Americas Migration Brief - January 12, 2026
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
Although some have discussed the potential of migrant return in the context of Maduro’s removal in Venezuela (see last week’s AMB), the future remains unclear and adequate conditions for return are not yet present, reports Bloomberg, highlighting expert comments about the importance of reintegration efforts should large-scale return commence.
“A nervous quiet has descended on Caracas, “as people grapple with the aftermath of the U.S. attack and a widening government crackdown against dissent. For now, Caracas residents report no shortages of goods in markets, but inflation is up, normally busy streets are empty and the businesses that do open only do so for set periods of time,” reports the Washington Post.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
“Any transition process that fails to prioritize urgent humanitarian needs and protection risks fueling further displacement and secondary movements to and within Colombia, Brazil, the Caribbean, and beyond,” says CEDA.
The Colombia-Venezuela border remains “normal,” notes El Heraldo. That said, Colombia’s Petro government “is currently considering a three-phase plan in the event of a potential migration emergency,” reports El País, explaining, “The first stage occurs when the number of daily entries of Venezuelans reaches 73,000 and the percentage of non-returns falls below 0.01%. In other words, when the majority of those entering remain in Colombia. This initial stage will focus solely on identifying the needs of those entering, a task that can be handled by local and departmental capacities.” Current entries are approximately 60,000 per day.
An open access book published by Taylor & Francis looks at Venezuelan migrants’ experiences in Peru and “examines the decision-making process behind migration and immobility, the strategies migrants employ to cope and adapt, and the outcomes of integration across diverse socio-political contexts.”
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
La Prensa reviews Costa Rican presidential candidates’ approaches to migration ahead of the first round election on February 1st, reporting that leading candidate Laura Fernández’s focus is on migration control and security.
🇨🇱 Chile
At a pivotal moment in Chilean migration policy, it is crucial to consider labor market inclusion, regularization, and social cohesion, writes Juan Pablo Ramaciotti at La Tercera.
🇦🇷 Argentina
A CAREF report explores challenges faced by transgender migrants in Argentina, including in terms of documentation—and subsequently, access to social services.
🇺🇸 United States
The Trump administration’s proposed public charge rule could “jeopardize the use of public benefits by the U.S.-citizen children of immigrants. The proposed rule would eliminate current (and past) language that states the use of public benefits by family members does not count against green-card applicants,” notes MPI, adding, “As the proposed rule itself recognizes, this could lead to ‘worse health outcomes’ for immigrants and communities, as well as ‘increased poverty, housing instability, reduced productivity, and lower educational attainment.’ In doing so, the futures of millions of U.S.-citizen children may be hampered.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
Experts and advocates are calling into question Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast’s proposed “humanitarian corridor” for migrant returns across South America, criticizing that the concept is not humanitarian and that returns are unlikely to be voluntary, instead detracting from protection concerns. Kast continued his regional tour by visiting Peru last week to discuss the proposal. (El Ciudadano, UPacífico, El País)
🇬🇫🇬🇵 Guadeloupe and French Guiana
“Authorities in the French overseas regions of Guadeloupe and French Guiana are deporting Haitians even as asylum claims from the Caribbean territories rise sharply, a convergence that immigrant advocates say is overwhelming local asylum systems and leaving long-established Haitian communities in legal limbo. According to La Cimade, a nonprofit that supports migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, officials in several French territories are struggling to manage the caseload of Haitian asylum seekers,” reports The Haitian Times, adding, “The expulsions reflect a refusal by French authorities to reckon with the scale of Haiti’s crisis and the protections it requires, advocates say.”
🇧🇷 Brazil
“Brazil has published a new interministerial ordinance restructuring its humanitarian immigration regime, effective January 1, 2026, which revokes and replaces certain prior country-specific humanitarian visa programs, including those applicable to Afghan and Haitian nationals. Rather than extending those schemes, the ordinance establishes a single, overarching legal framework for humanitarian visas and residence permits. Notably, the ordinance does not provide an automatic list of eligible nationalities. Instead, eligible countries, applicable conditions, and authorized consular posts will be defined through a future joint act issued by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” explains Fragomen.
🇲🇽 Mexico
Federal Deputy Evangelina Moreno Guerra and UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Paula Gaviria Betancur are calling for a national framework in Mexico to address internal displacement, reports La Política Online, noting that the congresswoman is looking to develop “a General Law on Internal Forced Displacement, establish a single national registry, improve local capacities for documenting cases, and consolidate comprehensive public policies that guarantee lasting solutions.”
🇺🇸 United States
“An ICE officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman driving an SUV through her car window in south Minneapolis on Wednesday morning,” reports Minnesota Reformer, noting, “Federal agents wouldn’t allow a man who said he is a physician to examine the driver, Heller said. Emergency medical technicians arrived 15 minutes later, she said. First responders were unable to get close to the scene because ICE agents did not move their cars to let them through.”
The Trump administration claims the shooting was in self defense and that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, was attempting to weaponize her vehicle—video evidence shows Good attempting to leave the scene at a relatively slow speed, tires turned away from the ICE officer. Two of the three shots by the ICE officer were at point-blank range through the open driver’s window.
The very next day, US Border Patrol agents in Portland shot two people during a traffic stop, also claiming vehicle weaponization. (The New York Times)
Good’s death “was not the first time that federal officers have killed civilians since the Trump administration launched its aggressive immigration enforcement campaign. Federal officers have fatally shot at least three other people in the last five months,” says The Marshall Project, explaining that federal officers have also perpetrated several non-fatal shootings. “The Department of Homeland Security has routinely defended the shootings as necessary to protect officer safety. However, video and witnesses have disputed their accounts in many cases.”
