Americas Migration Brief - September 8, 2025
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Table of Contents
Integration and Development
🌎 Regional
“As the United States shuts its doors to migrants, countries in Central America should embrace them… With the right support, their drive, talent and knowledge can be harnessed to build up new industries and strengthen economies back home,” writes Professor Anita Isaacs at The New York Times, highlighting the opportunity of investment in sustainable tourism and the reintegration of returnees in Guatemala and the rest of the region.
Guatemala’s San Marcos municipality has launched a five-year public policy related to migration, including services for returnees, among other elements—the first policy of its kind at the municipal level in the country. (IOM, Canal Antigua)
El Salvador, meanwhile, has just launched its National Reintegration Plan for Returnees for 2025-2029, organized around four main axes: (1) inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination; (2) immediate care services upon arrival; (3) conditions for sustainable reintegration with emphasis on economic, social, and psychosocial concerns; and (4) data management for evidence-based decisions. (IOM)
Advocates in Honduras are calling for candidates in the country’s upcoming presidential election to outline plans related to migration and reintegration of those returning from the US. (Forbes)
🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
Ahead of the new school year, Venezuelan migrant children continue to lack access to the education system in Trinidad and Tobago, reports Newsday, noting that just 23 children matriculated last year.
Paying subscribers not only support the continuation of this newsletter, but also have access to the full archive of Weekly Briefs. Check out AMB 8/26/24 for more on the effort to improve access to educatixon for Venezuelan migrants in the country last year.
🇨🇴 Colombia
Colombia’s PEP Tutor regularization program announced last year for certain irregular Venezuelan migrants in the country is now set for implementation: applications may be filed between September 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. (La República; see AMB 9/30/24)
A REMHU paper conducts a wide-ranging review of the recent scholarly literature on Venezuelan migration in Colombia.
🇪🇨 Ecuador
Working to integrate Venezuelan migrants offers an important opportunity for Ecuador, write Dany Bahar and Marcela Escobari at Americas Quarterly: “With the right policies in place, the migrant population could boost job creation, tax revenue, and economic revitalization. Perhaps the most direct path would be to continue the regularization process launched during the administration of former President Guillermo Lasso (2021-23) and continued under Noboa’s leadership. This successful three-step process provided legal status to around 200,000 of Ecuador’s approximately 450,000 Venezuelan migrants. The program has since been interrupted. Resuming this program would be a straightforward way to reduce crime and add much-needed dynamism to the economy.”
🇨🇼 Curaçao
“Finance Minister Javier Silvania is once again advocating for the legalization of undocumented migrants living on Curaçao, calling the move not only humane but also financially necessary for the island’s future. This is Silvania’s second attempt to address the issue after a similar push in May 2023,” reports Curaçao Chronicle.
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
Nicaraguan migrants represent over 60% of the workforce in Costa Rica’s coffee sector, reports World Crunch, highlighting “generally precarious wages and living conditions.”
🇦🇷 Argentina
A REMHU paper analyzes media discourse from 2016-2023 about Venezuelan and Senegalese migrants in Argentina, finding that “while the Senegalese are exoticized, racialized and associated with illegal practices in the labor market; the Venezuelans are represented as highly qualified persons who come to contribute to the country.”
🇧🇷 Brazil
In Brazilian media, meanwhile, a separate REMHU paper finds that “Venezuelan women are often associated with disorder, prostitution, and exploitation by the system, while Ukrainian women are portrayed as fragile and protective mothers, reinforcing Eurocentric discourses.”
Asylum, Protection, and Human Rights
🇨🇷 Costa Rica
After controversy over planned budget cuts (see last week’s AMB), the Costa Rican government plans to return funds for the country’s migration agency, reports Artículo66, noting that advocates remain concerned about capacity and funding for the Refugee Unit.
The Costa Rican government has announced a plan to host extraordinary sessions to expedite review of the around 200,000 pending asylum claims in the country, most of which were filed by Nicaraguan migrants. (La Prensa, Diario Extra)
🇬🇹 Guatemala
1.2 million Guatemalans are internally displaced, representing nearly 7% of the total population, according to an analysis of 2023 national survey data by UNHCR and Guatemala’s statistics institute. 53% of those affected are women, and 62% are under the age of 30; environmental disasters, followed by violence, are among the leading drivers of displacement. (press release, PubliNews)
🇨🇴 Colombia
A report by PAHO and partners explores forced displacement and public health in relation to armed conflict in Colombia.
