Americas Migration Brief - June 15, 2026
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇻🇪 Venezuela
“IOM and Fedecámaras, Venezuela’s largest business association, agreed to work on plans for the labor reintegration of repatriated individuals,” reports EFE.
🇦🇼 Aruba
Approximately 1,500 migrants received temporary one-year permits as part of the recent Hunto pa Progreso regularization program in Aruba. “The goal was to give them the opportunity to integrate into the formal labor market, find an employer, and follow the regular permit application process… Individuals who have not found an employer within the permitted period cannot continue the process. Nor can they claim a residence permit under this scheme in the future,” reports Antilliaans Dagblad. (see AMB 1/19/26)
🇺🇾 Uruguay
In order to ease backlogs and long wait times, “Uruguay’s Senate Committee on Constitution and Legislation has taken up a bill that ends mandatory witness testimony in legal citizenship applications, making documentary evidence the principal standard of proof,” reports IMI.
🇺🇸 United States
Lauren Gilbert examines at her Substack the relationship between immigration and housing prices, with an added focus on the US: “The vast majority of the increase in both home prices and rent prices in the last decade isn’t due to immigration. Immigration does increase house prices, but not very much.” Regulations (zoning, NIMBYism, etc.) constrain housing supply and help explain costs.
🇨🇦 Canada
Alex Kustov examines at Popular by Design the Canadian public opinion backlash of recent years, noting, “in October Alberta is set to hold a province-wide referendum carrying five explicit anti-immigration questions, a ballot move with no real precedent in modern Canadian politics.” Kustov writes, “Over the last few years, Canada’s middle majority have not seen immigration working as well as it used to. Canada scaled temporary residents and international students faster than housing and services could absorb them, the textbook condition under which the diffuse and often invisible benefits of immigration shrinks while its concentrated costs swell. Even so, a majority of Canadians still say immigration is good for the economy, and when Environics asks the people who want less why, they point overwhelmingly to housing and the cost of living, not to crime or culture.”
“Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives ran hard against temporary residents and students while leaving the skilled, points-based core of the system alone; even the country’s most restrictionist federal party, the People’s Party, has proposed capping permanent admissions at 100,000 to 150,000 a year, a sharp cut from today’s pace but a level that would still admit several times what most other rich democracies do. The argument in Canada has effectively been about how much and how fast, while the principle of selecting immigrants for national contribution goes essentially unchallenged.”
Longtime subscribers to the AMB have followed the trajectory of this backlash trend. Paying subscribers have access to the full archive of weekly briefs and can read more in editions such as AMBs 11/6/23, 8/19/24, 10/14/24, and 7/14/25.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🇨🇴 Colombia
“Colombia took a historic step in environmental and human rights matters with the enactment of Law 2577, which officially recognizes the condition of internal forced displacement due to causes associated with climate change, environmental degradation and natural disasters. The new law creates a national registry, establishes a public policy for assistance, and recognizes those forced to abandon their homes due to environmental disasters,” reports Opinión Caribe. (text of the law available here)
🇧🇷 Brazil
A federal judge eased the document requirements for Brazilian naturalization for migrants from Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela, emphasizing “the collective dimension and humanitarian vulnerability of the affected group, as well as the need to ease the bureaucratic barriers imposed on the regularization of immigrants,” per MigraMundo.
🇲🇽 Mexico
Mexico doled out 238% more visitor cards for humanitarian reasons (TVRH; nearly 14,000 total) in 2025 than 2024, reports La Jornada.
“In Ciudad Juárez, a group of people arrested for a ransom kidnapping of five migrants from India included a migrant protection officer from Grupo Beta, the Mexican migration agency’s unit that is meant to protect migrants from harm.” (via WOLA’s Border Update)
🇺🇸 United States
“Trump Administration Says It Will Restart Asylum and Immigration Processing: The response came after a federal judge rebuked officials for failing to immediately comply with the order he issued last week.” (New York Times; see last week’s AMB)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Border Update, noting, “Alarms about detention conditions continue to sound: ICE reported the 19th in-custody death so far this year. Hunger strikes and protests continue over reportedly grim and hazardous detention conditions, particularly at the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey. Federal watchdogs issued alarming reports about a facility in Louisiana, Guantánamo Bay, and the giant “Camp East Montana” at Fort Bliss in El Paso.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎Regional
“The last few weeks have been particularly rich for migration dialogues in the Caribbean. Moving between global, regional and national spaces, I’m encouraged by how they point in the same direction: migration is now firmly recognized as a development issue as the region is getting ready to move from commitment to action,” writes IOM’s Patrice Quesada at Gleaner.
