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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
The Trump administration’s move to pause US foreign aid will have key impacts on many initiatives across Latin America, including efforts to integrate migrants and refugees in the region, explains Catherine Osborn at Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief, adding, “Remigration has become common in Latin America in recent years when legal permissions and job opportunities dry up in receiving countries.” (see also AP)
WOLA, too, explores the issue, including migration-related impacts. “In FY2023, for example, the total in the Migration and Refugee assistance obligations was $543.9 million; the majority of these funds supported the needs and integration of Venezuelan migrants and refugees who have settled throughout the region.”
Among the many impacts, IOM has been forced to halt its efforts in Brazil, stunting the much-lauded Operation Welcome and fully pausing the Operation’s interiorization program, which connected Venezuelan migrants to opportunities in the interior of Brazil. (Folha; for more on Brazil’s success at integrating Venezuelans, check out a special edition of the AMB from October 2023)
DW summarizes some of the various measures being taken across Latin America to respond to and reintegrate deportees coming from the US. (see also last week’s AMB and more below)
🇧🇷 Brazil
ABC+ highlights the story of a Venezuelan migrant who has found a new life and left hunger “in the past” since moving to southern Brazil through Operation Welcome’s interiorization program.
Brazil will set up a humanitarian reception center to receive deportees from the US outside of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. (AP)
🇬🇾 Guyana
School registrations of (primarily Venezuelan) migrant children have remained stable since 2022, with about 4,000 registered, per Stabroek News. Guyana “does not require documentation for migrant children to attend school… However, challenges remain, particularly with language barriers. To address this, the ministry has implemented over 40 after-school classes dedicated to teaching English as a second language. Additionally, a new curriculum has been introduced that caters to the needs of migrant students.”
🇨🇱 Chile
Presidential hopeful Rodolfo Carter recently commented that migrant children in an irregular status should not have access to the Chilean school system. The statement was denounced as dehumanizing and creating a false dichotomy in a CIPER op-ed, while the Office of the Ombudsman for Children expressed “profound concern,” per El Mostrador.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
El Universo highlights the high costs and challenges associated with regularization for Venezuelan migrants in Ecuador.
El Universo details Ecuador’s plans to support migrants returning from the US, including psychological and health assistance, monetary assistance for transportation, and access to training programs.
🇲🇽 Mexico
The Mexican government is working with the private sector to mobilize job opportunities for deportees arriving from the US, reportedly hoping to create 35,000 jobs. (El Financiero)
Reintegration for deportees goes beyond job support, though, writes León Krauze at Washington Post: “The Mexican government’s urgent challenge is to ensure the deportee’s safety. This responsibility cannot be outsourced or delegated. If the government can’t meet this challenge, the cycle of migration will continue and the humanitarian crisis — which has already caused immense suffering — will escalate.”
🇬🇹 Guatemala
“Guatemala will open a registration and assistance center for deportees from the U.S. in the Parque de la Industria” (Prensa Libre)
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada’s recently reduced target figures for accepted migrants result in “significant risk to this demographic outlook, as such, the economic impacts of the new immigration policies reported above are uncertain,” according to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🇰🇳 St. Kitts and Nevis
“Nineteen bodies were found drifting in a boat off the coast of St. Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean country. Authorities believe the boat had drifted from the African coast with migrants on board,” reports InfoMigrants.
🇲🇽 Mexico
Many migrants who were originally hoping to enter the US are now seeking asylum in Mexico, reports France24. For example, “In the border city of Ciudad Juárez, the Jesuit Refugee Service, a non-profit offering legal and humanitarian assistance, has seen three times the number of people wanting its help to request asylum in Mexico this month as in all of 2024,” reports Financial Times.
🇨🇴 Colombia
El Estímulo highlights the challenges faced by Venezuelans displaced by armed conflict in Colombia’s Catatumbo region. (see also last week’s AMB)
“Constitutional Court ordered to guarantee rights of Venezuelan migrant woman victim of gender violence” (Red Jurista)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
An NRC report explores housing, land, and property of displaced Indigenous communities in Guatemala.
🇨🇱 Chile
A Centro de Políticas Migratorias and Fundación Madre Josefa report explores human and migrant trafficking in Chile and public policy opportunities to strengthen the state’s response.
