Americas Migration Brief - December 8, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇧🇷 Brazil
A group of 41 Indigenous Venezuelan migrants were abandoned on the street in the city of Montes Claros after a shelter program was closed in their previous city of residence, Itabuna. The municipal government of Montes Claros is already working on facilitating their document regularization and assessing job opportunities and other efforts to promote their integration. (Correio)
🇨🇱 Chile
InfoMigra considers the legal basis of various campaign proposals related to migration for Chilean presidential candidates José Antonio Kast and Jeannette Jara. (see more at Borders and Enforcement section below)
A CDOP report investigates social media narratives about migration in Chile, “revealing discourses of dehumanization, criminalization, stigmas of poverty, and internal hierarchies within migrant communities.” (El Mostrador)
🇨🇼 Curaçao
Venezuelan migrants in Curaçao face disproportionately high unemployment, underemployment, and lack of educational participation, according to a government report on Curaçao’s 2023 census reviewed by Crónicas del Caribe.
🇺🇾 Uruguay
Uruguay has launched “Migra Móvil,” a vehicle equipped with a mobile office to conduct immigration procedures across the country and connect with hard to reach populations. (Debate)
🇺🇸 United States
“A new policy announced by the Trump administration will make work permits issued to asylum seekers, and others under certain humanitarian programs, valid for 18 months instead of five years, reports Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joe Edlow framed the change as a way to vet immigrants more often. The new policy, expected to take effect as of yesterday, applies only to new work permits at least for now. The policy could hurt the U.S. economy, advocates and community leaders point out.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
“The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review and rule on the legality of President Trump’s January 20 Birthright Citizenship Executive Order (EO), which would significantly restrict birthright citizenship in the United States,” reports Reuters, noting that a previous lower court ruling asserted “that Trump’s policy violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment and a federal law codifying birthright citizenship rights.”
“Legal experts trash Supreme Court for ‘really unnecessary’ birthright citizenship case” -- the text of the US Constitution is unambiguous and clear. (AlterNet)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Many thousands of displaced and violence-affected people in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico have lost access to vital services and protection due to a dramatic scale-back in support by donors which is also reducing the capacity of the humanitarian organisations to provide assistance,” says NRC.
“As of 30 September 2025, there are more than 58,800 new asylum claims in Mexico, primarily from Cubans (28,700+), followed by Venezuelans (12,100+) and Haitians (7,000+)... This equals over 215 applications per day.”
🇲🇽 Mexico
“LGBTIQ+ migrants on Mexico’s southern border are turning to sex work due to a lack of job prospects in the region,” reports EFE, highlighting concerns about abuse and vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration is considering expanding its travel ban — which currently restricts or bars the entry of nationals from 19 countries — to around 30 nations in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., last week,” reports CBS. All immigration applications from the 19 travel ban countries have been “paused indefinitely,” including for those already in the US and even those preparing to naturalize, adds The Guardian. (see last week’s AMB)
An IRAP explainer breaks down recent policies affecting refugees, asylum seekers, Afghan nationals, and immigrants from travel ban countries.
“About 600,000 people were being processed to come to the U.S. as refugees around the world when the (refugee resettlement) program was halted, according to the administration. Dozens of white South Africans have been let in this year. But only about 100 others have been admitted as a result of a lawsuit by advocates seeking to restart the refugee program,” reports AP, highlighting impacts on lives “thrown into disarray because of the changing policies.”
“The Dismantling of US Refugee Resettlement and Its Impacts” (Baker Institute issue brief)
“Some immigrants who win protection from deportation to their home countries are being detained indefinitely,” reports LA Times.
Research by Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology examines “the drastic expansion of DNA collection at the Department of Homeland Security… with essentially no oversight” and no requirement of consent, including a new issue brief on how these practices have intensified under the Trump administration and now have also targeted US citizens.
An Amnesty International report investigates human rights violations at the “Alligator Alcatraz” and Krome immigration detention facilities in Florida.
“The federal watchdog system at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that oversees complaints about civil rights violations, including in immigration detention, has been gutted so thoroughly that it could be laying the groundwork for the Trump administration to “abuse people with impunity”, experts warn.” (The Guardian)
🇨🇦 Canada
“Lawyers and refugee experts say U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that his country will halt all asylum claims should prompt the Canadian government to suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement, which they say is now unworkable,” reports The Globe and Mail. (see last week’s AMB for more)
Lookout highlights the case of a transgender US citizen seeking asylum in Canada, noting, “the path to refugee status is complicated for Americans like Kreager because of the Safe Third Country Agreement, a 2002 pact that bars refugees from claiming asylum in Canada if they enter from a country such as the United States. The agreement rests on the assumption that the U.S. can protect its citizens from persecution. Kreager’s legal team argues that this assumption does not hold in her case and says the agreement should be reviewed to account for the federal reach of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies into states.”