“Experts have said that standing in front of a car, as the agent in Minneapolis did before killing the driver, and firing into a car, as agents in Portland apparently did, break with widely accepted best practices in American law enforcement — and with the federal government’s own protocols,” reports The New York Times.
Migrant Insider notes, “ICE’s ‘Firearms and Use of Force’ policy is almost entirely redacted, leaving the public in the dark about when agents can legally pull the trigger.”
In response to these events, a letter by “a massive coalition of over 100 civil rights and human rights organizations demanded that Congress immediately halt all funding increases for the Department of Homeland Security,” reports Migrant Insider.
Three individuals died in ICE custody in the last week due to “health complications,” reports EFE, noting that some have criticized “medical negligence.”
“2025 was ICE’s deadliest year in two decades. Here are the 32 people who died in custody” (The Guardian)
“Materials obtained by 404 Media shed new light on how the surveillance tools Tangles and Webloc from a company called Penlink can provide information to ICE agents after the agency contracted for the services in September. The social-media and phone-surveillance platforms can be used to monitor neighborhoods or city blocks for mobile phones and track the devices over time, potentially revealing where people live, work, and visit. Penlink purchases vast troves of commercial location data to augment and expand the dragnet,” reports Wired. (see 404 Media)
“Barring court relief, about 350,000 Haitians living in the United States will lose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Feb. 3. That would roil communities across the country, including in South Florida, writes the Miami Herald editorial board. “Forcing them to return to a country increasingly run by gangs, where rape and indiscriminate killings have become the norm, may sound like ‘America First,’ but it only shows how callous and against its own self-interest America can be,” the board writes. The Washington Post’s editorial board agrees.” (via The Forum Daily)
A federal judge is considering legal challenges to the TPS revocation. She is requiring the government to provide further documentation behind the decision, and she reportedly expects to decide on Feb. 2 whether or not to place the revocation on pause as the lawsuit proceeds. (New York Times, Bloomberg)
A judge granted a 14-day stay pausing the Trump administration’s recent move to end family reunification parole programs for migrants from Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras. (New York Times; see AMB 12/15/25)
MPI highlights data on refugees and asylees in the US.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, including, “Notes About Border Barriers: What could be 500 miles of buoy barriers have begun installation in the Rio Grande in Brownsville. San Diego is suing the federal government for laying concertina wire on city property. More than 400 people fell from the border wall in 2025. Environmental defense groups warn of significant harm from border wall construction in Arizona.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
The Trump administration is making progress on expanding “safe third country” agreements with Caribbean countries to facilitate deportations: in addition to an agreement signed with Antigua and Barbuda (see last week’s AMB), a new agreement has been signed with Dominica, and Guyana is reportedly nearing an agreement, too. The former two countries had recently been hit with a travel ban by the Trump administration, as noted in AMB 12/22/25. (AP, Stabroek News, Miami Herald)
Antigua and Barbuda has agreed to take “a maximum of ten individuals with skills and no criminal record,” per Demerara Waves. (see also Antigua News)
Dominica’s opposition leader is calling for greater transparency about the agreement, reports Dominica News Online.
The US has been deporting Venezuelan migrants to Mexico since at least last December, reports Miami Herald, noting that the last US deportation directly to Venezuela was on December 10th.
“The Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions about how many Venezuelans it had sent to Mexico in 2025 or this year, nor under what agreements. Top Mexican immigration officials did not respond to Herald queries about how many Venezuelans U.S. authorities had sent south of the border, whether they would be able to go to the Mexican capital to access consular services, and why they were being transported to southern states with a strong presence of organized crime.”
Honduran president-elect Nasry Asfura—previously endorsed by Donald Trump—will visit the US with an agenda focused on migration, among other topics. (La Prensa)
The US has withdrawn from the Global Forum on Migration and Development, among other multilateral institutions and forums. (presidential memoranda)
Labor Migration
🇺🇸 United States
“U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) is looking to help the construction industry by working on legal paths for foreign-born workers, reports Berenice Garcia of The Texas Tribune. Builders in South Texas are frustrated with immigration restrictions’ effects on their industry, Garcia notes. De La Cruz said she hopes to work with the Department of Labor to find reasonable solutions, perhaps a new type of visa,” explains National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
Recent census data from Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay reveal decreases in internal migration in each of the three countries, explains CEPAL.
The Guardian highlights skyrocketing emigration from Cuba in recent years amid the country’s “polycrisis.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇨🇱 Chile
“In the four weeks since José Antonio Kast became president-elect of Chile, his greatest efforts have focused on advancing the migration control plan he intends to implement once he takes office on March 11… he has announced that within the first 90 days of his presidency, he will seek to have Congress reinstate the criminalization of irregular entry into Chile, which has been considered an administrative offense since 2022,” reports El País, noting, “Critical experts on the matter see the measure as ineffective since it would imply an enormous workload for the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the courts, which are already criticized for their slowness, in addition to requiring spaces to detain lawbreakers, in a prison system that already operates at 142% over its capacity.”
🇵🇾 Paraguay
Paraguay has announced visa restrictions for Venezuelans. The country has not been a major recipient of Venezuelan migration. (EFE)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration on Tuesday added 25 countries to the State Department’s list of nations whose citizens may be required to post bonds of up to $15,000 to apply for U.S. entry,” reports Axios, noting that Cuba and Venezuela have been added to the list.