Americas Migration Brief - October 14, 2024
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
“Politicians across the Americas have been eager to falsely blame migrants for high crime rates, or invoke the name of the [Tren de Aragua organized crime group] to inspire fear among voters and build support for police crackdowns and anti-migration policies,” writes Joshua Collins at Pirate Wire Services, explaining that “the Tren de Aragua has been unable to establish any territorial control” and that their reputation has grown “in no small part due to false statements by politicians and security forces, who are eager to blame them for decades-long and very homegrown problems with organized crime, as well as petty street crimes.” The Tren’s reputation has impacted anti-Venezuelan discrimination in many countries across the hemisphere.
“Bertin M. Louis, Jr. writes at NACLA that anti-Haitianism is prevalent across the Caribbean and results in stigmatization, discrimination, and deportation in the context of multiple countries. “Anti-Haitianism operates as an ideology rooted in anti-Blackness, nationalism, political domination, and marginalization. We can also see anti-Haitianism expressed as a set of practices. But what is the relationship between antihaitianismo in the Dominican Republic and anti-Haitianism in the Bahamas? As in the United States, political elites in both nations use anti-Haitianism as a strategy,” Louis Jr. writes, noting the political manipulation of the anti-Haitian and anti-immigrant attitudes.” -- via my feature on Caribbean responses to Haitian migration at the Just Caribbean Updates newsletter
🇨🇴 Colombia
Findings from DANE’s Migration Pulse Survey include that two-thirds of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia are affiliated with the public health system, while nearly a quarter of households report a lack of access to food as one of their principal needs.
🇬🇫 French Guiana
“At the end of July, a violent fire ravaged a shanty town in Cayenne. Without causing any casualties, it threw more than 1,000 people out onto the streets, many of them Haitian migrants, revealing the reception and housing crisis affecting French Guiana,” reports BFM, highlighting concerns surrounding access to stable housing for the increasing numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in the overseas French territory.
🇬🇾 Guyana
Local leaders in the town of Linden have criticized the national government for a lack of engagement surrounding tensions over increasing numbers of Venezuelan migrants in the community. (News Source Guyana)
🇺🇸 United States
“An appeals court is considering a challenge that could end DACA, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants to live and work in the United States,” reports The New York Times.
“The three appeals court judges hearing the challenge to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) yesterday seemed to differ on how to interpret Supreme Court precedent, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law. At issue is whether the states challenging DACA, led by Texas, have standing to sue over a federal policy. Attorneys also argued over whether a block to the program should be nationwide - as it is now for new applicants - or only in Texas.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
Truthout explores the impacts of recent hurricanes in the US Southeast on immigrant communities: “The roughly 35,000 H-2A workers in Georgia, as well as an untold number of undocumented immigrants, are not eligible for disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), nor do they qualify for food stamps or unemployment assistance.”
The Conversation looks at the Republican party's shift away from championing immigration: “around 2009, a dramatic shift in political rhetoric took place. The Tea Party movement brought border security and “racial resentment” towards immigrants centre stage, challenging conservative Republicans from the populist right. As a result, more and more Republicans began to voice restrictionist and xenophobic rhetoric.”
🇨🇦 Canada
The New York Times highlights Canada’s recent shift towards decreasing immigration as public opinion has shifted, and the impacts on migrants already in the country: “Many immigrants, however, argue they are unfairly being targeted, saying they were invited to Canada only to face the prospect of having to leave if their work permits are not renewed.” That said, shifts in public opinion have not reached the same level of polarization as seen in the US or parts of Europe, notes NYT.
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🌎 Regional
“Upon exiting the Darien Gap, migrants now face a shrinking humanitarian landscape in Panama and, for non-Venezuelans, the threat of deportation. A relatively new collaboration between Panama and Costa Rica to bus migrants from the former to the latter has increased the speed at which people can move northward and avoids the risks of moving on foot. But it also leaves many without access to humanitarian services until reaching Costa Rica, where the humanitarian response has, in turn, not grown enough to meet the needs,” according to a Refugees International report which “looks closely at the humanitarian conditions for those who successfully traverse the gap, and lays out a path to greater harmonization of migration management that respects governments’ desire for orderly movement while upholding the basic human rights of migrants.” Report recommendations are geared towards the governments of Panama, Costa Rica, and the US, as well as the international community.
A Universidad del Rosario Observatorio de Venezuela report highlights regional responsibility for Darien Gap migration. The report calls for Colombia to develop a comprehensive data system to characterize the migrants entering the Darien Gap.
A UNICEF report explores access to documentation and civil registration for migrants and refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean.
