Americas Migration Brief - July 29, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
Venezuelan migrants became more likely to be in an irregular status as a result of the implementation of visa restrictions on Venezuela across South America, according to a paper at World Development, explaining, “The introduction of visa restrictions and consequent situation of migratory irregularity shifted migrants’ priorities, mainly away from seeking employment, likely delaying their integration.”
🇨🇱 Chile
Chile’s House of Representatives' Committee on Internal Affairs approved text in a bill to alter the country’s migration law which asserts that the right to education “cannot be denied due to immigration status, but may be prioritized to ensure the right of nationals.” (La Tercera)
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
Among 60 migrant parents who applied for their children to be able to attend school in Trinidad and Tobago this fall, “approximately 20 of them were unsuccessful,” reports Guardian.
🇧🇷 Brazil
G1 highlights the voices of Venezuelans that have found a new home in Brazil, noting that the country now hosts the 3rd largest Venezuelan diaspora population.
🇨🇴 Colombia
Colombia’s Atlántico department is working with UNHCR and other actors to “take advantage of the labor potential of the migrant population.” (press release)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Congressional Budget Office, an independent investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, published a report finding that recent years’ sharp increase in migration will reduce the U.S. budget deficit by $900 billion over the 2024-2034 period. The projection is based on estimates of the number of people paying taxes and receiving benefits ($1.2 trillion in tax revenue and $0.3 trillion in demand for benefits), and of the rising migration’s effect on interest rates and U.S. workers’ productivity.” (CBO; via Daily Border Links)
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
An MPI report “sets out a vision for the ongoing evolution of the international protection system, with a focus on the future of asylum.” While the report is global in scale, it highlights regional responses to Venezuelan and other migration in the Americas.
“Ten migrants were found dead after drowning in an attempt to cross the perilous Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia, Panamanian border police said on Wednesday,” reports Reuters, while El Pitazo reports on a separate case in which a mother and daughter drowned while making the trek.
An IOM report explores protection issues during transit migration through Central America and Mexico.
On a similar note: “Guatemala has become a route full of insecurity and uncertainty for migrants who travel through the country. Migrants increasingly face different forms of violence and abuse, such as extortion or threats,” notes Doctors Without Borders.
🇬🇹🇲🇽 Mexico and Guatemala
Nearly 600 Mexicans in the southern state of Chiapas were displaced by violence between organized crime groups, fleeing to Guatemala. The Guatemalan government is moving to provide attention and temporary shelter to the displaced. (El Universal, El País)
NACLA highlights violence-induced displacement in southern Mexico, investigating the recent internal displacement of an estimated more than 12,000 individuals from the town of Tila.
🇦🇷 Argentina
Argentina ended its decade-old program to provide special humanitarian visas to those impacted by Syria’s civil war. 951 applications had been made, with 590 accepted and 461 beneficiaries ultimately entering Argentina through the program. (SAIJ)
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Confidencial highlights long wait times to apply for refugee status in Costa Rica, noting that “From May 2018 to May 2024, some 232,600 Nicaraguans applied for asylum, but only 6% have received a response.”
🇳🇮 Nicaragua
“Ortega Regime Prevents Children of Exiles from Leaving Nicaragua: ‘A significant number’ of children and teenagers are denied their identity documents and passports, according to the Nicaragua Lucha Coalition” (EFE)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“The increasing frequency of extreme weather events has displaced and made more and more people vulnerable in Brazil,” explain RESAMA researchers at Escola de Ativismo, highlighting recent legislative initiatives to address the issue and exploring the challenges faced across the country.
“The Federal Police (PF) Superintendence in São Paulo has decided to establish the possibility of handling requests for asylum based on prior appointment. The current format, of receiving requests at the unit without this procedure and on a first-come, first-served basis, remains valid,” too, reports MigraMundo, explaining that long waiting lines led to the change in policy.
UNHCR highlights the safety granted and opportunities created for the “more than 4,000 Syrian refugees welcomed by Brazil since it became the first country in the Americas to offer special humanitarian visas to those fleeing Syria in 2013.”
🇺🇸 United States
The Biden administration has granted Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for certain Lebanese nationals—granting protection from deportation—as well as moving to grant work permits. (memorandum)
An estimated 11,500 Lebanese nationals will benefit, according to a press release from Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI).
“While migrants can receive mail at (New York City) shelters, many have struggled to track down important correspondence, according to legal service providers and advocates—especially after the city restricted the length of stays for both adults and families with children,” reports City Limits, explaining how it has impacts asylum applications and other cases.
A coalition of organizations released a report documenting “rampant due process and human rights violations and inconsistent and confusing application” of the Biden administration’s 6-week old rule to greatly restrict access to asylum at the border.
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, explaining, “Shortly after Joe Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the presidential campaign, opponents took aim at the border and migration record of his virtually certain successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, widely referring to her as the Biden administration’s “border czar.” No such position existed, and Harris’s role encompassed only “root causes” of migration from Central America. Nonetheless, a resolution that passed the Republican-majority House of Representatives on July 25 “strongly condemns” Harris’s performance in the putative “border czar” role.” (see also The New Yorker)
“Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign chief has signaled that Harris, if elected in November, would continue President Biden's asylum crackdown, which U.S. officials have credited for a steep drop in migrant crossings along the southern border,” reports CBS.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
The US should treat migration as a foreign policy issue and work to address root causes, argues Manuel Orozco for Boom.
