Americas Migration Brief - March 17, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Ecuador repealed an August 2024 decree that granted amnesty and regularization for certain Venezuelan migrants in the country, with nearly 5,000 having received documentation through the program to date. Already emitted visas will remain valid and renewable. The repeal has been criticized by migrant advocacy organizations, while the government asserts that the program’s funders, IOM and UNHCR, had suspended their support (likely due to US foreign aid freezes). “No provisions have yet been issued regarding what will happen to the 3,000 applications for regularization currently being processed,” says El Universo. (El Universo, Efecto Cocuyo; see AMB 8/26/24)
🇵🇦 Panama
“The Panamanian government created a "humanitarian security protection permit," valid for two years and extendable for another six, which will allow undocumented foreigners who have been in the country for more than a year to regularize their status and obtain a work visa,” reports EFE, adding, “The processing of the new immigration and work visa will cost $1,250, and the extension will cost $450.” Migrants must have resided in Panama for at least one year prior to the decree’s publication, notes TVN.
🇬🇹 Guatemala
“Guatemala announced plans Wednesday for a new center for deported migrants near the Mexican border funded by (USAID),” reports AFP, noting the center is not expected to be opened until “mid-2026.”
Guatemala’s efforts to receive and reintegrate deportees from the US are being challenged by Donald Trump’s rhetoric that deportees are criminals, reports Bloomberg, highlighting government reintegration initiatives, including job matching programs.
“The government has been looking for a giant welcome center where officials can conduct in-depth interviews and match people with training opportunities. But a deal with a nearby industrial park fell through, and half a dozen other landlords have turned the government away… In the absence of a privately owned option, the Guatemalan government is considering converting an old state-owned train station into a welcome center, or using part of a public park named after the country’s first Olympic medal winner — Parque Erick Barrondo — that’s further away from the airport… For now, deported Guatemalans are arriving back in the country via the same place that the government has used for years: an Air Force base just across the runway from the main international airport in Guatemala City.”
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Many of the 30,000 migrants in southern Mexico are trying to find work in the country—at least until American policy changes—but they face limited choices. There are few well-paying jobs in Mexico’s poorest state of Chiapas. Criminals target migrants for extortion and kidnapping. To leave Chiapas, where Tapachula is located, for another part of Mexico requires migrants to get asylum, which can take the country’s overwhelmed refugee agency a year to process,” reports The Wall Street Journal
A Migraciones Internacionales paper explores “how families plan to reorganize following forced parent-child separation by deportation” from the US to Mexico, based on data from 2015-2019.
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
“TEEN is a cash transfer programme created to offer crucial financial support to migrant families. This assistance specifically targets those with children who have recently been admitted to national schools or enrolled in Dawere, an innovative, accredited online academic platform” in Trinidad and Tobago, says UNICEF, noting, “during the programme’s monitoring review in 2024, it was discovered that 88% of people felt better equipped to meet their children's educational needs after receiving the cash.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
A UNICEF report investigates the humanitarian situation faced by children on the move in Central America and Mexico during 2024.
A DRC report explores legal assistance needs related to protection issues in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Honduras.
🇭🇹 Haiti
“More than 40,000 people were displaced in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince (Haiti) in less than a month—between February 14 and March 5—the highest number recorded in such a short period since 2021,” reports EFE.
🇦🇷 Argentina
More than 1,300 people were evacuated due to heavy rains and flash floods in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. (The Guardian)
🇲🇽 Mexico
“In Mexico City, the wait time at the end of 2024 for an asylum appointment was roughly one to two weeks; that grew to around two months in February,” explains Catherine Osborn at Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief, highlighting increasing demand for asylum in Mexico.
Truthout highlights efforts to provide access to asylum and protection for LGBTQ migrants in Mexico.
“Some people run because they witness a killing, others because they don’t want to pay extortion, others because cartel squads want to take their land or clear areas of potential rivals. Those who take flight are often terrified to talk but over several trips I find people who describe their loved ones being slain and sicarios demanding money and seeing mutilated corpses on their dirt streets,” writes Jared Olson at CrashOut, investigating internal displacement due to violence in Michoacán, Mexico.
“A lot of the displaced are largely invisible, having just moved in with family or to other impoverished villages in the mountains, where they can face the same problems. Many more in the Tierra Caliente are thinking of fleeing especially since cartels have stepped up using drones jerry-rigged with homemade bombs.”
