Americas Migration Brief - July 14, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
With around 4.5 million Venezuelans living between Colombia and Peru, new surveys reveal that “Nearly two-thirds of Venezuelans interviewed in each country report that their household income is insufficient to meet basic needs. Surveyed migrants also report limited access to public health services: 57% in Colombia and 61% in Peru say it is difficult to access care,” explains Americas Quarterly. Despite challenges, “large segments of Venezuelan migrants across Colombia and Peru express a willingness to stay.”
On a similar note, an IOM and Equilibrium report explores the integration of migrants across several cities in Colombia, Chile, and Brazil and the potential concern of secondary migration following challenges.
R4V published a new map of where Venezuelans are living across Latin America and the Caribbean.
14 Latin American and Caribbean countries are moving to “create a regional mechanism for the mutual recognition of certification of labor competencies. This tool seeks to facilitate safe, orderly, regular, and rights-based labor migration, as well as the socioeconomic integration of refugees and migrants in the region,” notes ILO.
“Mobility, migration, and the right to higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean: mapping pathways to higher education for Venezuelan refugees and migrants” (UNESCO press release, report)
🇧🇷 Brazil
Operation Welcome has now interiorized over 150,000 Venezuelan migrants, bringing them from Brazil’s northern border to opportunities and connections elsewhere in the country. (IOM; see AMB special edition on the initiative)
A new UN report examines the socioeconomic integration of interiorized Venezuelans, finding improvements in various dimensions, but that women face greater challenges than men. (press release)
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Following the recent granting of a temporary humanitarian stay permit, Costa Rica has now granted work permits and freedom of movement to a group of 25 migrants who were previously stuck in the Catem shelter after being deported by the United States earlier this year. The move comes after a ruling by Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. (AP, AFP)
Costa Rican officials say that this group “avoids returning to their countries or seeking asylum in Costa Rica because they express hope of returning to the United States,” despite being told “that this is not a viable option.” (AR)
🇨🇴 Colombia
The “Special Visitor Visa” established by the Petro administration to regularize Venezuelan migrants was opened in December 2024, but “only 11.6% of applications to the Foreign Ministry requesting this document have been approved,” reports Semana.
The other principal regularization method introduced by the administration last year—PEP-Tutor, for parents of regularized children—“is not yet operational, and foreigners who arrived in the country with the responsibility of caring for minors have also been unable to regularize their status.”
Colombian Constitutional Court ruling: “The State must protect the rights of pregnant migrant women, especially if they lack sufficient resources and suffer from risky health conditions” (press release)
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Mexican legislators have been working to streamline the registration processes for students from other countries to attend local schools. This initiative comes in response to the arrival of thousands of migrant children and adolescents to Mexico, as well as a new wave of minors recently deported from the United States,” reports KPRC 2.
🇬🇹 Guatemala
Reintegrating and finding jobs for the more than 19,000 Guatemalans returned to the country since the start of the year is a challenge, reports Prensa Libre, reviewing efforts.
🇺🇸 United States
Amid the Trump administration’s hardline approach, “a new poll shows that the American public is once again warming to immigration,” says New York Times.
🇨🇦 Canada
MPI examines recent changes in Canada’s immigration policy and public opinion, noting, “while immigration remains essential for addressing labor shortages and demographic needs, concerns over housing affordability and absorptive capacity must be addressed substantively to ensure continued public support.”
“Canada to roll out increased settlement supports for Francophone immigrants” (CIC News)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a landmark Advisory Opinion on states’ specific obligations related to climate change, including regarding climate change-related displacement and migration. Amnesty International notes that the Court “underscored the obligation of states to protect cross-border climate-displaced persons, including through the issuance of humanitarian visas and protection from deportation.”
Danger at sea: 4 migrants died and around 20 went missing due to capsizing while attempting to migrate from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico; in a separate incident, 20 Cuban migrants were found abandoned on an uninhabited cay in the Bahamas. (AFP, CiberCuba)
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
A CEDA commentary examines key developments related to access to protection in Costa Rica since a June 2024 brief that I helped co-author (see AMB 6/17/24). CEDA writes, “While many are in need of protection, more than 220,000 asylum applications were still pending as of May 2025.” Although some advances have been made, challenges remain.
🇧🇷 Brazil
More than 5,000 Brazilians were internally displaced by heavy rains in Rio Grande do Sul state. (IOM)
Mongabay highlights the scourge of sex trafficking at the Brazil-Guyana border, where Venezuelan migrant women are the principal victims.
