Americas Migration Brief - August 12, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
An IMF working paper estimates the effect of emigration and remittances on economic growth and labor force participation in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1999 and 2019, finding that “on average emigration has a negative and statistically significant impact on contemporaneous economic growth and change in labor force participation in the countries of origin across LAC, while remittances partially mitigate this adverse impact—especially on economic growth—resulting in a small negative net joint effect… There are significant differences across subregions for all estimates, with the largest negative effects observed in the Caribbean.”
Remittance flows in Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to grow by under 6% this year, according to an Inter-American Dialogue briefing.
🇦🇷 Argentina
The Argentine province of Mendoza introduced a new law mandating that “foreigners without permanent residence must pay for all health procedures performed in public hospitals in Mendoza, notes CAREF, expressing concern that the policy will impact temporary and irregular migrants and prevent access to health care.
🇵🇦 Panama
Panama is cutting fines for migrants looking to regularize their status in the country by 50% until August 2025. (Telemetro)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
“The Dominican Republic is willing to facilitate work permits to Venezuelan citizens with expired documentation, given that the consular and diplomatic representation left the country by order of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and they are unable to renew their passports,” reports EFE. (see last week’s AMB for more on the migration-related fallout of Venezuela’s recent election)
An Acento op-ed by Bernardo Vega highlights the history of Dominicans finding refuge in Venezuela, arguing that the Dominican Republic owes a debt to the country and should accept Venezuelan migrants, who can also help local development and industry.
🇵🇪 Peru
“In the last year there has been a change in migration policies in Peru, becoming more restrictive under the justification of national security, leaving aside the need for protection required by the migrant and refugee population. This type of decision, such as Resolution 121 of June 27, 2024, reinforces the narratives that associate migrants and refugees of Venezuelan nationality with crime, hindering their integration, endangering their lives and generating a sense of fear for those residing in the country,” says El Barómetro, noting that after the launch of Resolution 121, which restricted access for Venezuelans to enter the country, xenophobic social media mentions about migration spiked. (see AMB 7/1/24 on the resolution)
🇨🇴 Colombia
A study by the city of Bogotá’s Economic Development Observatory found that Venezuelan migrants are employed at higher rates than locals, although 64% work informally. (Infobae)
An op-ed by Felipe Jiménez Ángel at El Espectador highlights the positive economic impact of Venezuelan migration on Bogotá and achievements by the city to integrate this population.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
An El Barómetro report explores public conversations about migrant regularization in Ecuador in 2022 and 2023, finding that “In general, what can be deduced is that the regularization process was not an event that was massively publicized and therefore did not receive either much support or fierce resistance when compared to other countries in the region such as Colombia and Peru.” What resistance was made was either focused on perceptions of migrant criminality or on scarcity of access to public resources and jobs.
🇺🇸 United States
A Stanford Law and Economics Olin Working Paper explores incarceration rates for immigrants and the US-born between 1870 and 2020, finding that “As a group, immigrants have had lower incarceration rates than the US-born for 150 years. Moreover, relative to the US-born, immigrants' incarceration rates have declined since 1960: immigrants today are 60% less likely to be incarcerated (30% relative to USborn whites). This relative decline occurred among immigrants from all regions and cannot be explained by changes in immigrants' observable characteristics or immigration policy. Instead, the decline is part of a broader divergence of outcomes between less-educated immigrants and their US-born counterparts.” (via Forced Migration Current Awareness)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
An R4V special situation report explores the impacts of Venezuela’s recent election on migrants, noting, “Considering the evolving situation in Venezuela, the R4V Platform urges countries presently considering returns of Venezuelan nationals to their home country to suspend these activities” and that “Considering the precarious state of financing of the R4V response (only 9% of the RMRP is funded), support from the international community is in dire need to support refugees and migrants from Venezuela across the region with urgent humanitarian aid, protection services and socio-economic integration opportunities.” (see last week’s AMB)
An IOM report explores data on where vulnerable migrant populations live and are moving in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.
