Americas Migration Brief - April 22, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
“Venezuelan refugees and migrants across Latin America face rising xenophobia and growing challenges to integrate into host countries, even as President Nicolás Maduro’s latest wave of repression ahead of July elections threatens new migration outflows,” reports The New Humanitarian.
A CSM, IOM, and Mercosur report explores regional agreements and initiatives to support education, labor inclusion, and integration in South America.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
The breaking of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Ecuador leaves Venezuelan citizens in the latter country unable to renew documents necessary to regularize their status, warns El Pitazo.
🇨🇴 Colombia
IOM and partners explore the economic impact of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, estimating that they contributed at least 529 million USD in taxes in 2022 and that a further 275 million USD could potentially be contributed through migrant regularization and labor inclusion. By comparison, the estimated public funds spent to provide education and health care to Venezuelan migrants added up to 494 million USD. (report, executive summary)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“Goiás is the first (state) in Brazil to have a migrant health care policy” (Agência Cora)
A BMC Public Health paper explores Venezuelan migrant women’s living conditions and access to health services in the northern cities of Boa Vista and Manaus, finding that “the majority had legal migrant status and had access to the public and universal healthcare system in Brazil (SUS). The use of the SUS was similar in both cities, acting as a buffer for the differences in (economic) opportunities offered.”
A UNHCR report explores the profile, labor inclusion, and integration of migrants and refugees in Boa Vista and Manaus.
🇺🇸 United States
“New Migrants Get Work Permits. Other Undocumented Immigrants Want Them, Too. Long-term undocumented immigrants — and their employers — are feeling left out by Biden administration policies allowing most who just crossed the border to work legally.” (New York Times)
The Biden administration has moved to provide employment authorization for Palestinians covered by Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), announced this past February. (press release)
A Westat Insight report for the Department of Labor studies the profile of and employment opportunities for migrants, dubbed “New Americans,” in the US, additionally assessing “associated factors such as training and education.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“The Colombian and Panamanian governments are responsible for protecting migrants and non-migrants alike, and they should take steps to investigate and prosecute criminal actors in the region that are targeting migrant populations… Panama’s Operation Controlled Flow has proven an effective initiative to facilitate safe and orderly transit through the country to Costa Rica, although investments in improving infrastructure at the overcrowded Lajas Blancas reception center would be beneficial, as would regulating the informal, often exploitative wire transfer operators taking advantage of migrants lacking the cash to continue their transit north. The Panamanian government should also allow Doctors Without Borders to bring their services back to Lajas Blancas,” I write for the Latin America Advisor in a Q&A on the Darien Gap.
“69% of interviewed individuals reported being victims of theft, scams or fraud during their journey” through the Darien Gap, according to a UNHCR survey. Another survey found that “70% of migrants have seen deaths on the Darién route,” reports La Estrella de Panamá.
A Doctors Without Borders report highlights protection and health concerns for migrants throughout Central America and Mexico.
“Doctors Without Borders (MSF) of Mexico reported this Thursday more cases of sexual violence against migrants in the first quarter of 2024 than in all of last year,” reports EFE.
R4V has published a pair of guides on identifying profiles and cases of trafficking. (1, 2)
An IOM report explores the vulnerability of LGBTQ+ migrants to the impacts of climate change and the environment and migration and their inclusion in evacuation planning.
🇧🇷 Brazil
“9 bodies found adrift in a boat off Brazil were likely migrants from Mauritania and Mali” headed to Spain’s Canary Islands, reports AP, updating previous reports believing that 20-some Haitian migrants were in the boat. (see also Agência Brasil, last week’s AMB)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
“An air force recruit has been arrested in the Dominican Republic and charged with raping a 14-year old Haitian migrant. The incident took place during an immigration check… The rape accusation is the second time in less than a year that a Haitian migrant is accusing a Dominican official of sexual assault,” reports Miami Herald. (see last week’s AMB)
Some residents have reported “that personnel from the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) "looted" the homes of several Haitian citizens while carrying out an operation there,” reports Diario Libre, adding, “Dominicans residing in that neighborhood joined the complaint of the foreigners.”
🇲🇽 Mexico
Amid record levels of asylum requests in Mexico, “Three out of every five people of the more than 140,000 who requested refuge in Mexico in 2023 came from Haiti or Honduras,” reports Milenio.
BBC highlights the kidnappings, extortion, and other protection concerns found throughout the migration journey across Mexico.
