump’s administration has indicated it would consider resuming it.”
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for more than 6,100 Syrian beneficiaries while a legal challenge proceeds, reports Reuters.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures, expressing concern about three Salvadoran men deported by the Trump administration that “face a serious and urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to their rights to life and personal integrity in El Salvador.”
In a similar type of issue, a Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador and then Venezuela by the Trump administration despite an asylum claim “is now missing in Venezuela, according to a federal judge,” per Politico.
An American Immigration Council report analyzes “more than 2.28 million immigration court cases from FY2019 to FY2024 reveals that having a lawyer dramatically reduces the likelihood of being ordered deported. The data also reveals that case outcomes vary dramatically depending on whether someone is detained and where their case is heard, factors that are increasingly undermining fairness in the immigration court system.” (press release)
“A federal judge ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to resume considering granting protection from deportation for immigrant youth who have been given Special Immigrant Juvenile status, reports Valerie Gonzalez of Associated Press. The program, which USCIS rescinded in June, affects young people abused, neglected or abandoned by parents or guardians. The decision requires the government to carry out the program while litigation over the rescission plays out.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “as an aggressive contingent of DHS “mass deportation” personnel, mainly Border Patrol agents, moves out of Chicago and into Charlotte, media are paying increasing attention to Border Patrol’s tactics, which are more confrontational and less discriminate than ICE’s, and to the contingent’s flashy leader, Border Patrol sector chief Gregory Bovino.”
“In response to the rapid expansion of immigration detention and intensified attacks on Black and Brown communities, organizers and everyday Americans across the country have stepped up to fight back. The success of their work is evident from the fact that Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has recognized that communities are organized and “making it very difficult” for ICE to do its job in cities like Chicago. However, the work has only just begun,” says NACLA, highlighting advocates’ effort.
“The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal” (The Guardian)
🇨🇦 Canada
The Carney government’s efforts to pass the migration-related Bill C-12 has faced hiccups and a slow process, reports CBC. The Conservative party is looking to introduce amendments to tighten access to asylum further than already proposed, per The Globe and Mail, while advocates such as the CCLA have criticized the bill for “(preventing) many refugees from accessing a fair assessment of their claims,” among other concerns.
“Immigration Minister Lena Diab has extended the pause on new applications through the Private Sponsorship for Refugees Program for another 12 months as the department works to clear its backlog… The pause was to be lifted at the end of December but will now be in place for another year, until Dec. 31, 2026. This pause applies to refugee sponsorships submitted by community organizations or groups of five or more individuals,” reports The Globe and Mail. (see AMB 10/13/25 on concerns about the pause)
“A migrant-rights group is calling on Ottawa to grant temporary work permits and employment insurance access to farm workers from Jamaica who have been affected by Hurricane Melissa – particularly those who are returning to destroyed homes after working the spring- and summer-farming seasons in Canada,” reports The Globe and Mail.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“Representatives from more than a dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries… concluded a new round of the Quito Process with concrete agreements to improve the protection, regularization and integration of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and returnees in the region,” per a press release.
“Among the most noteworthy decisions is the update of the Regional Strategy for Socioeconomic Integration for Migrants, Asylum Seekers, Refugees, and Returnees in Latin America and the Caribbean (ERISE), which aims to accelerate the labor and social inclusion of these populations with a long-term, rights-based approach. The countries also agreed to promote training and exchange among the National Commissions for Refugees, as well as to create a Network of Focal Points on Gender and Human Mobility to address, in a coordinated manner, the specific needs of all people in mobility contexts, with a focus on age, gender, and diversity.”
🌎🇨🇦 Canada and Regional
I contributed to a new Canadian Council for the Americas report considering “A New Canadian Strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean,” which includes a chapter on migration. Recommendations include to establish a “new mobility pact with Mexico” and to “replace and modernize” the Safe Mobility Initiative started under the Biden administration in the US: “Canada is currently experimenting with programs intended to divert prospective migrants away from overloaded asylum-claim systems into regular labour pathways—most notably the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP). These programs could ideally be instrumentalized through such a new Safe Mobility system.” One of the other several recommendations includes that Canada could work with Brazil, for example, on responding to the Haitian refugee crisis.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“A high-ranking Costa Rican official said late Friday that the country remains willing to accept the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, rebutting the Trump administration’s claims that the only possible destination for the Salvadoran immigrant is the West African nation of Liberia.” (Washington Post)
🇨🇷🇵🇦 Panama and Costa Rica
The presidents of Panama and Costa Rica met and agreed to strengthen cooperation on migration, among other issues: “Migration was a prominent topic in the conversation. The presidents reiterated their commitment to working together to ensure a humanitarian and orderly response, facilitate information sharing, jointly combat human trafficking and organized crime, and strengthen regional security. They also emphasized that cooperation will be key to improving the quality of life in border communities through binational projects.” (Tvn)
Labor Migration
🇺🇸 United States
Niskanen Center introduces a county-level model to map local labor immigration needs across the US: “Drawing on quantitative indicators of both local demand and capacity, the MMI maps where migration can do the most good for migrants seeking opportunity, for fading communities in need of renewal, and for the nation’s broader strength and competitiveness.”