🇭🇹 Haiti
Human Rights Watch warns of record displacement and security struggles in Haiti. (see also AMB 6/16/25)
“States should not return anyone to Haiti – UN expert Bill O’Neill” (UN Human Rights Council)
🇨🇴 Colombia
“Human rights organizations warn of the serious crisis in the refugee system in Colombia… Currently, more than 29,500 asylum applications are pending resolution, many of them without progress for years.” (Amnesty Internal; see also El País)
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
“The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights... (expresses) concern over the recent passing of reforms to Nicaragua's Political Constitution, as these would seriously undermine the protection of the right to nationality and increase the risk of statelessness in the country.” (press release)
🇲🇽 Mexico
“UNHCR estimates that Mexico receives about 250 new asylum and refugee applications every day”—meanwhile, reduced funding for UNHCR means reduced support for Mexico’s refugee agency. (EFE)
🇨🇼 Curaçao
“Curaçao’s Minister of Justice, Shalten Hato, has approved a new policy aimed at strengthening protections for vulnerable foreign nationals… The revised policy introduces significant safeguards, including a requirement for a thorough individual risk assessment before any deportation can occur,” reports Curaçao Chronicle. (see also AMB 5/19/25)
🇬🇾 Guyana
UNHCR has closed its Guyana office “due to severe and ongoing funding constraints.” (press release; see AMB 6/23/25 for similar closure of the Trinidad and Tobago office)
🇪🇨 Ecuador
An NRC report highlights how “as a consequence of school violence, students and teachers in Ecuador are being forced to flee to save their lives.” (press release)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
Guatemala has offered to grant asylum to Nicaraguans deported by the US that do not wish to return to their home country. Both Guatemala and Nicaragua are a part of the CA-4 free movement agreement. (Prensa Libre)
🇺🇸 United States
“Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and detained in one of that country’s most notorious prisons, was physically and psychologically tortured during the three months he spent in Salvadorian custody,” reports The Guardian.
The Trump administration passed its “Big Beautiful Bill.” WOLA breaks down the immigration-related ramifications: “It is difficult to convey the scale of the harm that will result… The bill dedicates over $170 billion to immigration enforcement and border hardening between now and the end of fiscal year 2029.” (see also a National Immigration Forum explainer)
The bill includes a 1% tax on remittances. Center for Global Development estimates serious effects on countries across the globe—but particularly in the Americas—noting that for many they “far outweigh the impact of aid cuts.” (see also an Inter-American Dialogue Q&A on the subject)
The Trump administration is looking to end TPS for Hondurans and Nicaraguans, reports CBS, noting, “The administration has now moved to dismantle TPS programs for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Venezuela.”
“A 68-year-old Mexican-born man has become the first Ice detainee in at least a decade to die while being transported from a local jail to a federal detention center,” reports The Guardian. In another incident, “75-year-old Cuban national Isidro Pérez passed away while in ICE custody at the Krome Detention Center in Florida,” notes CEDA.
“The Trump administration is ramping up its resettlement of White South Africans while simultaneously moving to bar entry for refugees from countries that fall under the president’s travel ban,” reports Washington Post.
“A federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday placed a new nationwide block on President Donald Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship, a decision that came two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court opened a path for the administration to begin enforcing the order,” reports Washington Post.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is “aggressively prioritizing” efforts to denaturalize US citizens not born in the country who “commit certain crimes,” reports NPR.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “A judge struck down the Trump administration’s suspension of asylum access at the border, but stayed his order pending appeal.”
🇨🇦 Canada
“A growing number of migrants in the US are heading north to seek asylum, even as Canada adopts increasingly restrictive immigration policies of its own… Haitians and Venezuelans are currently the most common nationalities applying for asylum in Canada by land,” reports Bloomberg.
“‘Terrified’ Haitians in the U.S. are desperate for asylum in Montreal” (The Gazette)
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines have agreed to begin implementing full free movement as part of the Caricom CSME starting October 1st, reports Gleaner. The planned expansion from limited to full free movement was initially announced by the bloc in 2023 (see an AMB special edition on the subject here).
Belize has expressed concern, though, that some Caricom nationals may use the country as an entry point en route north, potentially creating tensions with the US. (BBN, GBM)
Jamaica, for its part, is working internally on progressing towards full free movement. In the meantime, the country has added additional occupations to the Skills Certificates regime to access free movement. (Gleaner)
“It is noteworthy that 11 of (Caricom’s) 15 members, including the more well-off ones such as Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Bahamas, cannot make that commitment, after all this time,” says an editorial at Observer arguing that the Trump administration’s hardline action in the US “shows it’s time for Caricom.”