🇬🇹 Guatemala
A UNHCR report “summarizing its surveys of migrants transiting Guatemala in 2023. It found 42 percent of them were leaving their countries for reasons of “violence or conflict,” with 72 percent of Ecuadorian people giving that response. 65 percent said that they had suffered mistreatment or abuse on their journey, usually robberies, extortions, fraud, or threats.” (via WOLA)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Biden administration sent about 50 Haitians back to their country on Thursday, authorities said, marking the first deportation flight in several months to the Caribbean nation struggling with surging gang violence,” reports AP, highlighting concerns from advocates.
“Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Communications Luis Miranda said that the average wait for a CBP One appointment right now is about 10 weeks. This contrasts with recent reports of appointments routinely taking six or even eight months at some border crossings.” (La Jornada; via WOLA)
A JRS and Boston College report explores access to the CBP One app, highlighting the limited number of available slots per day, long wait times, and questions of technological and digital access.
“The U.S. Department of State announced the launch of the Welcome Corps at Work (WCW) program, a new initiative that offers a humanitarian solution to both skilled labor shortages in the United States and refugee displacement abroad. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) are proud to lead the implementation of the WCW, which connects U.S. employers with qualified refugees and, once employers make a concrete job offer, facilitates the refugees’ resettlement through private sponsor support.” (press release)
The US asylum system is oriented so that “denials can be fast and easy for the system, but approvals take time and extensive effort. Using domestic and international comparative examples, this Article proposes re-balancing the asylum system by establishing a process for expedited approvals of clearly eligible asylum claims,” according to a paper at Georgetown Law Journal.
The News Tribune highlights calls to close down Tacoma’s immigration detention center, noting, “The facility’s use of solitary confinement as a means of punishment, deployment of chemical agents on detainees and its now-ended work program that paid detainees a dollar a day have drawn criticism.”
“NIJC Calls On U.S. To Eliminate Solitary Confinement In Immigration Detention” (statement)
“Digital dissidents are afraid. Yet, U.S. federal circuit courts have repeatedly upheld federal agency decisions denying asylum to such individuals,” according to a paper at Nevada Law Journal.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “An Indiana National Guardsman serving under the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star” fired his weapon at an individual in El Paso who allegedly stabbed two people on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande riverbank. It was the third known event since January 2023 in which a National Guardsman working under Texas state authority has fired a weapon at, or in the presence of, migrants at the border.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Caricom continues to work on the question of full free movement in the bloc, with discussions relating to topics such as access to education and health care. “Further updates will be provided prior to, or during the next full regular meeting of Heads, which will be held in July in Grenada.” (St. Kitts & Nevis Observer, JIS)
Colombia and Panama should improve coordination in the Darien Gap, according to an interview with Human Rights Watch’s Juanita Goebertus at El Espectador, adding “that they cannot continue depending on international cooperation to address this crisis.”
Meanwhile, “Panama’s presidential frontrunner has vowed to “close” the Darién Gap… but experts criticised the idea as unworkable and potentially dangerous,” reports The Guardian, noting that candidate José Raúl Mulino’s proposal includes “no details.”
Costa Rica has rejected the potential of hosting asylum seekers on behalf of the United Kingdom under a version of the so-called “Rwanda plan.” Rumors circulated from "leaked documents" suggesting the UK would attempt to ship asylum seekers off to Costa Rica and other countries as a migration deterrent. Other Latin American countries—including Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru—have also been rumored, but no country has expressed any interest in such an arrangement. (El Mundo, InfoMigrants)
US and Cuban officials met last week to discuss migration, as did US and Honduran officials. (Miami Herald, Proceso)
“Cuba's government is willing to accept more deportation flights from the U.S. of Cuban migrants,” reports CBS.
Guatemala will host on May 7 a meeting of the Los Angeles Declaration countries. (Diario las Américas)
🇨🇴🇧🇷 Brazil and Colombia
Brazil and Colombia have signed agreements on sharing best practices and information about migration and human trafficking, among other issues. (Red+, VOA)
🇦🇷🇧🇴 Bolivia and Argentina
Argentina and Bolivia have engaged in a diplomatic spat after rumors from Argentine officials that Bolivia was providing passports to Iranian nationals—a claim denied by Bolivian authorities. (BioBioChile, Opinión)
🇻🇪🇨🇱 Chile and Venezuela
Chilean minister Camila Vallejo has called for greater collaboration with the Venezuelan government in relation to Venezuelan migration to the country, in particular in the cases of crimes committed by Venezuelan nationals, reports Antofagasta TV
Venezuela agreed last week to three upcoming deportation flights from Chile carrying a total of 150 irregular Venezuelan migrants, reports Efecto Cocuyo.