“Forensic authorities in the Dominican Republic worked Wednesday to identify the remains of at least 14 mostly decomposed bodies found on an abandoned vessel 10 nautical miles off its northern coast. The Dominican Republic Navy said the 14 skeletons appeared to belong to individuals from Senegal and Mauritania,” reports AP, noting that the boat may have originally been trying to reach Europe. InfoMigrants says it was likely heading to the Canary Islands.
🇺🇸 United States
A report from a coalition of advocacy groups explores the impact of the Biden administration’s recent moves to restrict access to asylum, explaining that “Based on countless interviews conducted by our legal service organizations with asylum seekers impacted by this policy since it was implemented in June, immigration officials are failing to comply with U.S. and international refugee law and summarily deporting people who fear return without a screening on their asylum claim (referred to as a “credible fear interview,” or CFI),” in some cases ignoring the CFI requirement despite migrants explicitly expressing fear of return.
“A migrant at a detention center on the U.S.-Mexico border says a prison guard took him into a room without cameras, told him to undress himself, and then sexually assaulted him… (the) claim is the latest in a string of allegations of abuse and neglect at the CoreCivic-run Otay Mesa Detention Center in California, with one whistleblower alleging migrants were dying as a result,” reports Newsweek.
A Center for American Progress analysis focused on the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) humanitarian parole program finds that “the use of immigration parole authority by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leads to a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of encounters with noncitizens in between official ports of entry. This implies that restricting lawful pathways to the United States would be counterproductive to managing southern border flows.”
“The U.S. resettled 6,451 refugees in July, bringing this fiscal year’s resettlement numbers so far to 74,742, with two months left. The U.S. is on pace to settle close to 90,000 refugees — fewer than the Biden administration’s "ceiling" of 125,000, but the most since 1995.” (via The Forum Daily)
“A study in the journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care “identified 597 patients injured while crossing the US-Mexico border wall representing 38 different countries” in 2021 and 2022. Their mean age was 32 and 75 percent were male. Two-thirds were Mexican, followed by citizens of Peru, India, El Salvador, Cuba, and Jamaica. The study concludes: “The increased volume of trauma associated with the US-Mexico border wall is a humanitarian and health crisis.”” (study; via Daily Border Links)
“CBP’s sweeping DNA program places asylum seekers’ genetic profiles in a massive criminal investigations database without their knowledge,” explains The Border Chronicle.
“In a landmark decision that has dramatically altered administrative law, the U.S. Supreme Court has dismantled the Chevron doctrine, a cornerstone of federal regulatory authority, following the ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This significant shift removes the principle of deference to agency expertise, which will likely lead to a substantial increase in litigation and further burden an already strained judiciary. This could negatively affect U.S. immigration law in particular,” explains Forbes.
“Mother Jones has published a package of articles about “the Border Patrol’s growth, its troubling record on civil liberties, its culture of impunity, and its role in shaping the current political moment.” It includes Erin Siegal McIntyre on impunity for sexual violence within the force, including a 2019 rape at the Border Patrol Academy; Lauren Markham on border technologies and threats to civil liberties; Emily Green on the force’s pro-Trump politicization, led by its union; Isabela Dias on the Trump campaign’s mass-deportation plans; and Ian Gordon and Melissa Lewis on the extent of Border Patrol’s jurisdiction and law enforcement powers, including in areas far from borders.” (via Daily Border Links)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, explaining that “On border and immigration issues, the record of Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is not lengthy but diverges little from positions associated with liberal members of the Democratic Party. Walz condemned Trump-era policies that harmed migrants’ rights and, as governor, championed efforts to integrate refugees and the undocumented population.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
The US Safe Mobility Offices for regional processing has expanded its scope in Guatemala, now accepting applications from Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Nicaraguans who entered Guatemala before July 16th. (Movilidad Segura)
🇺🇸🇵🇦 Panama and United States
“Laura Richardson, head of the U.S. Southern Command, Panama President José Raúl Mulino signed an agreement yesterday that aims to decrease Darién Gap crossings, reports Alejandro Baños of Voz. Through the agreement, the U.S. and Panama will be able "to share air, maritime, and land tracks" for migrants' routes from Venezuela to Panama, Baños notes,” explains National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily.