“Amendments to Canada’s border bill (Bill C-12) set limits to the governor general’s ability to cancel or suspend immigration applications, and to cancel, vary, or suspend immigration documents such as work permits, study permits, and permanent resident cards,” reports CIC News. (see AMB 11/24/25)
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Peru’s foreign affairs minister presented at the OAS the country’s proposal related to the Caracas Convention to “protect the essence of the right to diplomatic asylum and prevent it from being used as a mechanism for impunity,” per state-run news agency Andina. The proposal “consists of having the asylum-granting country request information from the applicant’s country of origin regarding their legal situation once an asylum request is submitted.”
In response, Mexico argued that “such a process would weaken the institution of asylum by opening the door to political considerations that would undermine the humanitarian nature of the institution and contravene its objective of immediate protection.” (press release)
For more on the controversies leading up to this, see AMB 11/10/25.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
After a less-than-one-week hiatus, regular US deportation flights to Venezuela have resumed. (Reuters, EFE)
A Mexican national was wrongly deported by the US to Guatemala, but has subsequently been identified and returned to his country of origin. (Milenio)
A project by Refugees International and Human Rights First tracks and summarizes third country deportations by the US.
🇧🇴🇦🇷 Argentina and Bolivia
Bolivian and Argentine officials met to discuss migration and the countries’ shared border, among other issues. (El Deber)
🇧🇷 Brazil
A bill under discussion in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state establishes a State Policy for Migrants and a State Migration Council, explains MigraMundo.
Labor Migration
🇬🇹 Guatemala
IOM highlights a labor migration pilot project for Guatemalan migrants to work in Germany as package distributors.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration on Wednesday announced increased vetting of applicants for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, with an internal State Department memo saying that anyone involved in “censorship” of free speech be considered for rejection,” reports Reuters.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
The New York Times highlights how Spain has increasingly become a destination for Latin American migrants.
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexico experiences a boom in Asian migrants” (El Universal)
🇵🇪🇨🇱 Chile and Peru
Several dozen of the previously stranded migrants at the Peru-Chile border crossed irregularly into Peru last week, reports EFE, noting that the migrants intended to return to their countries of origin, not remain in Peru. Peruvian police caught and expelled the group, notes Infobae, while El País adds that many of the stranded migrants were Venezuelan, but that few remain. (see last week’s AMB; see also Infobae)
The first meeting of the Binational Committee on Migration Cooperation between Chile and Peru, convened as a result of the current situation, “agreed to move forward with the implementation of joint patrols and deepen the exchange of information in order to strengthen operational response capacity, improve management, and enhance police assistance in areas of common interest,” per El País.
“Peru will use drones to monitor its border with Chile amid an irregular migration crisis: These devices will complement the work of 100 police officers and 50 military personnel who are already operating in coordination with the Peruvian Superintendency of Migration, within the framework of the state of emergency.” (Infobae)
Chilean officials have denied that there is currently a crisis at the border, arguing that current migration dynamics are relatively normal and that exits to Peru in November were fewer than from the same month a year prior. (RPP, Diario UChile)
Borders and Enforcement
🇨🇱 Chile
Leading Chilean presidential candidate José Antonio Kast’s mass deportation plans are not logistically feasible—and even less so for Venezuelan migrants—according to former head of immigration Rodrigo Sandoval. (El Mostrador)
Even an ally of Kast, Jorge Tarud, admits that deporting all 330,000 irregular migrants in the country would be difficult both in terms of time but also finances, instead placing an emphasis on deporting those with a criminal record. (El Mostrador)
Congressmen of the right-leaning Chile Vamos coalition have proposed creating a “special border police force inspired by the US model,” reports Tiempo21. (see last week’s AMB on Argentina already beginning to do the same)
🇧🇸 The Bahamas
“The Bahamas is proposing to impose harsher penalties on human smugglers, a move that officials say they hope will help dismantle criminal organizations that use the Caribbean nation as a staging point to smuggle migrants into the United States,” reports Reuters. (see AMB 10/20/25)
🇯🇲 Jamaica
A group of 29 Haitian migrants were detained in Jamaica; 16 have been ordered removed by a court order. (Radio Jamaica News, Gleaner)
🇧🇿 Belize
“Belize has begun installing improved Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) technology at its key points of entry. With backing from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU), this initiative represents an important advance in strengthening Belize’s border security,” per IOM.
🇺🇸 United States
“The United States on Wednesday revoked the visas of executives and senior officials of a Mexico-based transportation company the Trump administration accuses of facilitating illegal migration,” reports UPI.
“A Record 65,735 People in ICE Custody as of November 30” (Austin Kocher)
🇨🇦 Canada
“More than 10,000 removal warrants in the Canada Border Services Agency inventory have been active for more than a year — even though the agency says removals are at an all-time high,” reports CTV News.
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