Americas Migration Brief - August 18, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
Despite earlier concerns from advocates about her campaign rhetoric (see AMB 6/2/25), new Trinidadian prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has asserted that she is not seeking the mass deportation of migrants as part of her still-in-development migration policy. Specific plans and potential efforts to regularize and integrate the mainly Venezuelan migrants in the country remain unclear. (Stabroek News)
“A transparent, fair, and cohesive migrant policy is long overdue. Migrants live unseen, in the shadows, vulnerable to exploitation. Many contribute to the informal economy but remain unable to integrate fully. This breeds instability, stigmatisation, and distrust, creating a society where fear can easily turn into xenophobia,” says Guardian, heralding, “The Prime Minister’s announcement of a new migrant plan, including a reactivated and more robust registration programme, is welcome news for the Venezuelan migrant community… These are promising steps, but the absence of specifics leaves critical questions unanswered.”
🇨🇴 Colombia
IOM reviews efforts to strengthen Colombian hospitals’ capacities to address migrants’ unique health needs. Monitoring and evaluation found that “In hospitals where leadership teams were fully engaged, the changes introduced during the strategy became embedded and long-lasting. By contrast, when senior leadership was absent or passive, the impact of trainings and structural adjustments remained limited.”
🇺🇾 Uruguay
A report by Ovejas Negras collective, IOM, and UNFPA investigates the situation of LGTBIQ+ migrants in Uruguay.
🇵🇦 Panama
US-China tensions surrounding the Panama Canal have impacted the lives of Panama’s Chinese-descendent community, reports Washington Post, noting that the country hosts the largest Chinese community in Central America.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
A Doctors Without Borders report focused on the US, Mexico, and Central America “showcases how recent policy changes have eroded the right to seek asylum and left many migrants and asylum seekers stranded with nowhere safe to go, trapping them in a cycle of physical, emotional, and institutional violence,” per a press release.
🇨🇴 Colombia
Colombia has extended its landmark “Primero la Niñez” program, established in 2019 to prevent the risk of statelessness among children born in Colombia to Venezuelan parents. More than 139,000 children have benefitted in the last six years, reports LaFM.
🇬🇹 Guatemala
In the second high-profile case in just over a year, approximately 100 individuals from southern Mexico were displaced by violence and have sought protection in Guatemala, reports AP. The Guatemalan Migration Institute “will assess the needs of Mexican citizens with a view to granting them humanitarian status and regularizing their immigration status.”
🇲🇽 Mexico
The Mexican government is considering the possibility of granting refuge to Palestinian orphans. (La Jornada)
A UNAM report explores internal forced displacement in Mexico with a focus on Jalisco, Puebla, and Querétaro states.
A WOLA and Women’s Refugee Commission dispatch from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico—across from El Paso, Texas—finds that “Violent kidnappings of locals, including migrants who were unable to cross the border using CBP One, are on the rise.” (see also InSight Crime)
🇺🇸 United States
Some asylum seekers who entered the US between 2019 and 2022 are having their cases dismissed because they did not receive a credible fear interview—they did not receive interviews because of a lack of asylum officers during that time period, notes NPR.
“The State Department released its long-awaited reports on international human rights on Tuesday, eliminating entire sections on discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, women and racial and ethnic minorities in countries with long track records of human rights abuses,” reports HuffPost, highlighting, “The exclusion of LGBTQ+ rights in particular could make it more challenging for LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers around the world to prove their experiences of abuse before immigration courts domestically and abroad.”
At a time when the annual State Department human rights reports are becoming politicized and stripped of key information, The Migration and Asylum Lab at Lewis & Clark College is developing new country condition reports that can help substantiate asylum cases. Reports on Ecuador and Nicaragua are now available. (via Austin Kocher)
“A federal judge rejected on Friday the Trump administration’s second attempt to end a decades-old legal agreement that mandates basic standards of care and oversight for children in U.S. immigration custody,” known as the Flores Settlement Agreement. (New York Times)
“A lawsuit filed in the U.S. on behalf of two mothers and their four minor children, including one with cancer, claims the two families were unlawfully denied due process and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Honduras in April 2025,” notes Jordana Timerman at Latin America Daily Briefing, citing The Guardian.