🇺🇸 United States
Up to 600 military lawyers with no experience in immigration law are set to serve as temporary immigration judges, reports AP, noting, “At the same time, more than 100 immigration judges have been fired or left voluntarily after taking deferred resignations offered by the Trump administration.”
“Some former military lawyers worry the plan isn’t even legal,” explains Mother Jones.
“A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians is unlawful, protecting about 500,000 people from potential deportation. The decision follows repeated legal challenges and comes as leaders call for TPS extensions amid Haiti’s security crises,” reports The Haitian Times.
The Trump administration is moving to end a 2021 TPS designation for Venezuela, stripping 270,000 Venezuelan migrants of deportation protections and work permits. (CBS)
A pair of rulings by Attorney General Pam Bondi return policy from the first Trump administration “that victims of domestic abuse and families targeted by gangs or other threats generally would not qualify for asylum under U.S. law,” reports Washington Post.
“Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans: The case appears set to return to the Supreme Court in a decisive battle over President Trump’s use of the 18th-century law to deport migrants.” (The New York Times)
“Trump Administration Threatens Abrego Garcia With Deportation to El Salvador: A court had ruled that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia could not be sent back to his homeland, but now the administration sees a legal loophole.” (The New York Times)
And the admin also threatens with sending him to Eswatini, in Africa, too (CBS)
WOLA’s Adam Isacson highlights stories related to the US-Mexico border and human rights at the Weekly Border Update, noting, “A federal judge and child advocates spent the Sunday of Labor Day weekend reversing a pre-dawn Trump administration attempt to repatriate dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children without the due process that relevant law requires. The administration’s claim that they were “reuniting families” was contradicted by the children and families themselves, as well as a Guatemalan judicial body’s investigation.” (see last week’s AMB)
“'I feel totally traumatized': Unaccompanied minors from Guatemala describe attempted deportation” (ABC)
“The Trump administration is requiring parents looking to reunite with their children who crossed into the U.S. unaccompanied to attend immigration interviews, reports Valerie Gonzalez of the Associated Press. Some parents then have been arrested, with their children left in U.S. custody, advocates say,” explains National Immigration Forum’s The Forum Daily.
🇨🇦 Canada
Canada’s temporary visa program for Gazan family members of Canadian citizens or permanent residents “permits a maximum of 5,000 applicants. But as of July 24, only 1,750 applicants had been approved, and just 864 Gazan refugees had arrived in Canada through the program,” reports Canadian Affairs, noting, “Palestinian-Canadians who have applied for their family members to come to Canada under the program, as well as human rights groups such as Amnesty International, say the government has been woefully slow in processing applications or made it too difficult for Gazans to apply.”
Migratory Institutions and Regional and Bilateral Cooperation
🌎 Regional
“In 2025, the Global North's migration policies are intensifying the securitization and externalization of control, affecting fundamental rights in Latin America,” says Dejusticia, analyzing “how the region, despite pressures and setbacks, can sustain rights-based responses and build alternatives to the criminalization of human mobility.”
🌎🇺🇸 United States and Regional
At the same time that the Trump administration has tried ending TPS for Haitians (see above section), they have moved visa application processing away from the US embassy in Port-au-Prince to the Bahamas due to safety concerns. (Haiti Libre)
However, the Bahamas’ government “says it will not allow Haitian nationals to enter The Bahamas to apply for US visas, insisting that a new American policy designating Nassau as the processing site will not change this country’s entry rules,” reports The Tribune, noting that the Office of the Prime Minister asserted, “we will not grant entry to The Bahamas for the purpose of applying for a US visa.”