🇲🇽🇺🇸 United States and Mexico
The US has applauded Mexico for its part in reducing migration at the US border through increasing border enforcement efforts. (El Economista)
🇧🇷 Brazil
A Senate committee held a public hearing to “debate and hear suggestions” for the development of the National Migration and Refugee Policy. (Agência Senado, MigraMundo)
The government has defined the structure and greater details for the long-awaited 2nd National Conference on Migration, Refuge and Statelessness (Comigrar). (MigraMundo)
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
Wall Street Journal highlights Chinese migration through the Americas to the US, noting that since Ecuador introduced visa restrictions (see AMB 6/24/24), “For most migrants, the most tangible alternative is now Bolivia, which still offers visas on arrival to Chinese citizens. To avoid drawing attention from Chinese border agents, most travelers fly indirectly through third countries in Africa or Europe.”
“Edgardo Molina, technical coordinator of the Guatemala-Honduras Binational Migration Project, told Honduras’s Criterio of a “worrying trend”: “the increase of stationary migrants, i.e. families who stay in Mexico waiting to cross to the United States and then return to Honduras out of desperation after six or seven months trying to cross.”” (Criterio; via Daily Border Links)
The Atlantic explores the migration experience through the Darien Jungle: “I went to the Darién Gap in December with the photographer Lynsey Addario because I wanted to see for myself what people were willing to risk to get to the United States. Before making the journey, I spoke with a handful of journalists who had done so before. They had dealt with typhoid, rashes, emergency evacuations, and mysterious illnesses that lingered for months. One was tied up in the forest and robbed at gunpoint. They said that we could take measures to make the journey safer but that ultimately, survival required luck.”
“In the three trips I took to the Darién Gap over the course of five months, I saw new bridges and paved roads appear deeper in the jungle, Wi‑Fi hotspots extend their reach, and landmarks that were previously known only by word of mouth appear on Google Maps. Looking down at a thrashing river, I held on to ropes that made it safer—slightly—to creep across sheer rock faces behind parents with crying babies strapped to their chests.”
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
“A technical expert and former official of Nicaragua’s International Airport Administration Company (EAAI) detailed to Esta Semana and CONFIDENCIAL how the charter flights operation is organized, which uses Nicaragua as a springboard to promote irregular migration to the United States.” (Confidencial)
🇧🇴 Bolivia
“Migration of Bolivians to Spain with false visas had a pyramid structure with recruiters and travel agencies in Bolivia” (El Deber)
Borders and Enforcement
🇵🇦 Panama
“Panama’s migration authority deported, on a commercial flight, 28 Colombian citizens detained in the Darién Gap region. Eleven of them, the agency said, had criminal records in Colombia. The operation took place “in support of the U.S.-Panama memorandum of understanding,” read a statement, referring to the U.S. government’s recent commitment to help fund Panama’s increased deportations of migrants from the Darién.” (via Daily Border Links)
Panama is calling for the US to speed up the transfer of funds to support the deportations, reports Reuters, noting that “Panama plans to repatriate Venezuelan migrants to Colombia, after Venezuela temporarily suspended flights between Panama and Venezuela late last month, after Panama joined other countries in asking for a review of the election results.”
“Panamanian border police arrested 15 people Wednesday connected to a criminal organization that helped smuggle Chinese migrants across the Darien jungle via a "VIP route" with fewer challenges to traverse,” reports AFP.
🇺🇲 United States
“While much of U.S. border security talk focuses on the southwest corner of the country, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill in June aimed at a different target — growing migration along the U.S.-Canada border,” reports Missouri Independent, noting that the US-Canada border is the longest in the world and that CBP recorded almost 7 times more migrant encounters in 2023 than 2021—but the figures still pale in comparison to migration at the US-Mexico border. The House has yet to act on the Senate’s bill.