🇨🇦 Canada
“Amid growing skepticism about immigration, it remains critical to remember one thing: private refugee sponsorship is a modest immigration stream that works, bringing people at risk to safety and allowing them to make new lives in Canada,” per The Conversation, warning about efforts to limit private sponsorship in Canada.
🇺🇸 United States
The Trump administration has moved to end TPS for those Venezuelans receiving the status under the 2023 designation, ending protection in April 2025 for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the US. New York Times notes, “Another group of more than 250,000 Venezuelans have protections through September and for now will not be affected.”
“The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the legal status of many of the migrants who were allowed to come to the U.S. legally from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under former President Joe Biden, reports CBS, noting that more than 530,000 had benefited from this humanitarian parole policy.
The Laken Riley Act has been signed into law by President Trump. “Mandating indefinite detention for those merely accused of low-level crimes is unconstitutional, impractical, and often inhumane. We are particularly worried about racial profiling and the targeting of vulnerable populations,” says CLINIC’s Karen Sullivan in a press release. (see AMB 1/20/25 for more on the law)
“Navajo Nation leaders raise alarm over reports of Indigenous people being questioned and detained during immigration sweeps” (CNN)
Trump has “pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests,” reports Reuters, noting that “Rights groups and legal scholars said the new measure would violate constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, including highlighting the growing role of the US military at the southwest border. For example, “The active-duty personnel will carry loaded service weapons, which is unusual for a federal military border mission on U.S. soil.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
The emergency meeting of the CELAC bloc called last week to respond to Trump’s migration actions was cancelled “due to lack of consensus.” Argentina, El Salvador, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Panama did not support a shared initiative, according to La Política Online. (see last week’s AMB)
“U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Venezuela has agreed to receive all Venezuelan illegal migrants captured in the United States and provide for their transportation back,” reports Reuters. This ends Venezuela’s longtime refusal to accept deportees.
“‘Recalcitrant countries,’ those that refuse to take back undocumented immigrants pose a challenge for Trump’s mass deportation plan. There are 42,084 deportable Cubans in the U.S., but Cuba has only accepted 4,662 people in the past decade, the significant U.S. sanctions already in place against Cuba give Trump little leverage… reports the Washington Post.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
China has long been considered recalcitrant, but “The Trump administration has confirmed that the deportation of Chinese nationals is still underway as part of a broader effort to enforce U.S. immigration laws… On Jan. 6, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through ICE, conducted the Biden administration’s fifth removal flight to China in less than seven months,” reports VOA.
“Mexico has received non-Mexican migrants from the United States in the past week, and Central American nations could also reach similar agreements with the U.S. to accept deportees from other countries, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said,” reports Reuters, adding, “She was not clear on Monday whether the migrants accepted so far were deportees or migrants returned under Remain in Mexico.”
“Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Ramiro Martinez told journalists later on Monday that he did not rule out his nation becoming a so-called "safe third country" to accept migrants of other nationalities.” (Reuters)
Amnesty International has called for countries in the Americas to not assist the Trump administration by taking on deportees from other nations.
“Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed two deportees from the U.S. are claiming to have suffered human rights violations while on their way to Mexico. Sheinbaum, who has sparred with her U.S. counterpart Donald Trump over immigration matters, says she has submitted a complaint to Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry to review the case.” (Latin Times)
“Brazil's foreign ministry said it summoned a senior U.S. diplomat on Monday to discuss the deportation of Brazilian migrants” after controversies over the mistreatment of deportees by the Trump administration, notes Reuters. The New York Times interviewed Brazilian deportees on the infamous flight last month, noting that some passengers had fainted due to the poor conditions. (see last week’s AMB)
After reaching a deal with the US, Colombia sent a plane to the US to pick up deportees, reports AP. (see last week’s AMB)
How many flights is Colombia’s Petro willing to pay for?, asks El Colombiano.
“Inside Colombia’s Crisis Over Trump’s Deportations” (New York Times)
Guyana’s “President Irfaan Ali and new US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio on January 28, discussed, among other issues, the crisis of illegal migration and agreed to jointly address this regional imperative and challenge,” reports Demerara Waves.