🇺🇸 United States
“The Trump administration is considering targeting the citizens of as many as 43 countries as part of a new ban on travel to the United States that would be broader than the restrictions imposed during President Trump’s first term,” reports The New York Times. The draft list includes Cuba and Venezuela in the “Red” list of 11 nationalities that are entirely banned from travel to the US, while the “Orange” list sharply restricting visa access includes Haiti, and the “Yellow” list granting 60 days to address concerns to avoid restrictions includes Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia. (see also Reuters)
“President Trump’s order will likely rely on supposed inadequacies in the documents and information-sharing from certain foreign governments… In 2017, however, when Trump imposed a less severe ban on seven countries, I documented how he arbitrarily raised the vetting standards when he needed to keep a country banned and arbitrarily lowered the standards to exempt dozens and dozens of countries off the list,” explains David Bier at Immigration Insights.
“A federal judge on Saturday night temporarily blocked President Trump from removing immigrants under a wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 after the president announced earlier in the day that he would enforce the law. Despite the ruling, 261 people were deported to El Salvador on Saturday, 137 of whom were removed under the Alien Enemies Act over alleged gang ties,” reports CBS.
Adam Isacson has put together a useful timeline documenting how the Trump administration deported the migrants to El Salvador in violation of the court order.
The Trump administration alleges that these and other migrants are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, but offers little evidence to back the claim, as noted by AP. Attorney Lindsay Toczylowski highlights on Twitter the false claims and lack of due process, as faced by one of her clients: “The Alien Enemies Act would allow the Trump administration to remove people from the US based on an accusation alone.”
The arrest of legal permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil (see last week’s AMB) has sparked controversy and concern over the constitutionality of deportation for political speech, per Reason; the Trump administration wants to review the social media accounts of prospective citizens, notes The Verge.
“A federal judge has blocked the removal of (Khalil) from the United States while weighing a petition challenging his arrest,” reports ABC.
“Your Introduction to Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation Case and the Legal Battle Ahead” (Austin Kocher)
In another case sparking questions over legality, “A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion,” reports The New York Times.
And in another case from this past week, a legal permanent resident returning to the US from travels abroad “was “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair.” He was also denied access to his medication. (NHPR)
“In the 2022 fiscal year (the most recent year for which we have comprehensive data), fifty-two people—an average of one per week—perished in C.B.P. custody. Deaths like these rarely make headlines,” reports The New Yorker, asking “How Many Immigrants Will Die in U.S. Custody?”
“No law requires H.H.S. to publicly report the deaths of unaccompanied children in its care, and there’s reason to doubt that the agency will do so voluntarily… The law does require C.B.P. to publicly announce deaths in its custody, and ICE has even stricter reporting requirements. Both agencies now answer to full-throated Trump loyalists, and, if they want to conceal fatalities, they have a generous loophole that they can exploit. Both agencies have broad discretion to release people from their custody before their death.” They have done so in the past.
“The Trump administration said early Tuesday that it could take months to fully comply with a court order to resume admitting refugees to the United States, citing a “significant deterioration of functions” in the program since President Donald Trump ordered it shut down in January,” reports The Washington Post.
IRAP expresses concern: “Rather than showing progress, it confirms what was apparent when the government issued termination notices to resettlement agencies just 24 hours after the preliminary injunction went into effect: this administration’s flagrant intent to undermine and circumvent the judiciary and Congress.”
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “the entire population of 40 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station has been returned to the United States. The operation’s cost so far has averaged $55,000 per detainee.”
“The U.S. Trump administration has said as many as 30,000 deported migrants could be housed in Guantánamo Bay military facilities. But ‘for now, the operation can hold just 225 immigration detainees at a time, according to a briefing provided to members of Congress who visited the base on Friday,’ reports the New York Times,” explains Jordana Timerman at Latin America Daily Briefing.
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“Canada and Ecuador Take Up Co-Chairmanship of Global Compact for Migration Champion Countries Initiative” (IOM)
An IOM report analyzes findings from the agency’s migration governance indicator studies across South America, both at the national and local level.
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
“Venezuela and the United States have agreed to resume flights of migrants deported from the U.S., senior officials from each country said on Thursday, after an apparent pause in the repatriation flights which kicked off last month.” (Reuters; see last week’s AMB)
ProPublica shines a light on IOM’s role in the Trump administration’s deportation of asylum seekers to Costa Rica and Panama, noting that the UN agency has “helped Panama return migrants who chose to go home rather than remain in detention. The IOM said it participated in the effort because it believes that without its presence the situation for migrants would be ‘far worse.’ … Some 40% of the donations that have funded (IOM’s) work come from the United States. And in recent weeks, the organization was forced to lay off thousands of workers after Trump froze billions of dollars in foreign aid. What that means, according to a former Biden administration official who worked on migration issues, is that when the United States makes a request, even ones that risk going against the IOM’s mission, ‘there is not a lot of space to say no.’”
