Americas Migration Brief - June 9, 2025
Welcome to the Americas Migration Brief! If you find this newsletter useful, please consider sharing with a friend or colleague.
Se puede acceder aquí a una versión en español del boletín traducida por inteligencia artificial.
Consulte aqui uma versão em português do boletim traduzida por inteligência artificial.
Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇬🇹 Guatemala
Guatemala “opened a new registration and care center for deported Guatemalan migrants, providing basic information on rights and job opportunities after their forced return to the Central American country,” reports AP.
🇦🇷 Argentina
The Milei administration’s emergency decree to harden Argentina’s migration policy is like tilting against windmills, writes Ignacio Odriozola at La Nación: it “not only lacks any empirical basis to justify its necessity and urgency, but also projects a scenario of chaos using a science fiction, apocalyptic narrative that only encourages social hysteria, xenophobia, and dehumanization.” Pablo Ceriani on LinkedIn breaks down the decree paragraph by paragraph, analyzing and questioning the details. (see last week’s AMB)
🇨🇱 Chile
78% of surveyed migrants in Chile report suffering discrimination or xenophobia in the country, with 11% indicating that it is a frequent experience, per an Ipsos poll. Among surveyed Chileans, meanwhile, “Although the majority (67%) of people consider migration a human right, only 44% agree that the State should protect and respect the human rights of migrants regardless of their migration status. This represents a five-point drop compared to the 2023 survey. Similarly, 42% agree that a country can benefit from receiving migrants (six points less than two years ago).”
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
Amid labor market needs and economic benefits but a mass deportation campaign, Julio Sesar Mateo argues in El Nuevo Diario that the Dominican Republic should establish a National Regularization Plan “focused exclusively on documenting foreign workers in an irregular situation, linking them to the areas where their workforce is truly needed.”
🇧🇷 Brazil
4RS Consultoria reviews challenges and opportunities to improve access to rights and integration of migrants in Brazil, noting, for example, that “only 5.5% of Brazilian municipalities that receive migrants have some type of specific migration management service.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Members of the LGBTIQ+ community are among the most vulnerable of all populations in the Americas. Often they must migrate due to persecution, further increasing their vulnerability because of the marginalization migrants frequently endure, especially if they are Black, Indigenous, or otherwise non-White. States’ responses to LGBTIQ+ migrants are vastly deficient throughout the hemisphere, including in the United States,” says WOLA.
🇨🇴 Colombia
A paper at Social Problems explores the relationship between climate change and migration through ethnographic work in northeastern Colombia, finding that “a household’s decision to move in response to climate hazards is not a single event–but rather one in a sequence of decisions to stay or go… Two categories of climate migrants emerged in this case: adaptive and distress. Adaptive migrants move soon after the onset of crisis with a plan in place for return. Distress migrants leave in desperate circumstances after exhausting their resources to stay in place. Strategic migrants, a type of adaptive migrant, are individuals a household sends out during climate crisis to either reduce resource burdens or remit income to support the household through climate stress.”
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
1 Haitian migrant died and 3 others were seriously injured while trying to jump across a rooftop to evade an immigration raid in the Dominican Republic, reports El Nacional.
“The Dominican Republic deports 34,190 Haitians in one month [May], the highest number in 2025” (Diario Las Américas)
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
UNHCR is closing its national office in Trinidad and Tobago due to funding cuts, reports Newsday, noting in a separate article that “Venezuelan migrants in this country are voicing deep concern and confusion… The lack of clear national asylum legislation in TT means that many refugees and asylum seekers rely solely on UNHCR-issued documentation for protection from detention or deportation.”
🇯🇲 Jamaica
A group of 6 Cubans were apprehended by Jamaican authorities after arriving by boat. Reports indicate that a second group of Cubans may have arrived by boat as well, with the total cohort in the dozens. Alongside recent Haitian arrivals, “Their arrival adds to a growing number of undocumented migrants turning to Jamaica as a transit point or refuge amid worsening crises in parts of the Caribbean,” says The Gleaner. (1, 2; see AMB 5/26/25)
🇧🇷 Brazil
“The lethal state violence against the black population in Brazil has been historically denounced by the black movement, various collectives and movements of mothers and family members who are victims of this violence. This violence affects the black population throughout the country, regardless of their place of origin. Black migrants in Brazil experience the same oppression that permeates the daily lives of black bodies in this country,” per MigraMundo.
Agência Pública highlights violence by police against migrant street vendors in São Paulo. (see also AMB 4/14/25)
🇲🇽 Mexico
An IDC report “aims to provide an overview of public and private Social Assistance Centers (CAS) in Mexico. It provides information on the features and needs of these shelters for migrant children and adolescents and makes available data that can be used for advocacy purposes and to support the design of legal frameworks, public policies, guidelines, and care models that respect the rights of migrant children and adolescents.”
