Americas Migration Brief - December 22, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
“Venezuelan households contribute more than USD 10.6 billion every year to the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, mainly through spending on housing, food, education and health services,” per a new IOM report. (press release)
“However, this potential remains constrained. An estimated 82 per cent of Venezuelans in the Latin American and Caribbean region work in the informal labour market, and 41 per cent lack access to credit or formal financial services. These barriers limit economic autonomy, business growth, and their ability to contribute even more substantially to local development. Importantly, informality is driven by structural obstacles that limit access to formal employment, rather than by regularization itself. The study emphasizes that the economic gains observed have been possible in large part thanks to the efforts of host governments to expand documentation and regularization processes.”
“The Mayors of the Americas Task Force on Migration announced an investment of more than $5 million to enable cities to implement bold, city-led solutions that drive economic inclusion and build shared prosperity for migrants and receiving communities across Latin America. Five Task Force members — Bogotá (Colombia), Cali (Colombia), Manta (Ecuador), Mexico City (Mexico), and Quito (Ecuador) — will receive catalytic financial and technical support to launch programs that expand access to dignified work, pioneer digital ID systems, and unlock regular status for migrants” (Mayors Migration Council)
“The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) call on States to step up efforts to adopt comprehensive policies aimed at eradicating xenophobia and addressing its impact on the rights of people in movement.” (press release)
🇨🇱 Chile
Following previous pledges to conduct a regularization program—and the biometric registration of 182,000 irregular migrants in 2023-2024—a coalition of civil society groups is calling for the Boric government to implement a fast-track migrant regularization before the Kast government assumes office in March 2026. Boric has reportedly indicated that such a move would have to be agreed upon with Kast. (T13, El Mostrador, La Nación)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“Ricardo Nunes’ administration at the São Paulo City Hall decided to close the Ebenezer CAEF (Special Reception Center for Families)… which offers a range of services to migrants newly arrived in Brazil. This measure contradicts the city’s own policy aimed at this population and has generated various questions,” says MigraMundo, noting that migrants have been sent to homeless shelters. Civil society is “mobilizing communities and questioning parliamentarians and the municipal government.”
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration plans to ramp up efforts to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship… The guidance, issued on Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices, asks that they ‘supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month’ in the 2026 fiscal year… By comparison, between 2017 and this year to date, there had been just over 120 cases filed,” explains New York Times.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“An anti-incumbent wave has brought new conservative governments to power across Latin America with promises of securitized, hardline immigration policy… How far are Kast and other leaders willing to go? Mass deportations are an expensive, logistically-complicated, and rights-averse endeavor, as the US and the Dominican Republic have shown. Furthermore, they are not necessarily as popular as some claim,” I write in an end-of-year special edition of the AMB reviewing trends from 2025 and what to watch in the new year.
“The European Union warned on Friday that it will more closely monitor several visa-exempt Latin American countries due to the ‘high number of unfounded asylum claims’ coming from the region,” reports El Nuevo Herald, noting that potentially-affected countries include Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
“Initially chosen as a place to preserve their customs by dozens of Warao migrant families from Venezuela, the forests of Moruga, in southern Trinidad and Tobago, have now also become a discreet refuge from military tensions and threats of deportation,” says EFE.
🇺🇸 United States
“President Trump on Tuesday more than doubled the list of countries subject to his travel ban or to heavy restrictions, bringing the total number of nations affected by the sweeping set of immigration and entry limits to 39,” reports CBS. The new additions include Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, both receiving the partial ban due to alleged risks related to their respective citizenship by investment programs.
“According to Gaston Browne, the Antiguan PM, the country had also been in talks with multiple US departments about strengthening citizenship by investment safeguards in recent months. Similarly, Roosevelt Skerrit said US officials had only recently supported Dominica’s moves to review citizenship legislation. Blindsided have been both by this week’s abrupt developments,” says Newsday. (see also Bloomberg, Dominica News Online)
A leaked internal intelligence memo “orders Venezuela’s security forces to locate and gather information on former police and military officers recently deported from the United States,” reports Miami Herald, highlighting protection concerns.
As the US has signed an increasing number of “Safe Third Country” agreements in recent months (see AMB 12/8/25), “The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to deport people to countries where they have no connections. Last month, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security filed almost 5,000 motions to dismiss asylum cases and force applicants to seek protection elsewhere, a staggering increase,” notes New York Times.
The Trump administration has quietly stopped granting deferred action designations to holders of special immigrant juvenile status, granted to those “who could prove that they had been abused or neglected by at least one parent.” Furthermore, the administration has “(begun) to deport S.I.J. status holders with little notice and no chance to appeal,” reports New York Times.