Trinidad and Tobago is considering holding public consultations on the subject. (Newsday)
Guyana has been delayed due to concerns surrounding the country’s oil and gas sectors. (Stabroek News)
“St Lucian Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre has criticised the process as frustratingly slow,” reports St. Lucia Times.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to restart swift removals of migrants to countries other than their homelands, lifting for now a court order requiring they get a chance to challenge the deportations,” reports AP.
Following the ruling, new internal guidance at ICE “could help accelerate third-country deportations” and “appear to allow deportations in as few as six hours,” per New York Times.
New York Times investigates some of the “Global Deal-Making” behind Trump’s deportations, including to third countries; Foreign Affairs looks at the history of offshoring migrants and deportees.
“The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries,” reports NPR. (see also New York Times)
Before meeting with the countries’ leaders, the Trump administration pushed Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Gabon, and Guinea-Bissau to accept deportees of other nationalities from the US, reports Wall Street Journal.
Relatedly: “Nigeria says US pressuring Africa to accept Venezuelan deportees” (Reuters)
“Guatemala and Honduras have signed agreements with the United States to potentially offer refuge to people from other countries who otherwise would seek asylum in the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday at the conclusion of her Central America trip,” reports AP. But both countries have specifically “denied having signed safe third-country agreements when asked following Noem’s comments.”
Soon after, though, “the director of the National Migration Institute (INM) of Honduras, Wilson Paz, stated that Honduras will receive up to 10 foreigners per month for two years,” specifically from Spanish-speaking Latin American nationalities, reports Criterio.
The US and Guatemala did sign a memorandum of understanding “to strengthen security at Guatemala's airports and ports,” including allowing US border officials to operate at La Aurora airport. (Prensa Libre)
Noem has praised the US-Panama deal signed under Biden to pay for deportation flights conducted by Panama, asserting that the Trump administration “was ready to replicate it with other countries,” per AFP.
ReVista explores US-Mexico cooperation on migration, outlining potential points of discussion between Trump and Sheinbaum.
The US is narrowing eligibility for the TN Visa for Mexican and Canadian nationals under the USMCA free trade agreement, reports Migrant Insider.
“At least 4,834 Nicaraguan refugees were resettled in the United States, Spain, and Canada through the Safe Mobility program between 2023 and mid-2025,” reports Confidencial. The regional coordination-based program is no longer active since the Trump administration.
🇻🇪🇵🇦 Panama and Venezuela
“The governments of Panama and Venezuela agree to reactivate consular relations suspended almost a year ago” (CNN)
🇲🇽🇧🇷 Brazil and Mexico
The foreign ministers of Mexico and Brazil met to discuss migration, among other issues. (EFE)
🇮🇹🇪🇨 Ecuador and Italy
The leaders of Ecuador and Italy met to discuss migration, among other topics. (El Comercio)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration has dismissed at least eight newly appointed immigration judges across the country… a move Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates say appears to be part of a politically motivated purge aimed at shaping the bench to align with the White House’s hardline immigration agenda,” reports Migrant Insider.
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested he approves of an idea to use National Guard officers as immigration judges in Florida—experts question the legality of the idea, reports Mother Jones.
Labor Migration
🇸🇻 El Salvador
France has joined El Salvador’s Labor Migration Program to become a new destination for Salvadoran migrants. (La Página)
🇨🇼 Curaçao
Curaçao is easing the moratorium on certain job categories to “allow employers to hire foreign labor for a broader range of professions, a move largely driven by the rapid growth in the tourism sector.” The Curaçao Restaurant Association is calling for a “comprehensive migration policy” and reforms to speed up permit processing. (Curaçao Chronicle)
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
A National Migration Institute (INM RD) report explores the demand for workers in the Dominican construction sector and the sociodemographic profile and migratory status of foreign-born workers operating in the sector.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
EFE investigates a “return to normality” in the Indigenous Panamanian village of Bajo Chiquito, recently a key point of transit for migrants passing through the Darien Gap. Only 10 migrants were officially reported passing through the jungle this June, a fall from 31,049 in June 2024.
A little further north, Doctors Without Borders is shutting down its migrant care project in Danlí.
An FIU report “examines the increasing flows of irregular migrants from China, Russia, and Iran through Latin America to the United States.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇺🇸 United States
“After a concerted FOIA campaign, TRAC has pried loose the contractual capacity of each [immigration detention] facility along with the exact number of individuals detained on April 13, 2025. ICE has also released the maximum number of individuals it had held on a single day at each facility during FY 2025,” allowing for some analysis of ICE capacity and overcrowding. (TRAC)
The US is planning two new military zones in Texas and Arizona as “the latest step to militarize the boundary to stem an already dwindling number of migrant crossings,” per New York Times.