🇨🇱 Chile
9 months after Chile’s National Migration Policy was launched, “only 31.8% of the measures have been fulfilled,” reports El Mostrador, citing a Centro de Políticas Migratorias study assessing progress.
🇧🇷 Brazil
“The second edition of Comigar (National Conference on Migration, Refuge and Statelessness) is scheduled to take place in Foz do Iguaçu (PR), even with the postponement of the event” from June to November, reports MigraMundo.
Brazil has yet to advance on developing the country’s National Migration Policy called for in the 2017 Migration Law, reports MigraMundo: “At the beginning of 2023, the federal government launched a public consultation process to collect proposals for this future National Migration policy. The process, however, has not yet received feedback from the Executive.”
Labor Migration
🌎 Regional
“Spain allocates 890,000 euros to a pioneering regular migration program with Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, managed by the World Bank… The Alliance consists of a new migration model between the countries of origin and destination that serves, on the one hand, to enhance the training of people who need to migrate to Spain and, on the other, to address depopulation, aging and the shortage of labor in certain Spanish sectors.” (press release)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“Brazil and Austria sign Joint Letter of Intent on Labor Migration: Document aims to initiate research and pacts to expand cooperation in the area of migration and worker mobility” (press release)
🇺🇸 United States
“Critics of the H‑1B visa for skilled foreign workers often claim that the status amounts to “indentured” servitude,” notes Cato, explaining that “In fact, H‑1B workers are leaving their initial H‑1B employers more than ever,” and that “In 2023, about 61 percent of all H‑1B workers starting with a new employer were existing H‑1B workers hired away from other employers in the United States. This means that US employers are more likely to hire an H‑1B worker already in the United States in H‑1B status as they are to hire a new H‑1B worker not already with H‑1B status.”
Migrants in Transit
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Semanario Universidad highlights transit migration through Costa Rica and the high costs throughout the journey, noting that some migrants “escaped” from the country’s reception centers in order to make money for their trip north and that groups—both legal and illegal—impose unusually high prices on migrants for goods and services.
🇵🇾 Paraguay
An IOM report explores internal migration in Paraguay with a focus on climate and environmental factors and impacts on Indigenous populations.
Borders and Enforcement
🇲🇽 Mexico
A Mexican government crackdown on migration has reduced numbers arriving to the US border but is “unsustainable,” says WOLA, predicting rising migration in the medium-term.
🇺🇸 United States
““Realistically speaking, having this [Biden administration] asylum ban applied to 100 percent could mean only a few hundred people more a month being ordered removed. Not a huge shift,” pointed out the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick in a factually dense interview with the Border Chronicle’s Melissa del Bosque.” (Border Chronicle; via WOLA)
“President Biden's road to a dramatic executive order to stem illegal border crossings — now expected within weeks — has dragged out for months as he prepares for legal challenges, political backlash and enforcement shortages,” reports Axios.
A study at PIIE by Michael Clemens finds that “contrary to a common belief that more accessible legal entry points might encourage unlawful migration, expanding lawful pathways could serve as one strategic tool—among many—in managing migration flows,” and noting that “expanding lawful channels to cross the border by 10 percent in a given month causes a net reduction of about 3 percent in unlawful crossings several months later.” (working paper, blog post)
🇨🇱 Chile
“Chile will expand the ditch on the border with Bolivia to stop irregular migration” (La Razón)
🇨🇦 Canada
“The Trudeau government wants to use federal prisons to detain migrants deemed ‘high-risk,’” reports RCI, highlighting concerns from civil society.
🇲🇽🇵🇪 Peru and Mexico
“The Mexican government has postponed the reinstatement of the visa requirement for nationals of Peru until May 6, 2024,” notes Fragomen.
More on Migration
🌎 Regional
CLACSO published a new journal on migration in Latin America.
🇸🇻 El Salvador
The government of El Salvador has developed a new project, “Proyecto Semillas,” with the goal of promoting economic opportunity and preventing emigration. (Diario La Huella)