Americas Migration Brief - December 29, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
Something I missed from recent months: the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao are both making efforts to regularize migrants.
“Announcement of New Policy for Undocumented Migrants: On September 22, 2025, the Minister of Justice, Integrity, and Public Transport, Mr. Arthur Dowers, announced that foreign nationals without a residence permit who entered Aruba through the Queen Beatrix International Airport before July 1, 2025, will be eligible, as of October 1, 2025, to apply for a work permit without already having an employer.” (press release)
Although initially slated to end on December 31, earlier this month, Aruba News reported that the program “is entering its final two months.” The outlet added that the Aruban government plans to strengthen enforcement efforts in 2026. (see also Aruba News)
“The Parliament of Curaçao has adopted a motion urging the government to introduce a program for the legalization and registration of undocumented migrants,” reported Curaçao Chronicle earlier this month.
Curaçao also conducted a regularization program for migrants back in 2021. You can check out what I wrote for MPI at the time here.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🇲🇽 Mexico
Non-Mexican migrants deported by the US to Mexico have been bused south to Villahermosa, Tabasco by the Mexican government, says Refugees International, highlighting cases on the ground in a Villahermosa shelter: “Some people in the shelter were seeking asylum in Mexico, especially since access to asylum in the United States has been cut off… Despite the growing need for protection in Mexico, seeking asylum there has become increasingly difficult. Cuts to U.S. foreign assistance have reduced the capacity of COMAR, the Mexican refugee agency, and led to a backlog of over 70,000 asylum claims. Few can successfully apply without legal representation, which is difficult to obtain as many legal service organizations have lost funding.”
In another southern Mexican state, Chiapas, “The Catholic Church and organizations on Mexico’s southern border have detected large settlements of migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala and El Salvador in the city of Tapachula,” reports EFE, noting that many are looking to seek asylum in Mexico.
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration has mounted a nationwide campaign to void the asylum claims of thousands of immigrants with active cases in immigration court by arguing that they can be deported to countries that are not their own,” reports CBS. (see also last week’s AMB)
“Previously undisclosed internal government data obtained by CBS News indicates that, as of early December, ICE attorneys had filed more than 8,000 motions in immigration court to toss out asylum claims by citing deportation agreements with third countries.”
“Using Gun Violence Archive data and news clips, The Trace is tracking incidents in which federal agents shoot someone or hold them at gunpoint during an immigration enforcement action under Trump’s crackdown. We’ve identified 22 such incidents, including nine shootings, as of December 12. They include the shootings of three people observing or documenting ICE raids; the shootings of three people driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action; and the September 30 raid on a Chicago apartment building, during which half-asleep tenants and their children were held at gunpoint. At least one person has been killed and four others have been injured.” (The Trace)
“A group of Burmese [from Myanmar] TPS holders announced the filing of a federal class action lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the unlawful termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS),” says IRAP.
“The end of TPS threatens thousands of Haitians in Miami: ‘Returning to Haiti is a death sentence,’” reports El País, explaining, “More than 300,000 Haitians will lose their legal status in the US in February. Most reside in South Florida and have been contributing to the local economy for years.”
“A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration must give legal due process to Venezuelan migrants flown to a notorious prison in El Salvador, either by providing court hearings or returning them to the US,” reports AP.
“After the tragic shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, the Trump administration’s immediate response was not to focus on the crime itself—but rather impose some of the most extreme restrictions on the legal immigration system in years… Trump’s ability to quickly weaponize USCIS results from a months-long campaign to transform the agency from the inside out,” write a group of former USCIS officials at Newsweek.
“After inheriting an agency already struggling under backlogs and antiquated laws, the administration sidelined, silenced and pushed out seasoned, apolitical professionals to turn USCIS into an ideological tool… Today, the remaining USCIS workforce operates under a culture of fear, steeped in ideology. Workers face hours-long mandatory polygraph tests. Others have been forcibly reassigned to new agencies and jobs, in different states—far from their homes and outside their expertise—without allegations of misconduct or stated cause. This environment chills honest analysis and accelerates the administration’s larger agenda.”
