Americas Migration Brief - June 22, 2026
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇬🇹 Guatemala
An MPI and IOM report based on administrative data, a survey of returnees, and focus groups and interviews investigates the situation of Guatemalan returnees and “analyzes how returnee profiles and needs are changing and what these shifts mean for Guatemala’s reception and reintegration system.”
“Half of those surveyed had no interest in emigrating again, and among the 31 percent considering remigration, most said they would stay in Guatemala if they had employment opportunities. Returnees expressed strong interest in formal employment, entrepreneurship, and skills certification to validate work experience gained abroad—aspirations that indicate the potential value returnees can bring to Guatemalan communities. Yet reintegration is a long process, and challenges reportedly include limited awareness of available programs, geographic barriers (e.g., uneven availability of services and jobs for returnees from rural areas), mismatches between returnees’ U.S. work experience and local labor markets, some employers’ hesitance to hire returnees, and U.S.- Guatemala wage disparities that make some returnees view entrepreneurship as more viable—yet often without adequate capital or business support.”
“Since 2020, Guatemala has approved 473 asylum applications from Nicaraguans, but many of them have not been able to integrate into the formal labor market due to the lack of the Personal Identification Document (DPI), which is necessary to work legally,” reports Infobae, noting that the DPI “is a requirement for accessing formal employment, opening bank accounts, or carrying out procedures related to public services in Guatemala. The absence of this document limits the employment options of refugees, most of whom can only work in the informal sector… The lack of documentation also creates obstacles to accessing education and family reunification processes.”
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
“With Trinidad and Tobago’s migrant regularisation exercise now officially closed, some migrants who say they attempted to comply with the process are pleading for a final opportunity to be registered,” reports Guardian, citing cases of those who were unable to register successfully and noting that some believe there “could be several hundred cases involving migrants who attempted to participate in the exercise but were unable to complete the process due to technical difficulties, missed appointments, transportation challenges and other logistical issues.” (see AMB 5/25/26)
“Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander had previously warned that undocumented migrants who failed to register by the deadline would face deportation. However, when contacted, Alexander said migrants who can prove they attempted to register will still be given an opportunity to complete the process… He reiterated that migrants who fail to register and cannot provide evidence of attempting to do so will face deportation. At the end of May, the Ministry of National Security received 29,276 total applications. This figure includes all nationalities, with 23,342 from Venezuela.”
🇵🇪 Peru
“The 2017-2025 National Migration Policy expires this year, and the new government faces the decision of renewing it. Doing so with a focus on genuine integration implies accessible regularization, access to healthcare and education, incorporation into the formal labor market, and active campaigns against xenophobia,” says a La República editorial.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🇻🇪 Venezuela
We do not tend to have a lot of information about what happens to Venezuelans deported to their home country. Crónicas del Caribe reports that 5 men deported by Aruba were subsequently picked up and detained by Venezuelan authorities “despite not having committed any crimes.”
🇨🇱 Chile
News headlines in Chile spread panic this past week over potential human trafficking cases surrounding the arrival of over 200 Haitian children last year alongside a far smaller group of adults, entering the country through a family reunification process. El Mostrador says the details reveal less reason for concern, and many of the children deemed unlocatable have since been located. (see also EFE)
“The investigation into the Haitian minors who arrived in Chile and have not yet been located has opened a new chapter in the migration debate. While the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Comptroller General’s Office, and various state agencies attempt to clarify the entry of dozens of children and adolescents from Haiti during 2025, the Haitian community residing in Chile itself observes the process with concern, bewilderment, and a sense of exclusion,” reports La Tercera.
El País examines the situation, too, highlighting stories from Haitian migrants in Chile of how they successfully reunited with family: “Most of the Haitians interviewed for this report acknowledged that they, or their relatives, did not bring their children from Haiti themselves, but rather paid an adult, who had been given a permit, to bring the minors.”
