Americas Migration Brief - April 8, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇨🇴 Colombia
Colombia will launch a new regularization Permiso Especial de Permanencia (Special Permanence Permit) “aimed at legal representatives or custodians of children and adolescents who hold a Temporary Protection Permit (PPT) issued before August 12, 2022.” (press release)
A PLOS ONE paper “investigates the intricate relationship between Venezuelan migration and urban growth in Colombia from 2018 to 2021… Migration had a notable effect before the pandemic, but this influence waned afterward.”
🇺🇾 Uruguay
“At least 5,000 people of Cuban nationality are in a situation of “migratory limbo”: they do not enjoy refugee status in (Uruguay), and they cannot renounce their refugee application to apply for permanent residency that would allow them to reunite with their families,” reports El País.
🇲🇽 Mexico
The Citizen Council of the National Migration Institute (INM) is calling for the establishment of a temporary regularization program, reports Milenio.
🇨🇱 Chile
A Centro de Políticas Migratorias and Espacio Público report explores the contributions of migrants for Chile’s economic development.
“Migrant women work more than Chilean women, but earn less,” according to a study cited by BioBioChile.
🇦🇼 Aruba
An IOM report explores the impact of Venezuelan migration in Aruba, finding high levels of interest in developing papiamento language skills and significant economic contributions in real estate, hotels and tourism, and medicine.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
“Costa Rica hosts almost 30,000 Venezuelan migrants permanently, who contribute some 40 million dollars annually to the treasury but who face a series of barriers to their full integration,” reports Efecto Cocuyo, citing an IOM report.
🇧🇷 Brazil
Brazil’s Ministry of Health has published a technical note “with guidelines for assistance to migrants, refugees and stateless people in the national public health network,” reports MigraMundo.
🇺🇸 United States
InSight Crime debunks claims that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has extended to the US and taken part in high-profile killings in the country that have been politicized and used to spread discriminatory, xenophobic rhetoric.
Expanded immigration enforcement within the US interior “reduced the likelihood that Hispanic victims reported crimes to police and increased the victimization of Hispanics,” according to a NBER working paper that also finds that “reduced Hispanic reporting is the key driver of increased victimization.”
“Contrary to the common assumption, anti-immigrant rhetoric does not ensure electoral success. In an upcoming report from the Immigration Lab and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, we prove the moral and electoral failure of using anti-immigrant sentiment in campaign platforms. Our data demonstrates the falsity of the notion that being weak on immigration control is an electoral vulnerability.” (AULA Blog)
🇨🇦 Canada
A CGO working paper explores decreasing public support for immigration in Canada, finding, “subjective views regarding changes in Canada’s economic performance are more influential than objective factors like income or status” and that political parties play a key role in polarization around the topic.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Colombia and Panama are failing to effectively protect and assist hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers in the Darién Gap and to investigate abuses there,” says Human Rights Watch in a press release for a report on protection issues in the Darien.
“Sexual Assault of Migrants in Panama Rises to Level Rarely Seen Outside War” (New York Times)
La Prensa questions the use of political asylum to provide refuge to politicians facing investigations—or even sentencing and a conviction—for corruption. Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in jail, has sought asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy, causing tensions between the two countries.
The article comes amid regional controversy after Ecuador raided the Mexican embassy to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who was granted asylum by Mexico despite being convicted twice on corruption charges, reports Reuters. “Under international law, embassies are considered the sovereign territory of the country they represent.”
“Organized crime has built up a lucrative business trafficking Honduran women for purposes of sexual exploitation in Frontera Comalapa, a Chiapas town on the Mexico-Guatemala border, reports El Faro English in collaboration with Quinto Elemento Lab.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
🇲🇽 Mexico
“3 migrants, including 2 from Cameroon, died in a truck accident in southern Mexico” (AP)
“55 migrants have died in detention and custody centers run by the National Migration Institute” in the six years of the current administration, reports Pie de Página.
“Several migrants… have told Border Report they were groped, fondled and robbed by members of Mexico’s National Guard when they attempted to cross the border in the mountains east of San Diego.” (Border Report)
Kidnapping and extortion of migrants at the Tamaulipas-Texas border “has increased notably since late 2023. Many describe this moment as the worst period of violence they’ve seen, both in numbers and brutality,” says WOLA.