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada’s Bill C-12 (see AMB 11/24/25) “was fast-tracked and passed through a third reading in the House of Commons on 11 December before members of parliament rose for the holidays. If it receives Senate approval in February, the bill will become law,” reports The Guardian. The bill has been criticized by some advocates for restricting access to asylum and facilitating expulsions.
UNHCR provided comments to the Canadian government, welcoming certain provisions but recommending some changes, particularly regarding proposed conditions for ineligibility for asylum. These include “that a mandatory hearing be added to ensure an individual’s right to be heard… (and) that those deemed ineligible under these new provisions have the right to a full appeal.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎🇨🇱 Chile and Regional
Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast continues to speak with leaders across South America in an effort to organize a “humanitarian corridor” to facilitate the return (or potentially expulsion) of irregular migrants (see last week’s AMB). Kast met with the presidents of Ecuador and Peru last week, and has called for Colombia and Brazil to also consider the initiative. (EFE, El Mostrador, EFE)
Labor Migration
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Ecuador and the UAE are working on identifying job opportunities for temporary labor migration to be published to a government webpage, reports El Universo, detailing Ecuador’s several circular migration agreements with global partners. (see last week’s AMB, AMB 12/15/25)
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
InSight Crime examines how migrant smuggling converted from “mom-and-pop” enterprises to “criminal powerhouses” over the last decade. “Despite the sharp drop in the number of migrants traveling to the United States, criminal groups continue to look for ways to exploit what remains of this criminal market to offset lost profits… Some experts estimate costs to cross the border may have doubled or even tripled”—this includes “VIP Packages” with more sophisticated efforts to evade detection at the US-Mexico border.
Borders and Enforcement
🇨🇦 Canada
“Canada spent $78 million deporting 18,000 people in 2024 — the most since Stephen Harper: Most of those deported were asylum seekers whose refugee claims were rejected, according to data obtained by the Star from the CBSA.” (Toronto Star)
🇺🇸 United States
As ICE has targeted immigrants for arrest in court rooms across the country, NPR analysis finds that “More immigrants are not showing up for their mandatory immigration court hearings, allowing the government to order their immediate deportation.”
“The federal government will be tripling the $1,000 “exit bonus” for people without authorization who choose to “self-deport” this month, reports Jack Morphet of The Wall Street Journal.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
More on Migration
🌎 Regional
Some news on citizenship by investment (CBI) in the Caribbean:
“St Vincent PM Confirms 2026 CBI Launch Amid Heightened US and EU Pressure: The newly-elected PM says the program launch remains viable despite recent US visa suspensions for Antigua and Dominica, and the EU’s most serious CBI warning yet.” (IMI; see last week’s AMB)
“Antigua Secures Partial Relief From US Visa Restrictions, May Tighten CBI Requirements: Washington agrees to honor existing visas, while Antigua considers a 90-day CBI residency requirement.” (IMI)
“The European Commission is signalling a harder line toward Caribbean citizenship-by-investment programs (CIPs), saying the existence of such programs “in itself” may now constitute grounds for suspending visa-free travel to the Schengen area,” reports IMI.
The detail about COMAR's backlog of 70,000 asylum claims in Mexico while US assistance cuts reduce capacity really shows how enforcement-first policies just shuffle people around without addressing root causes. What's interesting is the parallel with ICE targeting courtroom arrests leading to increased no-shows, which then gets used to justify more aggressive deportation orders. When I was researching immigration patterns last year, this same feedback loop kept appearing: harsher enforcement creates the exact "non-compliance" data that agencies use to argue for even harsher measurs. The Villahermosa busing situation exemplifies this, where deportees are strategically moved to locations with minimal legal infrastructure.