“A recent analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions shows that at least 3,800 children under age 18, including 20 infants, have been taken into agency custody since President Trump took office, report Anna Flagg and Shannon Heffernan of The Marshall Project. Among them, more than 1,300 children were held for longer than 20 days, going against a 1997 settlement agreement,” the Flores Settlement Agreement. (via The Forum Daily)
“The House passed legislation Tuesday that would allow federal agents to conduct invasive body examinations of unaccompanied children as young as 12 — alone, without a parent or guardian present — in what immigrant-rights groups are calling a “callous expansion” of Trump’s child-detention apparatus disguised as child protection,” reports Migrant Insider.
The Trump administration is reopening prisons previously closed for abuse and other reasons in order to hold immigration detainees, reports NPR.
Meanwhile: “ICE Detainee Dies After Being Held at a Troubled Jailhouse in Newark: Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, was one of four migrants to die in the past week after medical emergencies in detention centers in New Jersey, Michigan, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.” (New York Times)
And: “Immigrants held at the Camp East Montana detention center in El Paso regularly face injury, life-threatening illnesses and acute mental health crises, according to a review of 911 emergency calls placed at the nation’s largest ICE immigration lockup,” per El Paso Times.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎🇨🇱 Chile and Regional
Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast has spoken with the presidents of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Argentina—and plans to speak with the Paraguayan president soon, too—in an effort to coordinate a regional “humanitarian corridor” for the return of irregular migrants, reports El País. This would aim to avoid such situations as the recent stranding of migrants at the Chile-Peru border (see AMB 12/8/25).
Chile, Peru, and Ecuador look set to set up a humanitarian corridor according to Peru’s interim president, notes COSAS.
“Peru and Chile agreed to increase simultaneous patrols on the border during the second meeting of the Binational Committee on Migration Cooperation,” reports RPP. (see last week’s AMB, AMB 12/8/25)
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum criticized Kast’s rhetoric on migration in a recent press conference. (Infobae)
“Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro lashed out at… Kast, demanding he “respect” Venezuelans in Chile, questioning… his promises to expel irregular migrants,” reports DW.
🇨🇦🇪🇨 Ecuador and Canada
Ecuadorian and Canadian officials met “to discuss expanding circular migration and temporary employment programs aimed at Ecuadorians seeking job opportunities in… sectors with high demand for labor in Canada, such as agriculture, health services and care for people, among other strategic areas.” (Vistazo)
Labor Migration
🇺🇸 United States
“Indian H-1B visa holders who traveled back to India this month to renew their American work permits are now stranded far from home after their appointments were abruptly canceled by U.S. consular offices and rescheduled for months later,” reports Washington Post.
Migrants in Transit
🇵🇦 Panama
“Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced this Thursday the first direct flight from Panama to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, with 70 Venezuelan immigrants enrolled in the Panamanian voluntary return program,” reports EFE.
Borders and Enforcement
🇨🇱 Chile
Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast plans that “during the first 90 days of his term he will seek to reach an agreement with Congress to make irregular migration a crime,” reports BioBioChile.
🇬🇾 Guyana
“President Irfaan Ali has announced that his government plans to update the country’s migration policy, with the country’s security and territorial integrity expected to feature prominently in that policy. Addressing the nation last evening on his Government’s five year plan, the President said Guyana remains open to skilled persons and persons seeking opportunities here, but said that position must not compromise Guyanese,” reports News Source Guyana.
🇺🇸 United States
“Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced late Thursday that the Trump administration will pause the diversity visa lottery program, which she said was used eight years ago by the now-deceased man accused of killing two Brown University students and an MIT professor,” reports CBS, explaining that “the program offers 50,000 visas per year to people from countries with relatively low rates of immigration to the U.S., with recipients selected at random using a lottery.”
“Border Patrol Bets on Small Drones to Expand US Surveillance Reach: Federal records show CBP is moving from testing small drones to making them standard surveillance tools, expanding a network that can follow activity in real time and extend well beyond the border.” (Wired)
“The United States has transferred 22 Cuban migrants to its Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reports the New York Times, repopulating its detention site with men it intends to deport for the first time in two months.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
“ICE Plans Detention Expansion With Deal to Design ‘Mega Centers’: Agency envisions up to two dozen warehouses, some of which could hold 5,000 people or more.” (Bloomberg)
“A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that sought to require members of Congress to submit requests a week before visiting and inspecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities,” reports CBS.
“Democratic lawmakers from more than half a dozen states vowed on Thursday to push back next year on President Trump’s mass deportations, using coordinated legislation to complement the litigation already being used by Democratic attorneys general to challenge immigration policies,” reports New York Times.
More on Migration
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canada closes Start-up Visa Program, will launch new entrepreneur pathway to permanent residence” (CIC News)