Among the examples Quesada highlights, “In Saint Lucia, discussions on May 18 at the launch of the country’s draft migration policy took place against a backdrop of falling birth rates, skills shortages and sustained emigration. The national conversation has been nuanced, acknowledging both the pressures and the opportunities migration brings. What stood out most was the recognition that a migration policy must link labour needs, diaspora engagement, remittances, return and reintegration, and protection as parts of a single, coherent response to demographic change and climate vulnerabilities.”
The Dominican Republic handed over to Belize the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Central American Integration System (SICA), highlighting the importance of regional cooperation on migration issues. (El Nuevo Diario)
Spain hosted the fifth Ibero-American Forum on Migration and Development with 22 countries in attendance. (press release, IOM)
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“A joint investigation by PunchUp and Migrant Insider has uncovered what appears to be a quiet effort to preemptively block potential immigrants to the U.S. by providing a DHS-built deportation system to the Panamanian government. The U.S.-designed offshore deportation processing system, part of what is officially called the “Panama Repatriation Program,” would be used to turn back migrants arriving in Panama, which has long been a major transit hub for migrants making their way to America. It remains in the research stage—for now… DHS’s own documents describe a system designed, built, funded and accessed by the United States—but operated on the ground inside Panama by Panamanian officials, the Servicio Nacional de Migración—to process immigration cases from first encounter to deportation flight, advancing migrants to automatic removal after a five-day window, at a scale of up to 6,000 cases per year.” (PunchUp)
“The State Department’s new Office of Remigration has been quietly operating since its establishment last year, part of a bid to get other countries to aid Trump’s mass deportation efforts by taking in deportees who hail from third countries.” (PunchUp; see also AMB 6/9/25 on the creation of the office)
In practice, the US has engaged in border externalization with Panama for years, including signing a deal under the Biden administration to fund deportations of Darien Gap arrivals (see, for example, AMB 7/8/24).
“The Trump administration on Friday deported a group of roughly 20 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and other nations to the Central African Republic, which the U.S. government warns Americans not to visit “for any reason” due to violence and unrest… The deportees included an Iranian pro-democracy activist who had fled to the U.S. and received legal protection from an American immigration court,” reports CBS.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group in the House wrote to the Trump administration to advocate against sending Afghan allies to unsafe third countries. (Reuters)
“Rights lawyers filed a case against Equatorial Guinea before Africa’s top human rights body Friday, accusing the central African nation of forcing deportees from the United States back to their home countries in violation of their rights,” reports AP.
🇻🇪🇨🇱 Chile and Venezuela
“Chile’s foreign minister is eager to resume full diplomatic relations with Venezuela before the government’s term ends in 2030 to facilitate the return of tens of thousands of undocumented migrants. The ball is now in Venezuela’s court, he said. Chile is ‘knocking on their door’ in the talks, and there are no concrete obstacles to resuming consular relations,” reports Bloomberg. (see also last week’s AMB on Chile seeking the help of the US with this)
🇲🇽🇧🇿 Belize and Mexico
In a bid to strengthen regional integration and cooperation, Belize is set to introduce a Regional Visitor Card for Mexicans from Tabasco, Campeche, Chiapas, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. (LoveFM, Novedades Quintana Roo)
🇳🇱🇨🇼 Dutch Caribbean
Opposition “PAR Member of Parliament Quincy Girigorie has accused the Netherlands of applying a double standard when dealing with migration crises, arguing that Curaçao received little support when it faced a massive influx of Venezuelan migrants despite repeated appeals for assistance,” reports Curaçao Chronicle, adding, “According to the parliamentarian, Curaçao repeatedly requested assistance, including support based on human rights concerns. He recalled witnessing migrants being housed in inadequate conditions as local authorities struggled to cope with the growing humanitarian challenge.”
