Americas Migration Brief - April 20, 2026
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇺🇾 Uruguay
A newly introduced bill in Uruguay’s Congress proposes a reform to the country’s migration law to introduce a new immigration category, residency by rootedness (arraigo), modeled on a recent 2024-2025 regularization program for arraigo. The bill would create a residency pathway for those who “entered the country through an authorized immigration checkpoint, requested refuge and reside in the national territory with the intention of remaining there and who, having roots in the country, cannot request or obtain their legal residence in accordance with current regulations”—including those with rejected asylum bids, reports Montevideo Portal. (see also Periódico Cubano; see AMB 3/3/25 and 5/20/24)
🇵🇦 Panama
“Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino did not rule out studying a possible regularization of Nicaraguans on Thursday, given the difficulties these migrants or refugees face in obtaining documents from their embassy,” reports EFE.
🇨🇴 Colombia
El Estímulo highlights challenges faced by Venezuelan migrant children in Colombian schools, including discrimination and a lack of integration, noting that Colombian schoolchildren’s bullying is learned from (adult) others, not innate.
🇨🇱 Chile
Despite the rhetoric from the Kast government, migrants in Chile contribute more to public coffers than they consume. “False information only serves to generate a sense of nonexistent chaos, which, based on legitimate trust in the authorities, citizens may believe to be true. This, in turn, contributes to creating a hostile environment that, sooner or later, leads to discrimination, xenophobia, racism, and dehumanization,” writes Francisca Vargas Rivas at El Mostrador.
🇦🇷 Argentina
A paper at Estudios demográficos y urbanos explores housing access and arrangements for Paraguayan and Venezuelan migrants in Greater Buenos Aires.
🇺🇸 United States
“Naturalization applications — both submissions and approvals — are down significantly in the past year, report Anusha Mathur and Ximena Bustillo of NPR… Many experts, and immigrants themselves, say fear is deterring legal immigrants from taking the final step of citizenship as the administration has tightened policies. “There is an understanding that we’re in a political climate where it is unsafe for a lot of immigrants to engage with federal agencies,” said Gianina Horton, a city council member in Aurora, Colorado. “Whether that is true or perceived, it is still a huge influential factor.”” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
Immigrants fearful of recent IRS-ICE collaboration under the Trump administration were hesitant to file taxes this year, report New York Times, highlighting a Yale Budget Lab study estimating projected lost tax revenue of roughly $300 billion over a decade.
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that an Executive Order that would mandate that banks must collect citizenship information from customers is currently ‘in process,’” reports Time.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
NACLA highlights protection concerns and challenges for migrants as the Milei government has taken an increasingly restrictionist and criminalizing approach to migration; a separate NACLA article considers similar issues in Chile under the new Kast government.
🇭🇹 Haiti
“A recent International Rescue Committee (IRC) assessment reveals grave protection risks and rapidly shrinking access to public services for civilians in Haiti, as the country continues to face one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The IRC assessment focused on areas experiencing the most severe needs–the Ouest department, where gangs control 90% of Port-Au-Prince, and the Artibonite and Centre departments, where armed attacks have begun to surge. Key findings include: 73% of households report feeling unsafe where they sleep, with the majority of displaced families sheltering in insecure, overcrowded conditions. Only 5.5% reported living in their homes,” notes a press release.
🇺🇸 United States
“Since October 2025, 4,499 refugees were resettled in the US, according to the Refugee Processing Center. All, except three from Afghanistan, were South African,” reports BBC.
“In a rare bipartisan moment, the House passed legislation Thursday that would extend temporary protections [TPS] for Haitian immigrants, a long-shot effort fighting back against President Donald Trump’s attempts to end the program,” reports AP, noting that the bill “faces uncertainty in the Senate, and the Republican president would almost certainly seek to veto it.”
Relatedly, “A group of Yemeni immigrants (last week) requested an emergency court order to prevent the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status from going into effect,” per Center for Constitutional Rights.