The Trump administration is considering a refugee admissions cap of around 40,000 for the 2026 fiscal year, with 75% reserved for white South Africans who they claim suffer persecution. (Reuters)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “DHS made striking, and hard-to-verify, claims about the number of undocumented migrants choosing to leave the United States voluntarily, and the number of people signing up for employment with ICE. Some of the agency’s online recruitment messaging evoked 20th-century White supremacist themes. Several controversies, including growing public health concerns, surrounded the Florida state migrant detention facility in the Everglades.”
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canadian cities are unprepared for climate-driven migration — here’s what they can do” (The Conversation)
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
The presidents of Mexico and Guatemala met bilaterally to discuss migration, among other issues, and additionally met in a trilateral meeting with the prime minister of Belize. (Tiempo)
Mexico and Guatemala “agreed to develop a binational protocol for the repatriation of migrants, as well as the implementation of a bilateral Temporary Work Program that promotes safe and dignified labor migration,” per a press release.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
The US has signed a “Safe Third Country Agreement” with Paraguay to send asylum seekers there to process their claims for protection. It is the first such agreement with a South American country. (Newsweek)
“Paraguay will have the "authority to accept or reject" asylum requests, "according to the evaluation made at the request" of the United States.” (EFE)
🇻🇪🇪🇨 Ecuador and Venezuela
Ecuador is moving to end a 15-year old migration agreement with Venezuela that “facilitates obtaining temporary and permanent visas for Venezuelan migrants and allows for their regularization with a certificate of migratory permanence, which avoids criminalizing irregular migration,” per Primicias.
It is worth noting that a recent regularization program for Venezuelans in Ecuador was terminated due to international aid freezes by the US. (see AMB 3/17/25)
In a separate article, Primicias adds that in practice the agreement has not been in force since the 2019 introduction of visa restrictions on Venezuelans seeking to enter Ecuador.
Labor Migration
🇬🇹 Guatemala
Guatemalan emigration through the country’s Temporary Work Program increased 14% in the last 19 months, reports Prensa Latina, highlighting a new pilot program with Spain.
🇭🇳 Honduras
“IOM launches initiative in Honduras to improve labor migration in the maritime sector” (Proceso)
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canada’s new rural pathway to permanent residence has been met with incredible demand by employers and foreign nationals in participating regions,” reports CIC News, noting that some regions are now introducing new limitations on access.
“The Canadian federal government is considering creating new Express Entry categories for senior managers, scientists and researchers, and military personnel,” reports CIC News.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
Amid Trump’s hardline policies in the US, Cubans are seeking new destinations across the Americas, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Uruguay, French Guiana, Mexico, and Nicaragua, explains CEDA’s US-Cuba News Brief. (see also AMB 8/11/25 and 8/4/25)
Additionally: “On August 9, Bolivian authorities detained 17 Cuban nationals, including two minors and one elderly individual, at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz while en route to Brazil and Nicaragua. All reportedly held valid tourist, work, or transit visas issued by the Bolivian consulate in Cuba. The migrants are currently being held in an airport lounge without money or access to food. Detainees report severe hunger, stomach pain, and emotional distress.”
Milenio highlights Mexican migration south: “if we focus on Latin America, the majority of Mexicans emigrate to Argentina (14,000), Bolivia (10,000), and Costa Rica (8,000).”
An IOM report examines document falsification and irregular migration in Central America, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.
🇲🇽 Mexico
The 300 person migrant caravan seeking to move from southern to central Mexico has broken up after accepting an offer from Mexico’s migration agency to receive documentation—one of their initial goals. (El Universal 1, 2; see last week’s AMB)
Pro-migrant activist and organizer Luis Garcia Villagran, who had been arrested during the organization of that caravan, has been released from prison as a judge “determined there were not enough elements to take (him) to trial.” (AFP)
Borders and Enforcement
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic has deported 291,007 irregular Haitian migrants since the introduction of a mass deportation campaign in October 2024 aiming to deport 10,000 migrants per week. “The repatriations averaged 28,253 per month through mid-July 2025,” reports Dominican Today.
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
Turks and Caicos is beginning a six-month freeze on visa issuance and first-time work permits for Haitians, reports Gleaner, noting concerns surrounding security and vetting processes. The premier of the British Overseas Territory added, “It will also allow us to align with the government’s broader intention to introduce a quota-based work permit system in the near future.”
🇺🇸 United States
“Some law enforcement officers are continuing to charge people under a Florida law that bans people living in the U.S. illegally from entering the state, even though a federal judge has halted enforcement of the law while it’s challenged in court,” reports AP.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
“Twenty Venezuelan migrants detained aboard a boat in Trinidad and Tobago” (EFE)