🇺🇸 United States
“President Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation barring travelers and immigrants from a dozen countries and restricting the entry of nationals of another seven nations… Trump's proclamation fully bans the entry of foreigners from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. With certain exemptions, Mr. Trump's order bans citizens of those countries seeking to come to the U.S. permanently as legal immigrants, as well as temporary visa holders, like tourists. The president also partially suspended the entry of travelers and immigrants from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. That part of his proclamation applies to all prospective immigrants from these countries with visas to settle in the U.S. permanently and certain temporary visa holders,” reports CBS.
An American Immigration Council fact sheet analyzes the travel ban.
“President Trump’s new travel ban appears devised to avoid legal flaws that slowed early versions in his first term. But the new order adds an innovation — banning countries with visitors who frequently overstay their visas — that could be a fresh basis for a challenge, immigration legal experts said,” reports The New York Times.
“In total, just under 162,000 immigrant visas (aka green cards) and temporary work, study, and travel visas were issued in FY 2023 to nationals of the affected countries and in the visa categories listed,” explains MPI.
“A team at the Miami Herald analyzes how the ban affects nationals of Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela as their countries face political crisis and many people flee the dangers of that reality. Additionally, Boundless outlines how the ban will affect different sectors of the workforce, particularly healthcare, technology, education, and essential services.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
Chad has responded by suspending visa issuance for US citizens, while the African Union is calling for dialogue on the issue. (EFE, El País)
“A Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there was flown back to the US on Wednesday after a judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return,” reports The Guardian. “Judges have directed U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to help return several migrants to the country because they were wrongly deported, and the man's arrival appeared to mark the first time one of those migrants has been able to come back,” adds Reuters.
Following this, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who the Trump administration admitted was mistakenly deported back to his home country, has been returned to the U.S. to face two federal criminal counts,” reports CBS.
The Trump administration is ending TPS for Cameroon and Nepal. (Fragomen 1, 2)
“The Trump administration is considering a regulation that would prevent most asylum-seekers from getting work permits, potentially upending longstanding U.S. immigration policy,” reports CBS.
🇨🇦 Canada
“A Canadian border-security bill introduced by the Liberal government earlier this week may deny some asylum-seekers a refugee hearing and make it easier for the government to revoke migrants' status,” among other changes, reports Reuters.
Global News explains, “Under the proposed legislation, anyone who makes an asylum claim more than a year after arriving in Canada would not see their claim referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board. Those entering Canada across the U.S. land border under the Safe Third Country Agreement will have just 14 days to make an asylum claim in order to be considered. Claimants who apply beyond those deadlines will still be subject to a pre-removal risk assessment to determine if their safety will be at risk if returned to their home country… The new rules address a growing issue of international students and other temporary visa holders claiming asylum after their visas expire in order to stay in Canada.”
Reuters notes, “30% of pre-removal risk assessments in 2019 for people deemed ineligible for refugee hearings were approved; by contrast, according to Immigration and Refugee Board data, that year 60% of finalized refugee hearings were approved.”
Bill C-2 additionally “allows officials to cancel, suspend or change immigration documents immediately, pause the acceptance of new applications and cancel applications already in process if deemed in the public interest,” reports CBC, highlighting concerns from advocates, including that the bill grants the government “unchecked power.”
“Canada should adopt a clear definition of internal climate migrants that captures displacement from climate disasters and slow-onset phenomena like sea-level rise, permafrost thaw and biodiversity loss… Defining internal climate migrants would allow Canada to gather robust data at last, and to act decisively on it,” writes Christopher Campbell-Duruflé at The Conversation.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“U.S. courts are dismissing the cases of Venezuelan migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador - a development advocates claim is a way to complete their "disappearance" from the U.S. legal system and further complicate their release from jail, reports the Latin Times.” (via Latin America Daily Briefing)
“On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the deportation of 140 Venezuelan men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act was unlawful, citing violations of their due process rights, report Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico. In the ruling the administration was given one week to propose a process allowing the men to challenge their deportations in U.S. courts.” (via The Forum Daily)
A separate ruling “orders Trump admin to reveal its deal with El Salvador after immigrant objects to his jailing in notorious CECOT prison,” per Politico.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly negotiating with El Salvador to bring back Venezuelan national Daniel Lozano-Camargo, who was wrongly deported by the US. (Univision)
“Federal agents in tactical gear armed with military-style rifles threw flash-bang grenades to disperse an angry crowd near downtown Los Angeles on Friday as they conducted an immigration raid on a clothing wholesaler,” reports The New York Times. The Trump administration is sending 2,000 National Guard soldiers to respond to protests against its immigration agenda, per EFE.