A lack of protection in the US for victims of domestic violence (see above section) is leading advocates in Canada to call for a revision of the US-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement to exempt individuals fleeing gender-based persecution so that they can apply for asylum in Canada when entering from the US. (The Globe and Mail)
Ecuador has agreed to receive up to 300 migrants per year from the US under a Safe Third Country Agreement as part of a quid pro quo for security assistance and funding. (El Universo, Reuters)
Belize is reviewing a proposal from the US to designate the country as a “Safe Third Country” for asylum seekers looking for protection in the US, reports LoveFM, explaining, “As of now, Belize has not agreed to the proposal, and further consultations are expected before any decision is made.”
“A federal appeals court ruled on August 13th that the Trump Administration could withhold spending foreign aid funds already appropriated by Congress,” notes Refugees International, warning that the move is “threatening protection systems for asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants across the Americas,” highlighting multiple cases across the region.
🇩🇴🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda and Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic’s Consul General met with Antigua and Barbuda’s Chief of Immigration “to address concerns surrounding Dominican nationals living on the island,” with a focus on “strengthening bilateral cooperation and ensuring fair, humane treatment of Dominican citizens, particularly those in irregular migratory status,” per Antigua News.
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic’s Chamber of Deputies has passed a resolution calling for the Abinader government to create a specialized institution within the General Directorate of Migration focused on preventing and prosecuting criminal offenses related to irregular migration, migrant smuggling, and human trafficking, reports El Nuevo Diario.
Labor Migration
🇲🇽 Mexico
Mexico’s Border Worker Visitor Card (TVTF) allows Guatemalan and Belizean citizens to work for one year periods in the southern border states of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, and Quintana Roo. Now, plans are in the works to expand the initiative to establish a temporary work program covering all of Mexico, reports Prensa Libre.
The TVTF allows workers to individually seek employment at different locations, whereas the new program would “operate under a work visa system, at the request of employers, as is the case in Canada and the United States.”
🇺🇸 United States
“Even as the Trump administration pursues a hardline approach to enforcing immigration law, some congressional Republicans acknowledge the need to expand immigration opportunities for workers in specialized sectors,” reports Roll Call, highlighting an effort by some Republican lawmakers to expand temporary labor migration opportunities in the agriculture, tourism, and circus industries.
Migrants in Transit
🌎 Regional
EFE highlights that Dominican migrants continue to attempt to migrate irregularly by sea to Puerto Rico despite intensified border enforcement efforts by the Trump administration.
On a similar note, Miami Herald reports “the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday repatriated nearly 200 migrants back to Haiti after they were interdicted at sea approximately 40 miles north of Cap-Haïtien.”
A Mixed Migration Centre report “explores the realities of migrant women in transit across South America.” Based on over 2,500 surveys across 7 countries, “The findings show that women face specific situations and added risks such as sexual violence, limited access to sexual and reproductive health, and an unequal burden of care work.”
Borders and Enforcement
🇺🇸 United States
“US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications,” reports The Guardian.
The Trump administration is hiding previously publicly available information on deportation flights, reports AP.
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), intentionally kept separate from immigration enforcement in the past, is now slated to form its own police force, reports Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal. The past wall between enforcement and the agency responsible for issuing visas, green cards and citizenship has made immigrants more comfortable sharing their information and attending interviews, Hackman notes.” (via The Forum Daily)
The Trump administration is reopening formerly closed prisons to hold immigration detainees: “These reused facilities show how deeply criminal and immigration enforcement infrastructures are entangled. They also illustrate how once prisons and jails are built, it can be difficult to ever fully close them,” says The Marshall Project.
“A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a judge’s order requiring Florida and the federal government to shut down and dismantle a controversial immigration detention facility built in the Everglades, widely referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz.”” (CNN; see AMB 8/25/25)
“Trump's Biggest ICE Raid Hits Hyundai Plant in Georgia: Nearly 500 workers, most from South Korea, detained in a dramatic worksite sweep that halted construction on the state’s largest industrial project.” (Migrant Insider)
More on Migration
🇲🇽 Mexico
“Remittances To Mexico Drop For Fourth Straight Month With Trump Policies Impacting Flux: The figure represents a 4.7 percent decrease compared to the same month last year. So far in 2025 remittances dropped 5.5 percent compared to 2024” (The Latin Times)