“The United States Has an Internal Displacement Problem: By reorganizing federal disaster policy around the rights of displaced people, the United States could unlock additional federal resources, accelerate the rebuilding of lives and livelihoods, and reduce suffering and economic disruption” (Carnegie Endowment)
“Millions of Americans are displaced by disasters every year, and a significant share of them remain displaced for months or years.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Border Update, noting, “Conditions at ICE detention centers remain dire… ICE’s arrests and detained population have declined. However, reports are proliferating about abusive and inhumane conditions in the agency’s network of detention facilities, where a remarkable 16 people have now died in custody since the start of the year.”
A later update from Austin Kocher at his Substack reveals the 17th reported ICE detention death of the year.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
A group of 16 migrants from Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador were deported by the US to the DRC, reports Reuters.
“Once in Congo, the deportees were told they had been granted a seven-day visa allowing them to move freely in the country, which could be extended for up to three months, the Colombian migrant said. The group was also informed that they were welcome to apply for asylum in Congo, though officials discouraged them from doing so, warning Congo was dangerous, the migrant said.”
“Costa Rica received 22 migrants of various nationalities deported by the United States on Friday… the group consists of eight Brazilian migrants, three Romanians, three Uzbeks, two Chinese, two Azerbaijanis, one Irishman, one Indian, one Vietnamese, and one Belarusian,” reports EFE. (see also La Teja)
Of the group of 25 third country deportees sent the previous week (see last week’s AMB), 8 have expressed fear of returning to their home country, notes EFE.
Looking back to last year, “A handful of families — a portion of the 200 people deported from the U.S. last year to Costa Rica, where they had no ties — have found an unexpected welcome in Monteverde, a mountaintop town in the country’s northwest.” (New York Times, via Latin America Daily Briefing; see also La Teja)
NACLA highlights US-Ecuador border externalization efforts and cooperation under the Trump and Noboa governments.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has taken a firmer stance voicing concern about deaths of Mexican citizens in US immigration detention, including calling for investigations and “(instructing) Mexican consulates to visit detention centres daily,” says The Guardian.
🇬🇹🇭🇳 Honduras and Guatemala
“Honduras and Guatemala consolidated a strategic agreement this Thursday by establishing a binational roadmap to regulate and dignify labor migration on their shared border, a process that seeks to transform the flow of temporary workers, between 40,000 and 45,000 each year, into engines of economic and social development for both countries,” reports Infobae. Both countries are a part of the CA-4 free movement agreement in Central America.
“The establishment of the bilateral temporary labor migration working group, agreed upon at this meeting, will serve as a technical and political body to analyze migration flows in detail , define institutional actions, and create transparent coordination mechanisms between the two governments.”
🇨🇴🇵🇦 Panama and Colombia
Officials from Panama and Colombia met for the 29th Meeting of the Binational Border Commission (Combifron) to “strengthen operational coordination, intelligence sharing, and the execution of joint actions against threats that persist in the border area” around the Darien, reports La República. (see also Infobae)
🇹🇼🇧🇿 Belize and Taiwan
Officials from Belize and Taiwan met to discuss migration and labor, notes BBN.
Labor Migration
🇧🇷 Brazil
A new bill in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies aims to regulate the situation of migrants working temporarily in the agricultural sector—whether they be international migrants or internal migrants from other regions in Brazil. The bill looks to create “clear rules that ensure dignified conditions for this temporary labor migration. The absence of these parameters generates legal uncertainty and exposes workers to vulnerable situations,” reports MigraMundo.
“Among the main points, the bill provides for the creation of a specific temporary visa for seasonal work in the agricultural sector, valid for up to five years and allowing multiple entries into the country, coinciding with periods of higher demand for labor. The proposal also establishes that the granting of this visa must be coordinated with the National Employment System (SINE), in dialogue with employers and workers, to define the permitted activities and the length of stay… According to the bill, employers must also ensure clear information about salaries, working hours, health and safety, as well as guarantee adequate accommodation during the work period.”
🇦🇷 Argentina
An ILO and RENATRE report investigates temporary labor migration in the agricultural sector in Argentina and implications for the rural labor market.