🇵🇦🇨🇴 Colombia and Panama
The foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama met to discuss cooperation on migration, among other topics. (Telemetro)
🇨🇷🇲🇽 Mexico and Costa Rica
The foreign ministers of Mexico and Costa Rica discussed migration over the phone. (Zócalo)
Labor Migration
🇧🇷 Brazil
“More and more Brazilians are moving to Ireland to work in a market with a scarce domestic workforce: the meat industry,” reports BBC. However, the Brazilian government has expressed concern surrounding precarious and abusive working conditions.
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Programme (TFWP) is designed in a way that facilitates shocking abuse and discrimination of migrant workers, Amnesty International said in a new report today.” (report, press release)
Canada “has announced that new immigration pilots for home care workers will open on March 31, 2025,” reports CIC News. The country has also launched a pilot for a “rural immigration pathway to permanent residence” and for French speakers with certain job offers outside of Quebec.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
“The passage of undocumented migrants through the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia, plummeted 94% in January compared to the same period in 2024,” reports EFE.
Martí Noticias highlights the recent trend in Cuban migration to Brazil and Uruguay, as opposed to heading north to the US.
“Misinformation Spread by Human Smugglers to Draw Migrants to the Border Despite Trump's Crackdown: The current immigration scenario has the potential to empower smugglers, increase dangerous crossings, and exacerbate instability at the U.S.-Mexico border” (The Latin Times)
Borders and Enforcement
🌎 Regional
The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard is receiving extra staff and equipment upgrades to respond to potential maritime migration from Venezuela to Dutch Caribbean islands such as Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. (Curaçao)
🇦🇷 Argentina
Argentina is planning to build a 200 meter fence along its border with Bolivia to halt irregular migration, reports El País, noting, “the measure was not well received by the Bolivian government.”
“There is a spot in Aguas Blancas where people cross the river right next to the formal border crossing checkpoint between Argentina and Bolivia. The Milei government wants to stop that from happening, making people actually go through the border crossing and face potential passport and customs inspection instead of walking around the crossing every day. On a small scale, that makes a lot of sense,” writes James Bosworth at Latin America Risk Report.
🇺🇸 United States
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been directed by Trump officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500,” reports The Washington Post. However, “officials say their detention facilities are already nearly maxed out,” per Washington Post.
Despite highly publicizing immigrant arrest data since the start of the Trump administration, “Federal officials declined to share details on where most arrests took place, how many people had criminal backgrounds, or how many were ultimately detained or released. They also declined to say whether people who were not targeted were also swept up in the enforcement efforts,” reports The New York Times. Austin Kocher notes on his Substack that there is reason to be skeptical about the accuracy and representation of some ICE’s daily publicized data.
I noted on LinkedIn that ICE's “enforcement update” posts show clear parallels to messaging used by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele in his “state of emergency” to take down gangs.
In response to the challenge of detention space, the Trump administration is planning to detain up to 30,000 migrants at a time at Guantanamo Bay, a controversial US base in southeastern Cuba. Two military flights of migrants were planned for this past weekend, per Politico reporting on Friday. While the Trump administration has framed that “the worst of the worst” will be sent to Guantanamo, they have also declined to say whether women and children will be held at the base, either, notes Reuters.
CEDA “strongly condemns” the move, asserting that the base “is a legal black hole where due process and human rights protections are absent.” Detention at Guantanamo “should be closed, not expanded,” says IRAP. (see AMB 9/23/24 on a recent IRAP report about immigrant detention there)
“Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called Trump's plan "an act of brutality."” (Reuters)
Mississippi and Missouri are both considering “bounty hunter” programs to “hunt down undocumented migrants” and facilitate their arrest. (USA Today, Missouri Independent)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic deported over 31,000 Haitians during the month of January. This nearly keeps track with the Abinader administration’s goal of 10,000 deportations per week. (El Nacional; see also AMB 1/20/25 on abuses)
🇵🇪 Peru
Peru will now require a transit visa for Cubans, reports ADN Cuba.
More on Migration
🇬🇩 Grenada
Grenada has launched a “citizenship by invitation” program to recruit “ultra high net worth investors to obtain citizenship.” (IMI)