“The Trump administration’s crackdown on legal immigration is making it tougher for foreign professionals — doctors, engineers, professors, artists — to get permission to work and live in the United States,” reports Washington Post.
“Foreign countries are seeking to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s new fee hike on applications for H-1B visas, a move some experts say could have a detrimental impact on the United States. Canada, Germany and China are among the countries that have publicly signaled intent to attract to their country’s tech industries the foreign talent that could otherwise go to the United States,” reports Roll Call.
“The global race for talent: Other nations are outpacing the U.S. on high-skill immigration” (Niskanen Center)
“A new analysis indicates that allowing more health care professionals to immigrate legally could lengthen life expectancies and improve the health of aging Americans, Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes. “Foreign-born workers are essential to both the supply of health care workers and research that leads to new pharmaceuticals and medical devices,” University of North Florida economist Madeline Zavodny writes in the National Foundation for American Policy brief.” (via The Forum Daily)
“The United Farm Workers — along with multiple U.S. citizen farmworkers — sued the Trump administration on Friday over a new rule that substantially lowers pay for seasonal guest workers in agriculture,” reports Washington Post.
🇨🇦 Canada
“Ontario has quietly suspended a fast-track immigration stream for skilled tradespeople and is cancelling all current applications to the stream, leaving candidates who were awaiting decisions in limbo − and at risk of losing their right to live and work in the province,” reports The Globe and Mail, noting, “Last year, the province nominated about 4,100 candidates through its skilled worker stream… The government has previously forecast that it will need 100,000 skilled tradespeople over the next decade to meet its infrastructure goals.”
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
“The Honduran government reported a 90% drop in irregular entry of foreign migrants compared to last year, but warned that, despite the overall decline, a significant flow of Cuban citizens continues to arrive, usually traveling to Nicaragua thanks to a visa-free agreement,” reports La Prensa. 16,790 Cubans and 8,037 Haitians have been recorded entering Honduras this year, representing nearly 80% of the January 1-November 6 total.
“The United States is imposing visa restrictions on people in Nicaragua who have enabled illegal immigration to the country, the State Department said on Monday, including the owners of transportation companies, travel agencies and tour operators,” reports Reuters. This follows similar efforts under the Biden administration.
Borders and Enforcement
🇺🇸 United States
AP has closely observed immigration proceedings across the US during the Trump administration: “Hearings repeatedly ended with cases dismissed by the government, allowing plainclothes federal agents to carry out arrests in courthouse hallways in close coordination with attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security… (leaked texts) offer a rare look at how the nation’s 75 immigration courts are churning out rulings in an assembly-line like fashion and how, for many people, the courtrooms have become deportation traps.”
“For the first time since September, ICE published data on people held in immigration detention centers across the country. In the intervening two months, which included the end of the fiscal year and the government shut-down, ICE’s total detained population grew to a record 65,135 people—most of whom had no criminal convictions. The growth in detention was driven by record numbers of ICE arrests in October,” explains Austin Kocher at his Substack.
“E-Verify, the federal system for authenticating an individual’s right to lawfully work in the United States, was once heralded as the silver bullet to control unauthorized immigration. But expanded use of the online platform has taken a back seat at the federal level for many years, while making some small gains in states. There are, however, signs that employment verification could draw renewed attention from federal policymakers,” explains MPI.
“A DC federal judge put a stay on ICE plans to use IRS data to track down migrants with informal status, calling the practice “unlawful.”” (via Pirate Wires Services)
“A lawsuit filed on Thursday takes aim at sky-high civil penalties imposed on undocumented migrants, an increasingly common tool the Trump administration has embraced to compel people to leave the United States. According to the lawsuit, the government has sent migrants tens of thousands of notices informing them that they have been assessed a $1,000 daily fine for being illegally present in the country. In some cases, the suit argues, the fines have been assessed retroactively, stretching back five years and totaling about $1.8 million,” reports New York Times.
More on Migration
🌎 Regional
An IDB technical note on remittances across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025 finds “a 7.2% year-on-year increase and a new record, driven by the rise in transfers to Central America amid growing migration uncertainty in countries such as the United States,” reports EFE.
🇧🇿 Belize
“Belize to launch temporary residency program for foreign investors” (BBN)