🇺🇸🇭🇳 Honduras and United States
Honduras’ foreign minister met with the US Secretary of Homeland Security to discuss migration, advocating for a new TPS designation for Honduras. (EFE)
Labor Migration
🇨🇱 Chile
An op-ed by Centro de Políticas Migratoria’s Diego Chaparro at El Mostrador reviews the opportunities and challenges of labor migration in Chile, highlighting the country’s dependence on foreign labor for the agricultural sector but a lack of visas to meet demand.
🇺🇸 United States
“Allegations of mistreatment of high-skilled Mexican workers have sparked several important class action lawsuits against large automotive and logistics companies located in the United States. These companies are facing legal challenges for labor abuse, fraud, and exploitation through the TN visa program—a program that lacks oversight and has in some cases fostered predatory employment practices targeting high-skilled Mexican migrant workers,” says Immigration Impact.
“The United States faces a critical imperative: keeping some of the brightest minds in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in the country to secure our workforce advantage in these fields and fuel economic growth and global competitiveness,” notes Immigration Impact, highlight a call to expand the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List to include “eight new fields critical to the artificial intelligence technical workforce.”
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
Migration crackdowns are currently slowing migrant numbers heading north. Far fewer migrants are crossing the border into the US, reports New York Times, while Radio Corporación notes fewer crossings from Nicaragua into Honduras en route north. Some Venezuelans are currently waiting in Colombia instead of heading north through the Darien Gap as they originally planned, adds EFE.
🇻🇪 Venezuela
An Odisef report explores Venezuelan migrant return, re-emigration, and transit in the first semester of 2024, noting that 57.2% of identified returns were coming from Colombia, followed by 20.7% from Peru and 13.5% from Ecuador.
An IDB report analyzes internal migration in Venezuela from 2007 to 2020, noting that the Capital Region was the principal destination for internal migrants.
Boom highlights the impacts of migration on the town of La Villa del Rosario, noting that the town is now “empty, its houses abandoned and its businesses closed.”
🇲🇽 Mexico
“A group of 2,000 migrants from dozens of countries set out on foot Tuesday through southern Mexico as they attempt to reach the U.S., although recent similar attempts have failed, with groups disbanding after a few days without leaving the region,” reports AP.
🇨🇺 Cuba
“Mexican authorities have apprehended 20 Cuban rafters… who were spotted by local fishermen near the shores of Isla Mujeres… The Cuban migration crisis has led many immigrants to embark on dangerous maritime routes to reach Mexican shores,” explains CubaHeadlines.
The CEDA US-Cuba News Brief highlights the high rates of emigration from Cuba in recent years, noting that “Cuban demographer and economist Juan Albizu-Campos announced that between 2022 and 2023, the island’s population fell by 18 percent,” while official government statistics put the drop at 10% between December 2021 and December 2023.
A CEDA interview with Albizu-Campos is available here.
Borders and Enforcement
🇵🇦 Panama
WPR reviews the Mulino administration’s efforts to crackdown on Darien Gap migration, arguing that the long-term result is not yet clear and that “the effectiveness of these policies remains uncertain amid logistical hurdles and sociopolitical complexities.”
“Panamanian authorities will decide which migrants are "eligible" to be returned to their countries of origin after crossing the Darien jungle,” reports EFE, while AFP adds that “Deportation flights from Panama for undocumented US-bound migrants who have crossed the lawless Darien jungle from South America are expected to start imminently, a US official said Tuesday.”
Alongside enforcement efforts, “Panama is working on a plan to clean up the Darien jungle, contaminated by the passage of hundreds of thousands of migrants heading towards the United States, the country's environment minister said Wednesday.” (AFP)
🇺🇸 United States
CAP breaks down the illegality of various immigration enforcement laws recently enacted by Republican-led states that attempt to usurp power from the federal government, arguing, “Courts must reject these unconstitutional power grabs just as they have rejected similar efforts in the past.”
“Since the start of Operation Lone Star, Texas’s troubled border program, thousands of people have been arrested for “smuggling,” which in reality most often looks like driving with an undocumented person in their car,” according to a policy brief explaining Texas’ SB4 and initiatives to counter migration. (HRW)
“If Donald Trump is re-elected, his pledge to carry out mass deportations would be eased by dramatic recent improvements in surveillance and artificial intelligence capabilities, warned an analysis from Context (an outlet backed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation). While removing undocumented migrants is difficult, “making people look over their shoulder—creating an atmosphere of fear, he [Trump] can do that,” said Muzaffar Chisti of the Migration Policy Institute.” (Context; via Daily Border Links)
“Thousands of people are being deported every year for drug offenses that in many cases no longer exist under state laws, harming and separating immigrant families,” says Human Rights Watch.
🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands
“20 Haitian migrants found on one of the British Virgin Islands” (Loop)