🇮🇳🇨🇱 Chile and India
Following meetings between Chilean and Indian officials, Chile has announced a new expedited business visa for Indian citizens “to facilitate the entry of businesspeople, professionals, technicians, and workers involved in business activities, thereby strengthening economic ties between the two countries,” per InfoMigra.
🇵🇪 Peru
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially established a multisectoral working group to formulate an update to the National Migration Policy… the resolution establishes that the multisectoral working group will remain in force for 24 months from the date of its installation to fulfill its functions.” (Andina)
Labor Migration
🇺🇸 United States
“Judge Throws Out Policy Imposing $100,000 Fees for Skilled Worker Visas: The ruling voided “in its entirety” a policy from September requiring companies to pay $100,000 fees for H-1B visa petitions.” (New York Times)
Migrants in Transit
🌎Regional
The latest R4V figures (and map) estimate 6.96 million Venezuelan migrants residing in Latin America and the Caribbean. The main difference from the previous update in February 2026 is just over 20,000 new arrivals in Brazil.
Desinformémonos highlights challenges faced by migrant women on the move: “The lack of hygiene products and safe, private spaces is known as period poverty, and in this migrant context, it becomes a silent torture, rendered invisible in most cases.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇧🇷 Brazil
Brazil’s Federal Police launched Operation Conexão Norte to target a criminal group suspected of smuggling Cuban migrants into the state of Roraima via Guyana, reports Folha BV.
This comes after the recent arrest of 108 irregular Cuban migrants in Roraima in a single day. The migrants were considered “rescued” by officials, who are “identified and charged with illegal entry into the country. A fine of around R$ 100 is applied, and they are then released to remain in Brazil or leave the country,” per Globo.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
The Fernández administration soon plans to announce a migration reform “in response to the illegal entry of Nicaraguans and people of other nationalities linked to organized crime and the illegal extraction of gold in Crucitas,” per El Mundo.
🇺🇸 United States
“President Trump signed a $70 billion immigration enforcement package into law on June 10, after the House passed it 214-212 and the Senate passed it 52-47—both along party lines,” notes Austin Kocher at his Substack, explaining, “Because the money moves through reconciliation rather than annual appropriations, it carries none of the usual guardrails, including the transparency measures that require ICE to release basic detention data, and it locks enforcement spending in through the end of the administration where the yearly budget process can no longer check it.”
“The Trump administration has enlisted hundreds of state and local law enforcement agencies in its mass deportation campaign by deputizing their officers as immigration agents, extending ICE’s reach far beyond where the agency typically operates,” reports New York Times, noting, “Participation has exploded, and de facto ICE officers are now on the ground in hundreds of cities and counties across 31 states. Several thousand officers have been credentialed — state troopers, sheriff’s deputies, police officers, constables — on top of the 12,000 new officers and agents that ICE hired last year.”
On a similar note: “State and local agencies are leading stepped-up immigration enforcement in Florida, where arrests have more than tripled, reports Gisela Salomon of the Associated Press. “There’s a lot of officers who have been deputized, given immigration authority ...” said Vilerka Bilbao, an immigration attorney with clients whom local police detained. “They are arresting anybody — they need to show the numbers to [Gov. Ron] DeSantis and the federal government.” On Tuesday, DeSantis (R) and his cabinet approved $90 million in local law-enforcement grants for immigration enforcement, reports Ana Goñi-Lessan of the News Service of Florida.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
“A new Treasury inspector general report raises concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to safeguard taxpayer information, after ICE and the IRS agreed in 2025 to share taxpayer data for the purpose of immigration investigations,” reports AP.
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
“Counterfeit work permits on the rise in the TCI -ministry vows “prosecution to the fullest extent of the law” (TC Weekly News)
More on Migration
🌎Regional
“Family remittances received by El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras… exceeded $15.852 billion between January and April 2026, 10.7% more than that recorded in the same period of 2025,” reports EFE, citing IOM data. (see AMB 6/1/26 on decreased remittances to Mexico, by contrast)