🇭🇹 Haiti
IOM highlights Haiti’s deepening security crisis and significant protection needs, noting, “13,000 migrants were forcibly returned to Haiti by neighboring countries in March, 46 per cent more than the previous month.” (see AMB 3/25/24 on UNHCR’s call for international protection for Haitians)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
In an open letter, Amnesty International and partners call for the Dominican government to promote human rights and reject xenophobia and “alarming racist practices and policies against Haitian migrants.”
🇱🇨 St. Lucia
OAS is working with St. Lucia on addressing gender-based and sexual violence against migrant women and girls, particularly in the tourism sector: “Saint Lucia’s geographic location, coupled with its booming tourism industry, exacerbates the risks faced by women and migrant women, who often lack adequate legal and other sorts of protections and support networks.” (press release, report)
🇺🇸 United States
Two key court rulings have protected the Biden administration’s immigration policy, maintaining the humanitarian parole policy for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans and blocking Texas’s attempts “to assert power and enforce its own immigration policies,” according to Emerson Collective’s Immigration Update.
The Biden administration has quietly rebuilt the US refugee resettlement program—previously gutted by the Trump administration—with more than 40,000 refugees entering the US in the first five months of the fiscal year. “But as the presidential campaign heats up, immigration advocates fear that the gains will be wiped out if former President Donald J. Trump is elected. The former president has vowed to suspend the program if he takes office again, just as he did in 2017 for 120 days,” reports New York Times.
“Two things about our immigration debate are both true. One, America is in danger of turning its back on the global order set by the Refugee Convention—the commitment by the nations of the world, in the wake of the Holocaust, to welcome victims of persecution. Two, America still loves a refugee, A single individual is a protagonist, whose story of the horrors they fled back home, and fear of what they might experience in the future, inspire sympathy and identification. A large group of people traveling together? That’s an invasion… But the world doesn’t produce refugees on a bespoke basis. It produces them at industrial scale, as collateral damage from global upheavals,” writes American Immigration Council’s Dara Lind at The American Prospect.
“The United States is more likely to respond to global forced displacement challenges when four conditions come together. First, when there are strong foreign policy linkages to crises that produce refugees, and the refugees themselves are seen as part of US policy interests. Second, when there are clear and highly visible humanitarian needs. Third, when important domestic constituencies support action to address those pressing needs. Fourth, when there is a strong congressional backing of presidential decisions to exert leadership that facilitates action, says a Wilson Center report.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, explaining that “A 24-year-old Guatemalan woman’s fatal March 21 fall from the border wall in San Diego drew new attention to the region’s sharply increased numbers of wall-related deaths and injuries. Elsewhere in San Diego, a federal judge ruled that outdoor encampments where Border Patrol makes asylum seekers wait to be processed violate a 1997 agreement governing the treatment of children in the agency’s custody.”
“Judge Orders Timely Housing for Migrant Children Waiting at Border: The decision established that minors at open-air sites were in legal custody of the Department of Homeland Security and thus must receive safe shelter, even if they had not yet been formally processed.” (New York Times)
🇨🇦 Canada
“Immigration Minister Marc Miller has vowed Canada will not send any Ukrainians who arrived under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization For Emergency Travel (CUAET) home as long as the war with Russia is raging – even if their visas have expired.” (Canada Immigration News)
“Haitian Montrealers have asked for a special immigration program to help people from Haiti to escape the violence there in an open letter to both the Quebec and Canadian governments,” reports Canada Immigration News, noting that a family-based humanitarian program for Colombians, Haitians, and Venezuelans established last year has already reached capacity for the 11,000 total slots.
“The Canadian Council for Refugees called today on the federal government to create a national plan that addresses the growing number of refugee claimants and ensures the right to asylum.” (FCJ Refugee Centre)
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“CARICOM leaders have been unable to sign off on the arrangements to facilitate the free and full movement of CARICOM nationals by the end of last month as had been hoped following their summit in Guyana earlier this year,” with discussions still ongoing, reports Gleaner. (see AMB 3/25/24)
Mexico hosted a regional meeting on protection for migrants in transit and statelessness as part of the process for the Cartagena Declaration’s 40th anniversary (UNHCR)
🇵🇦🇨🇴 Colombia and Panama
The foreign affairs ministers of Colombia and Panama met to discuss migration, among other issues. (La Prensa, La Estrella de Panamá)
🇲🇽🇺🇸 United States and Mexico
Former US president and current candidate Donald Trump said that he would not give Mexico even “10 cents” to help halt migration if re-elected. (El País)
Labor Migration
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Ecuador is betting on circular migration, signing an agreement with Israel and expanding an already-existing pathway with Spain, reports El Caribe. The agreement with Israel will send 2,000 Ecuadorian agricultural workers to the country in its phase, eventually reaching 25,000 migrant workers. Ecuador and Spain’s circular migration program was initially limited to agricultural workers but now will be expanded to other sectors.
