Americas Migration Brief - January 5, 2026

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Consulte aqui uma versão em português do boletim traduzida por inteligência artificial.

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Table of Contents

1. Venezuela

2. Integration and Development

3. Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights

4. Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation

5. Labor Migration

6. Migrants in Transit

7. Borders and Enforcement

8. More on Migration

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Venezuela

🌎 Regional

• Special section created for today’s AMB as this is by far the most important news story of recent weeks (if not months): the US attacked Venezuela early Saturday morning, apprehending the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro. Still much of the regime’s leadership remains in the country—not to mention paramilitary forces and Colombian-origin groups such as the FARC and ELN—and the plan moving forward is unclear. US president Donald Trump has claimed that the US will “run” the country temporarily until a transition and that US oil companies will invest “billions” into Venezuela, per CBS.

  • In a Saturday morning publication, James Bosworth at the Latin America Risk Report underscored the uncertainty of the moment and that there is still much to learn and more to come. As of mid-day Sunday, some are beginning to speculate that Maduro’s extraction may have been negotiated, with his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, now serving as the interim president. In public comments, Trump has been dismissive of the opposition’s leadership and portrayed Rodríguez as under US control.

  • In my annual end of the year special edition of the AMB last month, I highlighted the risk of chaos and potential further displacement—but that a swift and smooth transition could promote return. It is still incredibly early. But my gut (and everything we’ve seen so far, not to mention historically) says we’re at greater risk of the former. I hope I am wrong. If the rumors of a negotiated extraction prove true, this would suggest greater likelihood of stability, although it still leaves open questions surrounding a transition to democracy, economic outlook, and the many illicit industries intertwined with the armed forces throughout the country. In either scenario, this was a flagrantly illegal move by the Trump administration according to international law, and creates questions about what future actions might be taken across the hemisphere—heightening the risk of forced displacement regionally.

  • On Sunday, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem “defended the administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, despite concerns about chaos unfolding in their home country following Nicolás Maduro’s capture,” reports Axios.

  • A new R4V infographic visualizes the distribution of the 6.91 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees living in Latin America and the Caribbean.

  • Colombia has announced special emergency measures at the Colombia-Venezuela border, mobilizing security personnel and planning for humanitarian response to potential displacement and unrest. Many are concerned that Colombia may face the brunt of any future displacement related to conflict, with the country already hosting nearly 3 million Venezuelans. (Infobae, Al Jazeera, EFE)

  • Despite a brief closure on Saturday, the Brazil-Venezuela border remains open and reportedly quiet, as of mid-day Sunday. The governor of the Brazilian border state of Roraima has called for the federal government to close the border; just last month, the federal government had agreed to send the state R$115 million to support the reception of Venezuelan migrant arrivals. (Metrópoles, CNN)

  • Multiple countries, including Argentina, Ecuador, and Peru, have asserted that they will not allow any Venezuelans affiliated with the Maduro regime to enter their territory and attempt to seek asylum. (T13, El Universo, EFE)

Integration and Development

🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago

• Trinidad and Tobago has announced a new regularization program to register irregular migrants in the country of any nationality and grant stay and work permits until September 30, 2026. A previous registration program in 2019 for irregular Venezuelan migrants similarly was on a short-term basis with repeated renewals for those that registered during the initial process. In this new process, registration will reportedly begin sometime this month, while details on specific requirements remain forthcoming. The number of beneficiaries may be in the tens of thousands. (media release, Daily Express, Newsday)

  • Venezuelan migrants, in particular, have been relieved by the announcement, reports Newsday, explaining that recent weeks had seen seemingly arbitrary detentions of irregular migrants and fears of deportations. Some migrants have reportedly been able to pay their way out of detention. (see also AMB 11/3/25)

🇧🇶 Bonaire

• “On Bonaire, there are between 700 and 1,000 immigrants without a residence permit who are at increased risk of being exploited by their employers… These are often Venezuelans desperately needed in construction, hospitality, and hotel sectors. They work long hours for low hourly wages, are forced to pay excessively for meager housing, have little access to medical care, and live in constant fear of deportation,” reports Dossier Koninkrijksrelaties, highlighting a recent letter from Bonaire’s national ombudsman to the Dutch Caribbean island’s minister of asylum and migration.

🇵🇦 Panama

• “After 10 months, some of the Asian and African nationals looking for refuge in the United States who were deported to Panama in February still live there. The Catholic Church is among the institutions that have been helping them survive their legal limbo,” reports Crux, explaining, “The Church has been directly accompanying at least 15 of them over the past months, and is paying the rent of the apartments where part of them are living. Given that many managed to find work – especially as domestic employees – the idea is that they will soon be able to pay the rent themselves.”

Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights

🇲🇽 Mexico

• A paper at Social Forces investigating organized crime and migration at the US-Mexico border finds, “first, that contested criminal control, where multiple groups compete for dominance, is associated with significantly higher homicide rates. Second, migrants crossing through these contested territories face higher cumulative exposure to hazards, even after accounting for demographic vulnerabilities and border enforcement. Third, risk is unevenly distributed across the border: migrants crossing through eastern sectors, marked by fragmented and volatile criminal governance, experience higher dangers than those crossing western corridors where criminal authority, while not monolithic, tends to be more consolidated or negotiated.”

🇺🇸 United States

• “A federal judge in California on Wednesday voided the Trump administration’s move to terminate the Temporary Protected Status of roughly 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua,” reports CBS.

  • Another federal judge also blocked the ending of TPS for South Sudan, per New York Times.

• “The U.S. could deny migrants access to asylum on the grounds they present a public health risk under a newly finalized regulation drafted during the COVID-19 pandemic in President Donald Trump’s first term… The restrictions would not have any immediate effect but would provide the Trump administration with another tool to turn away would-be asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border,” reports Reuters.

Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation

🌎 Regional

• So far, Belize has registered 54 CARICOM nationals for indefinite stay under the new full free movement regime adopted by that country, Barbados, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The majority of the 54 arrivals are reportedly from Barbados. (LoveFM)

🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional

• Antigua and Barbuda has signed a “safe third country” agreement with the US to receive deportees from other countries. (WIC News)

• “The US State Department formally instructed its embassies across Latin America to monitor and report on government policies that encourage or facilitate mass migration,” reports MercoPress.

Labor Migration

🌎 Regional

• Costa Rica is looking to expand labor migration programs both for emigration and immigration, reports Diario Extra, noting, “the country maintains agreements with several nations and is analyzing new negotiations with Panama, El Salvador and Guatemala, among others.”

• Colombia and Honduras were the second and third greatest countries of origin, respectively, for temporary labor migration pathways to Spain in 2025, reports El País. The vast majority of these hires were in the agricultural sector.

Migrants in Transit

🇧🇷🇦🇷 Argentina and Brazil

• Rural agricultural workers from Argentina’s Misiones province are no longer just traveling to Brazil to work temporarily, but are instead increasingly migrating on a permanent basis due to inflation and economic concerns in their home country, reports Primera Edición.

Borders and Enforcement

🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos

• “78 Migrants Intercepted in Turks and Caicos Waters” (St. Vincent Times)

🇺🇸 United States

• “ICE can access some Medicaid information for deportation efforts after court ruling” (CBS)

More on Migration

🌎 Regional

• “Remittance Transfers in 2025: The Year in Review” (Inter-American Dialogue)

🇰🇳 St. Kitts and Nevis

• “St Kitts and Nevis will fundamentally restructure its citizenship-by-investment program (CIP) in 2026, introducing mandatory “genuine-link requirements” that phase out passive financial contributions in favour of residency and active participation pathways,” reports IMI.