🇨🇱 Chile
A woman from the Dominican Republic was found dead in Colchane; “so far this year 10 migration-related deaths have been reported on the border between Chile and Bolivia,” reports La Patria.
🇵🇦 Panama
For the first time since February, Doctors Without Borders has returned to providing care to migrants in the Darien Gap at the Lajas Blancas station, reports La Prensa, noting that the organization has received permission for a 3-month period.
🇯🇲 Jamaica
“In Jamaica, a group of 20 Haitian migrants that arrived by boat last weekend was the latest in a string of maritime arrivals over the last couple of years. The group was deported, reports The Gleaner, highlighting calls from human rights groups Stand Up for Jamaica and Jamaicans for Justice to investigate the treatment of Haitian migrants and asylum seekers. Human rights lawyer and founder of Freedom Imaginaries, Malene Alleyne, had written to the Jamaican government, “requesting that the Haitians who arrived in Jamaica on Saturday be granted access to determine whether they can receive refugee status or asylum,” reports Observer, adding that “based on Freedom Imaginaries count, over 130 Haitians were expelled from Jamaica without due process since July 2023,” I explained at the Just Caribbean Updates newsletter. (see also last week’s AMB)
The Jamaican government says they are following their Refugee Policy and added that “there are several persons [whose cases] are now under appeal,” per The Gleaner.
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
A controversial new asylum bill “prohibits any person who entered the Turks and Caicos Islands illegally from being considered for asylum within these shores,” reports The Sun. In addition, the proposed bill would grant a 3-year stay for those who receive asylum, after which they could apply for indefinite stay. “This gives the authority the opportunity to determine whether the person’s situation remains the same before they are granted indefinite leave to remain in the Islands,” per the Immigration Minister.
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic deported almost 11,000 Haitian migrants last week, reports The Washington Post; the General Directorate of Migration (DGM) is setting up offices in each province of the country to strengthen immigration control and advance the new initiative to deport 10,000 Haitians per week, notes Dominican Today. But the large-scale deportation initiative (covered in last week’s AMB) has received criticism from international actors, garnering an OAS hearing last week, and Haiti created an inter-ministerial committee to respond to the deportations. (Miami Herald, CDN, Dominican Today, Just Caribbean Updates)
In an El Espectador op-ed, OBMICA’s Bridget Wooding calls for the Dominican Republic to work to restore Dominican nationality to stateless persons born in the country who had been stripped of their nationality by a 2013 constitutional court ruling because their parents were irregular Haitian migrants.
🇨🇴 Colombia
“Since July 28, when Nicolás Maduro stole (Venezuela’s) presidential elections, 1,693 requests for refugee status from Venezuelans have arrived at the (Colombian) Foreign Ministry, of which 688 have already been rejected for protection proceedings for allegedly not meeting the requirements,” says Semana, criticizing a lack of access to refugee status in Colombia.
🇲🇽 Mexico
“In Chiapas, Mexico, civilian prosecutors have begun investigating soldiers’ October 1 killing of six migrants aboard a vehicle. A prominent Mexican human rights organization, the Foundation for Justice, recalled that National Guard soldiers who killed migrants aboard a vehicle in Chiapas in 2021 still have not been brought to justice.” (La Jornada via Daily Border Links; see last week’s AMB)
🇺🇸 United States
“The Biden administration has started to deport Haitians back to Port-au-Prince even as an extreme wave of brutal violence continues to force Haitians to flee their homes and an increasing number of Haitians are struggling to find enough to eat. The 65 Haitians who quietly landed in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 26 marked the first deportation to the Haitian capital since flights were temporarily halted after an armed insurgency in late February. When they did resume in April, the Department of Homeland Security instead sent the Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights into Cap-Haïtien,” reports Miami Herald.
“Cuba’s El Toque spoke with Cuban citizens who applied to enter the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program for up to a combined 30,000 people per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. They found the parole procedure so backlogged that it was faster to go to Mexico and wait several months for a CBP One appointment at the border.” (via Daily Border Links)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting that “Mexico’s new government is indicating no break with its predecessor’s migration policies.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
Catherine Osborn explores at Foreign Policy how migration has become a key foreign policy issue for the US, with increasing regional coordination under the Biden administration. Diving into topics such as the LA Declaration on Migration and Protection, Osborn writes, “As the U.S. election approaches, the biggest question around regional migration cooperation is how much would survive a potential Trump presidency.” Even still, “While Trump could deal a heavy blow to the current approach, much too depends on other countries in the Western Hemisphere. It was during Trump’s presidency that countries such as Colombia and Brazil started to lead cooperation on hosting displaced Venezuelans despite the White House’s relative lack of engagement on the issue.”