Chilean authorities are investigating potential human trafficking following a “The arrival in Chile of more than 200 Haitian children and teenagers last year, whose current whereabouts are unknown, has raised alarms and prompted the opening of an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office for alleged human trafficking,” reports EFE, explaining, “The minors arrived in Chile via various charter flights between January and October 2025, accompanied by at least twelve adults, Chilean and foreign, with whom they have no blood ties, according to a previous investigation by the immigration institution. The trips were made within the framework of the family reunification process established by Chilean law.”
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
El País interviews Roudy Joseph of HaitianosRD Collective about the Dominican Republic’s mass deportation campaign: “Without official proclamation, fundamental rights have been suspended in practice. Raids on homes without warrants, mass deportations, and the systematic denial of access to legal counsel create a scenario where due process guarantees do not exist for people of Haitian origin.”
🇧🇷 Brazil
“A citizen of Sierra Leone has been living for about six months in the public area of Belém International Airport, without regular access to housing, food, and social assistance. Given this situation, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) has asked the Federal Court to order the immediate sheltering of the woman and to hold the federal, state, and municipal governments responsible for the lack of assistance. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), the migrant, identified as Fatmata Sessai, is in a regular situation in Brazil, but remained detained at the airport terminal after a dispute involving her travel documents and an airline,” reports Globo.
🇺🇸 United States
“On the first day of his second term in office, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation prohibiting all refugees arriving at the U.S. southern border from applying for asylum… The proclamation was a bald-faced attempt to close the border to asylum-seekers writ large, effectively a death certificate for the right to seek asylum in the United States. That right has been in decline for many years around the globe, its force and meaning gravely diminished alongside the worldwide retrenchment of human rights. But over the past year, states across the global north have taken further steps to permanently degrade asylum protections,” writes Linda Kinstler at Foreign Policy.
“A Department of Homeland Security rule that took effect on May 29 created the first-ever annual fee for asylum seekers, who now owe $102 every year to keep a pending application active,” explains Austin Kocher at his Substack.
“HAITI TPS LITIGATION — Internal emails and documents recently release show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ended the protections for Haitians without consulting the State Department, raising doubts about whether proper legal procedures were followed, report Madeleine Ngo and Ann E. Marimow of The New York Times. On Tuesday, attorneys representing Haitian TPS holders filed a motion urging the Supreme Court to dismiss the case considering the new evidence about the case, report Nina Totenberg and Grady Martin of NPR.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
Private prison contractor Geo Group “privately asked for changes that could benefit its business,” reports Washington Post, explaining, “The new national detention standards, which ICE posted to its website Monday, include some of Geo’s requested changes… The revised rules no longer say detainees must be paid at least $1 per day, and no longer include several references to contractors having to comply with state or local laws.”
“Geo’s input in the new standards, which has not been previously reported, highlights the ICE contractor’s influence over the agency that is both its regulator and, corporate filings show, its biggest customer.”
“The Trump administration detained a Colombian immigrant this week in Phoenix after he spoke out against a Trump-endorsed candidate in his home country’s upcoming presidential election… Mr. Coral was arrested by immigration authorities on Tuesday, the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo determining that he was deportable from the United States,” reports New York Times.
“The memo comes after a year in which Mr. Rubio has used his power as secretary of state to target individual immigrants. In previous memos, he has recommended specific individuals be deported by the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that their continued presence in the United States undermined foreign policy. Most of his memos have centered on immigrants who had protested Israel in some form, including Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student arrested by immigration authorities last year.”
🇨🇦 Canada
“Ottawa is streamlining the asylum process and imposing new timelines in its attempt to “improve processing efficiency and integrity,” but critics are unconvinced the changes would make the system faster… The government proposal said there were 298,200 cases in the system as of March and the average wait times reached 25 months,” reports Toronto Star.