Mexico has expressed “diplomatic ‘concern,’” over the Trump administration’s behavior, notes El País.
The US plans to allocate more funds to Panama to conduct deportation flights, according to an interview by Diálogo Americas with Roger Mojica Rivera of Panama’s National Migration Service.
US, Peruvian, and Ecuadorian officials visited the Peru-Ecuador border with a goal of improving coordination and border security. (Infobae)
“Cuba tried to improve its relations with the US by cooperating with Trump’s deportation flights. It didn’t work. Cuba has taken five deportation flights since Trump took office, but the administration appears disinterested in improving relations with Havana.” (Politico)
🇪🇸🇵🇾 Paraguay and Spain
“Delegations from the governments of Paraguay and Spain expressed their interest in working on circular migration proposals to offer temporary employment opportunities to Paraguayans in sectors with seasonal demand in Spain,” reports ABC.
🇨🇴🇵🇦 Panama and Colombia
“Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Friday that he has asked neighboring Colombia to assess the ecological impact of the migration crisis in the Darién jungle,” reports EFE.
🇺🇸 United States
“The State Department plans to create an ‘Office of Remigration’ in a sweeping reorganization drive… The proposed new office would signal the State Department's shift from helping refugees to removing immigrants,” reports Axios.
In addition, “the proposed reorganization would eliminate PRM’s regional assistance offices, dissolving the last core of technical humanitarian expertise within the State Department,” says CEDA.
Labor Migration
🇸🇻 El Salvador
“Salvadoran nursing professionals travel to Italy as part of a labor migration program” (Elsalvador)
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Ecuador is looking to further expand its temporary labor migration program with Spain, reports El Diario.
Migrants in Transit
🇦🇷🇪🇨 Ecuador and Argentina
According to official entry and exit figures, Argentina has become the most popular country of destination for Ecuadorian migrants in 2025, reports El Universo.
Borders and Enforcement
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
“The Turks and Caicos Islands National Security Council (NSC) convened on Monday, June 2, 2025, amid ongoing concerns over crime, border security, and a recent surge in illegal migration from Haiti… At least three incidents involving vessels packed with Haitian nationals fleeing gang violence and social collapse were recently intercepted in TCI waters,” reports Magnetic Media.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Ecuador will begin to require transit visas for nationals of countries that are already required to have visas to visit Ecuador. (El Universo)
🇺🇸 United States
“Immigration raids have been so rare in Puerto Rico that its only detention facility, in an office building next to a mall, can hold only about 20 detainees. Yet federal authorities in the U.S. territory have detained more than 500 people since President Trump took office in January… Nearly three-quarters of the detainees have hailed from one country, the Dominican Republic,” reports New York Times
“No one knows exactly how many immigrants are living without legal status in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Rebecca González-Ramos, ICE's top investigator on the island, estimates it's about 20,000, and since January it's been her job to track down and deport every last one of them,” reports NPR.
“'You barely see people out': How immigration raids are reshaping daily life in Puerto Rico's Dominican enclave” (NPR)
“To help accomplish its aim of mass deportations, the Trump administration is tapping into numerous federal, state, and local databases at an unprecedented scale, and making more of them interoperable,” explains MPI, noting, “The reach into and communication between information storehouses—including ones containing sensitive information about all U.S. residents’ taxes, health, benefits receipt, and addresses—allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other authorities to harvest, exchange, and share a vast trove of data.”
“A federal jury in Texas on Thursday acquitted the first migrant tried for entering one of the new military zones on the U.S.-Mexico border, marking a legal challenge to the Trump administration plan to raise penalties for illegal crossings,” reports Reuters.
“Over 50,000 Immigrants Now Detained, Highest Since 2019: ICE detention numbers are up alongside spike in new detention facilities and new 287(g) agreements. Nearly 25% of detainees now have no criminal histories.” (Austin Kocher)
“The Private Citizens Who Want to Help Trump Deport Migrants: For years, right-wing civilians have eagerly patrolled the border. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, has hinted that he might enlist their help.” (The New Yorker)
More on Migration
🇺🇸 United States
“Remittances sent to Mexico fell 12% in April from a year prior, registering the largest annual drop in more than a decade as US lawmakers mull taxing the transfers and Donald Trump’s administration toughens its rhetoric against migrants,” reports Bloomberg. (see also last week’s AMB)
“The international exchange and education community was dealt yet another blow when the Trump administration temporarily paused scheduling new F, M, and J visa appointments,” explains Immigration Impact.
“How Will Revoking Chinese Student Visas Actually Work?” (Foreign Policy)