🇬🇾 Guyana
Guyana is looking to recruit 500 Bangladeshi nurses, in addition to previous efforts to recruit Cuban healthcare workers. (Kaieteur News)
🇺🇸 United States
“In the upcoming years, a confluence of factors will produce an unprecedented shortfall in the necessary supply of caregivers,” notes Brookings, arguing that immigration can fill the demand: “The positive impacts of immigration on the availability and quality of long-term care are well-documented, particularly as they pertain to nursing homes.”
🇬🇹 Guatemala
“The benefits of circular migration in Guatemala: A round-trip to the American dream. Around 9,000 Guatemalans traveled to the United States with temporary work contracts in one year, still a negligible number compared to the hundreds of thousands of those detained and deported for trying to cross the border irregularly,” says El País.
IOM highlights in a pair of reports Guatemalan labor migration to Mexico and to Belize, Honduras, and Mexico. (1, 2)
🇸🇻 El Salvador
“El Salvador is offering 5,000 “free passports” to highly skilled workers from abroad, President Nayib Bukele announced Saturday.” (CNN)
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
“Ecuador, China, India, and Colombia are each poised to play a greater role in shaping migration for the remainder of the decade,” says Niskanen Center.
IOM published a migration trends report for the last quarter of 2023.
🇨🇴 Colombia
InSight Crime explores the role of the AGC organized crime group in Darien Gap migration and highlights “unused migration routes,” explaining, “The AGC has created a choke point in Acandí to maximize its revenues by ensuring that no business operates without paying fees to the group. But Acandí is not the sole municipality with routes through the Darién. Riosucio and Unguía, located directly south of Acandí, are the starting points for alternative routes to Panama.”
🇸🇻 El Salvador
ElSalvador.com highlights the role of El Salvador as a country of transit for migrants heading to the US. In a separate article, the outlet notes that “60,000 “tourists” from Ecuador and 32,000 from India entered El Salvador in 2023,” arguing that entry and exit numbers do not add up and that these migrants are using the country for transit to head north. A further article highlights the role of corruption from officials.
🇺🇾 Uruguay
For the first time in 14 years, more Uruguayans emigrated than newcomers immigrated to the country in 2023, reports El Observador, noting that emigratory intentions are higher than during Uruguay’s 2002 banking crisis.
🇵🇪 Peru
“Peru’s struggles with democracy and rule of law have led to a quiet but growing trend of emigration, reports Americas Quarterly, calling for the US to take a more active approach to the country, particularly in response to efforts to rewrite parts of the constitution and concerns surrounding the fairness of the upcoming 2026 elections,” I note at Latin America Daily Briefing.
Borders and Enforcement
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexico will require a visa application for Peruvian nationals seeking to enter Mexican territory, according to an announcement published in the official gazette on Friday, amid a recent surge of migrants from the South American country.” (Reuters)
US “Border Patrol agents apprehended over 137,000 migrants who crossed the U.S. southern border unlawfully in March, down from nearly 141,000 in February… It's the first time in seven years — and the only time during the Biden administration — that illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border did not increase from February to March,” reports CBS, highlighting the role of Mexican enforcement efforts in halting migration and citing that “three U.S. officials said they believe Mexico's increased actions to slow U.S.-bound migration have played a major role in the lower number of unlawful crossings.”
🇵🇪 Peru
Peru will place visa restrictions on most Mexican citizens, with some exceptions. (press release)
🇻🇨 St. Vincent and the Grenadines
St. Vincent and the Grenadines blocked a pair of charter flights from landing in the country, believing the flights to be used by migrants in transit looking to then move on to Central America and up to the US. The country imposed new restrictions on Cameroon, Nepal, and Bangladesh, reports St. Vincent Times.
🇦🇷 Argentina
A Revista Internacional de Derechos Humanos paper explores the domestic and international legal contexts surrounding deportation in Argentina and implementation in practice.