“Within the human rights community, advocates are at odds with one another about what to do. As the Panamanian government prepared to move migrants out of the Darien camp, IOM officials reached out to faith-based shelter managers seeking places for the migrants to stay. Elías Cornejo, migrant services coordinator for the Jesuit ministry Fe y Alegría in Panama City, said some of the managers hesitated because they worried that anything that gave the appearance that they were advancing policies that run contrary to the law could taint their reputation,” notes ProPublica.
AP highlights the stories of migrants from across the world who attempted to seek asylum in the US but were deported by the Trump administration to Panama.
“Caribbean leaders are pushing back against a new U.S. policy that aims to crack down on Cuban medical missions, saying that the work of hundreds of Cuban medical staff across the region is essential,” reports AP.
Emigration (and thus a shortage) of healthcare workers has been a serious issue in the Caribbean. I proposed potential solutions for this challenge in a special edition of the AMB last June.
“Cuba has yet to discuss migration with the Trump administration, Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Reuters, even as the U.S. plows ahead with a vast immigration crackdown that could leave many Cubans at risk of deportation.” (Reuters)
🇨🇱🇨🇴 Colombia and Chile
“The governments of Colombia and Chile signed an agreement that seeks to guarantee the protection, safe return, and family reunification of children and adolescents of both nationalities who are without parental care.” (press release)
🇲🇽🇨🇴 Colombia and Mexico
The Colombian government has criticized and called for an investigation into the Mexican government’s high rates of denying entry to Colombian citizens despite visa free status, reports El Espectador, noting concerns of “mistreatment and even humiliation.” Colombian citizens are at times denied entry to Mexico over concerns that they may use the country as an entry point to the US border.
🇬🇧🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago and United Kingdom
Following an increase in asylum applications by Trinidad and Tobago nationals visiting the United Kingdom, the UK has introduced visa restrictions for the Caribbean country. Trinidadian officials have critiqued the move as disproportionate. (The Guardian, Newsday, Daily Express)
Labor Migration
🇨🇦🇸🇻 El Salvador and Canada
A new group of Salvadorans are set to depart for Canada as a part of the two countries’ temporary labor migration program. (La Página)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
VOA highlights Guatemala’s new temporary labor migration program to send workers to Spain’s agricultural sector (see also AMB 2/17/25). VOA adds, “In addition to Spain, Guatemala is strengthening this type of program with other countries, including its neighbors Mexico and Belize, as well as Costa Rica, the United States, Canada, and Italy.”
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
In January and February, IOM received triple the requests received during the same period last year in Mexico for the agency’s assisted voluntary return program, reports Reuters. IOM notes, “southbound migration has surged, with 65% of migrants recorded on irregular routes in Guatemala traveling south.”
A Migración Colombia report explores data on migrants returning southbound from the northbound route to the US via Colombia and the Darien region. Between January 15 and February 28, 1,885 such migrants were identified, the vast majority Venezuelans. (see also AP coverage)
The drop in northbound Darien Gap migration is hurting the pockets of organized crime that previously profited off migration smuggling, reports InSight Crime.
Borders and Enforcement
🇸🇷 Suriname
Suriname’s government “will be monitoring the influx and residence of foreigners in the country more strictly… (and) working on measures to reduce the number of illegal foreigners,” says Suriname Herald, highlighting overstay on tourist visas as a concern.
🇬🇾 Guyana
“75 Venezuelan nationals intercepted off Guyana coast” (Loop)
🇺🇸 United States
“The United States is closing five temporary immigrant processing facilities along the border with Mexico, after a severe drop in illegal crossings in recent months,” reports Newsweek. (see last week’s AMB on the drop in migration)
At the same time, the situation in the interior of the country differs: “Immigrant detention centers are at capacity, Trump admin officials say” (NBC)
Moreover: “The agency charged with carrying out President Trump's mass deportation promises has warned Congress it is short a whopping $2 billion for this fiscal year,” reports Axios.
Immigration detention numbers are at the highest in five years, explains Austin Kocher at his Substack, diving into the data.
“U.S. immigration agents are planning a new operation to arrest migrant families with children as part of a nationwide crackdown… A separate operation to find children who entered the United States unaccompanied and were released without court dates is also underway,” reports NBC.
The Trump administration is adopting similar enforcement policies to those of Texas Governor Greg Abbott throughout the Biden administration, with a focus on militarization and “pushing the boundaries of the law.” (The Border Chronicle)
The New Yorker profiles Abbott and his role in immigration policy.
“The Trump administration rolled out a new app on Monday that will allow immigrants in the United States illegally to "self deport" rather than face possible arrest and detention,” reports Reuters, noting that the “CBP Home” app replaces the Biden-era “CBP One.”
An American Immigration Council fact sheet reviews the Trump administration’s plans to introduce a registration requirement for immigrants who entered the country without a visa. (see AMB 3/3/25)