MPI explores the increased regional coordination under the Biden administration: “To date, the evidence suggests that this multipronged architecture developed by the U.S. government is reducing the number of unauthorized encounters while expanding a range of legal pathways in a mobile world. It shows that offering humanitarian protection and other lawful pathways early, enabling countries that are already hosting large refugee and migrant populations to continue to do so effectively, and cooperating on border controls across the hemisphere, increase the chances of success in better managing migration.”
Ecuador hosted an IDB Regional Policy Dialogue focused on labor mobility and development in Latin America and the Caribbean; the conference included officials from 19 countries in the region, per a press release.
🇧🇿🇺🇸 United States and Belize
US and Belize officials met to discuss migration, among other topics. (Channel 5)
🇸🇻🇺🇸 United States and El Salvador
The US and El Salvador have “signed a memorandum of understanding that will allow (them) to continue strengthening the prevention, detection, investigation of transnational crimes, border security and the facilitation of the circulation of legitimate travelers between both countries.” (El Mundo)
Labor Migration
🇨🇱 Chile
A Centro de Políticas Migratorias report explores seasonal labor migration programs in Chile, analyzing the local labor and migration regulatory frameworks and the risks of rights violations and suggesting paths forward for the country considering local labor gaps. The report also considers the experiences of Australia, Canada, and the US in comparative perspective.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
“Companies in Costa Rica’s agricultural and transportation sectors are opening up employment opportunities: some 16,000 positions for coffee pickers for the 2024-2025 harvest, and 1,500 positions for bus drivers for regular routes for transporting people.” Migrants are among those being recruited given local labor gaps. (Q Costa Rica)
🇺🇸 United States
“A new lawsuit seeks to block a Labor Department rule that farm and business groups say unlawfully expands labor rights for H-2A visa holders. Courts have stayed the rule in several states, but it could go into effect in dozens of other states.” Key controversy surrounds “new protections to safeguard collective action and concerted activity for mutual aid and protection.” (Forbes)
“With strategic policy, immigration could further address the nation's housing crisis, Andy J. Semotiuk writes in his Forbes column: By merging existing immigrant investor programs such as the EB-5 visa with creative housing development plans, "the U.S. can address both the immediate housing needs of migrants and refugees and the broader national shortage of affordable housing while avoiding long immigration backlogs." In one Detroit neighborhood, immigrant investors already might be revitalizing housing, Aaron Mondry of Outlier Media reports.” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
🇲🇽 Mexico
A CEPAL report explores internal migration for work in Mexico from 2000 to 2020.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
Following a recent dip, migration through the Darien Gap increased by 51% between August and September, with Venezuelans making up more than 80% of the September total. (AP)
IOM highlights the stories of Venezuelans migrating across the Americas by foot, with a focus on the Peru-Chile border. The article includes a map of migration routes.
Borders and Enforcement
🌎 Regional
In the US, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operated 105 removal flights in September, according to the latest monthly report from Witness at the Border. That is the fewest since July 2023; reduced apprehensions at the border are a likely factor. The report’s author, Thomas Cartwright, has also been tracking Panama’s stepped-up deportation flights—most of them supported by U.S. funding—of migrants apprehended exiting the Darién Gap. Between early August and October 5, the report notes 16 flights, 12 to Colombia, 3 to Ecuador, and 1 to India. Those planes carried 634 people, which Cartwright notes is equivalent to 1.4 percent of total migration through the Darién during that period.” (Witness at the Border; via Daily Border Links)
🇺🇸 United States
“In a "60 Minutes" interview conducted (Monday) night, Vice President Kamala Harris discussed her plans on immigration, a team at CBS News reports. Harris said that she would take border security even further than President Biden’s current efforts. But ultimately, she said, "We need Congress to be able to act to actually fix the problem."” (via National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily)
“Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are competing over who can appear tougher on immigration, particularly at the US-Mexico border. Their approach is both unfortunate and mistaken,” says Human Rights Watch’s Vicki B. Gaubeca at The Nation. “These policies may lead to a reduction in border crossings for a brief time… But we know from decades of experience that the pendulum eventually swings back, no matter how much pain our policies inflict. That’s largely because deterrence tactics do not address why people are moving.”
🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos
Turks and Caicos apprehended 32 suspected Haitian migrants at sea. (Magnetic Media)
🇨🇱 Chile
Some Chilean politicians are calling for the country to dig a 300 kilometer ditch along the border to halt irregular migration. (T13)