A federal court challenge “(alleges) Canada is failing to provide refugee claimants with safeguards required by the Supreme Court of Canada before turning them back under the Safe Third Country Agreement… [that] Canada Border Services Agency officers are routinely returning asylum seekers to the United States without meaningful assessments of whether they face unfair detention, deportation or other serious rights violations,” reports CBC. (see also The Guardian)
Al Jazeera examines successive Canadian governments’ tightening of immigration policy, highlighting criticisms from civil society. (see last week’s AMB on public opinion)
“Canada moves to enshrine early access to work permits for asylum seekers” (CIC News)
🇵🇲 Saint Pierre and Miquelon
A community on the French island of Miquelon—just south of Canada’s Newfoundland—will be relocated due to the impacts of coastal erosion and climate change. This is France’s first planned relocation and set of “climate refugees,” according to L’Opinion.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“Jamaica is planning to allow the United States to transfer deported migrants through its territory before they are repatriated or sent on to third countries… Under the agreement, Jamaica would receive up to 25 migrants every two weeks… No more than 25 migrants would remain in the country at a time,” reports New York Times. The country’s security minister “said the governments were still negotiating details about who the United States might send, and that Jamaica would have a preference for English speakers. But he indicated there was ‘no guarantee either way.’”
The deal has received criticism and pushback from opposition lawmakers and civil society in Jamaica. (Radio Jamaica News, Gleaner)
“Panama deports another group of nearly 70 Colombians and Ecuadorians under agreement with the U.S.” (EFE; see AMB 2/10/25)
MPI examines border externalization efforts and coordination on enforcement in the US, as well as Europe and elsewhere.
US and Mexican officials met to discuss migration. (EFE)
🇰🇪🇨🇦 Canada and Kenya
“Kenya and Canada are moving closer to establishing a formal Labour Mobility Framework that could create structured pathways for thousands of Kenyan workers to access jobs in the North American country… When reached, the deal is expected to focus on skills development, ethical recruitment, worker protection and the creation of regulated migration channels for Kenyan professionals and skilled workers,” reports The Star.
Labor Migration
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
EFE highlights the contributions of Haitian migrant workers to the Dominican Republic’s sugar industry, noting “the persistent deterioration of working conditions.”
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration will expand access to temporary H-2A agricultural visas to dairy producers, granting a long-time agricultural industry demand,” reports Bloomberg.
Under the Trump administration, “Despite running on a pledge to purge the country with mass deportations, visa programs such as the H-2A and H-2B are actually increasing the size of the foreign workforce. According to labor unions, anti-trafficking groups, and migrant advocates, these guest worker programs are also rife with abuse, including human trafficking, forced labor, sexual assault, wage theft, and even incidents of what U.S. prosecutors have called ‘modern-day slavery,’” writes United Farm Workers’s Antonio De Loera-Brust at Foreign Policy.
Borders and Enforcement
🇨🇱 Chile
“Chilean authorities on Tuesday demolished a clandestine bridge that had been built to cross a ditch on the northern border, constructed by the Kast government in an attempt to curb irregular migration.” (EFE)
The Kast government has started installing “tetrapods”—16 ton concrete blocks—along Chile’s border with Peru as part of their efforts to halt migration. (América TV)
🇦🇷 Argentina
Página 12 highlights the Milei administration’s recent focus on immigration, including the creation of Migration Security Units, Milei’s “own version of ICE,” inspired by the US.
“Milei’s government boasts of having expelled 14,000 foreigners in the last six months” (EFE)
🇨🇺 Cuba
“The Cuban government is preparing to deploy a new Migration Police force in November, with national jurisdiction to arrest travelers from Miami and deport foreigners, among other functions,” reports El Nuevo Herald. (more on Cuba’s new migration law at AMB 5/25/26)
🇺🇸 United States
In the second Trump administration, ICE has bought 11 warehouses for over $1 billion with the intention of using these facilities for immigration detention—“But in a major turnabout, the agency is planning to offload seven warehouses purchased for more than $700 million by either giving them to other federal agencies or selling them outright,” reports New York Times.
More on Migration
🌎Regional
“Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean Ease After 2025 Surge: Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean keep growing in 2025–26, but at a slower pace, shaped by labor markets and exchange rates.” (IDB)