🇺🇸 United States
Evaluating 15 years of annual household survey data in the US, CGD examines demand for workers in sectors related to the green transition: “nearly a third of green workers are approaching retirement, the workforce’s expansion has been heavily reliant on immigration, and the states with the tightest labor markets are those where supply growth has stalled. The situation calls for proactive investment, not panic—but the window for action is narrowing.”
Migrants in Transit
🌎Regional
A UPenn Kleinman Center report examines the relationship between climate change and migration in Central America, introducing a machine learning constructed “sub-national dataset that captures 13 distinct types of environmental adaptations at an unprecedented scale,” based on 25 million media articles since 2012.
Findings include that “Slow-onset disasters (e.g., drought) are associated with lower levels of international migration in subsequent months. Alternatively, sudden-onset disasters are associated with higher international migration in later months… Climate disasters are sometimes associated with subsequent violence reflecting resource competition. Environmentally motivated violence is concentrated in areas where agriculture is the dominant mode of production and is associated with increased international migration in later months”
An R4V map updated for February 2026 visualizes the distribution of the nearly 7 million Venezuelan migrants across Latin America and the Caribbean, according to official statistics.
Meanwhile, an Oxford Border Criminologies blog by Erick Moreno Superlano explores how Chavista communes spread narratives to frame emigration as “betrayal” and produce immobility.
🇵🇾 Paraguay
BBC highlights the migration of conservative Brazilians to Paraguay
Borders and Enforcement
🇨🇱 Chile
The Kast government conducted its first deportation flight this past week, sending 40 migrants back to Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador on a military plane; 15 of the 40 reportedly had criminal histories. The administration announced plans to conduct three deportation flights per month for an estimated 1,400 total repatriations in the year. There are currently an estimated 336,000 irregular migrants in the country. (Reuters, RTVE, DW, El País)
There are currently more than 44,000 irregular migrants in Chile “ready for deportation,” of which 65% are Venezuelan, reports El País, adding that the government claims that 2,180 Venezuelans have left the country of their own accord since Kast’s election victory last December. Chile currently does not maintain diplomatic relations with Venezuela and would be unable to conduct deportations of these individuals.
The Kast government launched a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Santiago Metropolitan Region with over 700 officials. (La Tercera, Infobae)
“Chile says construction of a ditch on the border with Peru to combat irregular migration is 20% complete” (RPP)
An increasing number of migrants have been detected by Chilean officials attempting to cross into the country from Bolivia, with over 90% returned across the border—the government views this as a success due to improved detection rates, per La Tercera.
🇦🇷 Argentina
The Milei government continues its immigration enforcement operations among immigrant communities in Buenos Aires. Last Friday, a total of 2,965 individuals were interviewed during one such operation, of which 821 were foreigners. 15 of those individuals were in an irregular situation. (La Nación)
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
“Turks and Caicos Islands recently activated a major multiagency dragnet in response to a surge in illegal migration involving Haitian sloops grounding in several parts of the territory,” reports TC Weekly News, noting in a second article that close to 200 irregular migrants were apprehended within one week.
🇺🇸 United States
ICE “deported 442,637 people between October 2024 and September 2025, according to newly-released statistics… The top-line figure is about 171,000 people more than the fiscal year before, but far short of Trump’s campaign promise to deport one million people a year,” reports Axios.
“As part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration campaign, the administration is promoting self-deportation, the euphemism for the voluntary — in reality, pressure‑driven — return of migrants to their countries of origin amid the climate of persecution unleashed in the United States. Self-deporting, however, is no easy task, no matter how willing the individuals may be,” reports El País, highlighting that some migrants that use the CBP Home app are detained, never receiving promised funds due to technical ineligibility.
Trump administration plans to set up large-scale immigration detention facilities in warehouses are receiving significant pushback from local communities, including in heavily Republican areas. AP reviews the state of proposed sites across the country.
“The View From Inside Trump’s D.H.S.: Dozens of agents and officials share their stories about working in the Department of Homeland Security during the harsh crackdown on illegal immigration.” (New York Times)
More on Migration
🇦🇷 Argentina
“Argentina Cancels CBI Master Agent Tender After Two Firms File Challenges” (IMI)