Trump administratino's migrant hot potato policy
Feb. 24, 2025
The U.S military transported about 15 immigration detainees from Texas to the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday. The new migrants come in days after a first group of deportees was sent from Guantánamo to Honduras and from there to Venezuela. (See Friday’s post.)
Authorities did not identify the nationalities of the new deportees, nor did it confirm exact figures. But a government official said they were in the category of “high-threat illegal aliens,” and therefore were being held in Camp 6, a prison that until last month housed detainees in the war on terrorism, reports the New York Times.
Hundreds of migrants from around have been deported from the U.S. to Central American countries in recent weeks — while the total number remains small, the U.S. administration’s approach removes a number of hurdles the hurdles Donald Trump faced in trying to curb illegal immigration in his first term, reports the New York Times.
Trump’s third country deportation policy alleviates overcrowding, and removes people from countries like China, Afghanistan and Iran, where a lack of diplomatic relations with the United States makes deportations particularly challenging. But it also, crucially, “allows the United States to sidestep international legal obligations to offer people who may face life-threatening conditions in their home countries the opportunity to ask for asylum.”
Many of the third country deportees sent to Central America don’t know where they’ve arrived to, reports the New York Times. In Panama they were held in a hotel, unable to leave or speak with lawyers. Officials in Panama have said that more than half of the migrants have agreed to be deported to their countries of origin — though many fled to seek asylum. The others have been sent to a migration camp on the outskirts of Panama’s Darién jungle.
Haiti’s spiraling crisis - a year later
A year after Haiti entered an acute gang crisis that ended Ariel Henry’s government, conditions have only worsened, reports the Guardian: “Violence intensified again towards the end of last year. Armed criminals control 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Already desperate circumstances have become much more so: more than a million people – around one in 10 of the population – have now been displaced, triple the level a year ago. Half are experiencing acute food insecurity.”
Criminal gangs have actually joined forces into a coalition, Viv Ansanm, which “twice last year closed down the main international airport, burned and pillaged hospitals, shuttered schools and provoked one of the region’s worst humanitarian crises,” reports the Miami Herald.
Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council said it’s aiming to hold national elections by Nov. 15 — the country hasn’t held elections since 2016. But Caribbean leaders are divided over whether elections in the current context of insecurity would be productive.
Under current conditions, holding long delayed elections could backfire, “allowing gangs to play a deciding role in the vote and entrenching their power,” according to an International Crisis Group report.
“Haiti’s transitional authorities should strive to overcome internal wrangling and chart a realistic path to safe elections and constitutional reform. With future U.S. funding in doubt, the UN Security Council must find a way to support either the existing international security force or a peacekeeping mission to weaken the gangs.”
This weekend a Kenyan police officer was killed in Haiti — the first death of a participant in the Multinational Security Support Mission, the international contingent deployed since last June to support Haiti’s security forces fight criminal gangs, reports the New York Times. (See also Miami Herald.)
Colombia
Cúcuta’s mayor imposed a 48-hour curfew on residents this weekend, after combatants of Colombia’s largest armed group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), attacked police stations with assault rifles and grenades and destroyed toll booths with car bombs. The Catatumbo region has been in the throws of violent conflict for over a month, reports the Guardian.
Regional Relations
Caribbean leaders want Trump to come for a visit — and along with the invitation they also plan, “as soon as practically possible,” to try to get a meeting with his senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Friday. (Miami Herald)
Argentine President Javier Milei took his pitch for a free trade accord with the US to last week’s CPAC, saying he wants to be first in line to reach a deal and that the Mercosur trade bloc is an obstacle. (Bloomberg)
Milei met with Trump on the sidelines of CPAC on Saturday, they discussed Argentine leader's "groundbreaking economic reforms" and developing closer ties between the nations, according to the White House. (AFP)
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced her government has arrived at an agreement with the United States to extend an extradition treaty that she had previously pledged to discontinue. (Al Jazeera)
“Trump administration appointees running the main United States aid agency have in recent days fired hundreds of employees who help manage responses to urgent humanitarian crises around the world,” reports the New York Times.
Mexico and Canada “are really the ones that are speaking truth to power right now,” U.S. congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said in a media interview last week. (Guardian)
Mexico
Mexico’s government is reviewing a petition by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longtime leader of the Sinaloa cartel who is jailed in the United States, to be returned to Mexico for trial, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday. (Associated Press)
Brazil
Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes issued an order Friday evening to suspend the social media platform Rumble, a popular venue among American conservatives. It is the latest move in the Brazilian judiciary’s ongoing dispute with social media outlets owned by allies of U.S. President Donald Trump over the limits of freedom of expression in an era of deep political division, reports the Washington Post. (See last Wednesday’s post.)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday that his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, is acknowledging his guilt in a case in which he’s accused of plotting a coup to stay in power after his 2022 electoral defeat by focusing on a campaign for amnesty, reports the Associated Press. (See last Wednesday’s post.)
The Washington Post followed Lincoln Gakiya, a São Paulo state prosecutor whose life has been threatened by the Primeiro Comando da Capital, due to his aggressive investigations into the gang.
The city of Buriticupu in Brazil’s Amazon, declared a state of emergency after huge sinkholes opened up, threatening hundreds of homes, reports Reuters.
Ecuador
Ecuadorean Indigenous leader, Leonidas Iza, said he is leaning toward supporting Correista Luisa González in April’s runoff election. Iza obtained 5% in the election earlier this month, and his voters could be decisive in determining the second round between González and incumbent Daniel Noboa. (Bloomberg)
Noboa will seek military cooperation with allied nations — it hasn’t been specified which — to support for the Ecuadorean police and armed forces, who are battling criminal groups under a state of emergency that has lasted over a year. (Associated Press)
Critter Corner
Jaguar smuggling in Suriname shows how wildlife trafficking is part of the broader transnational criminal economy in Latin America, with the same groups moving wildlife, contraband, migrants and illicit drugs, reports the Washington Post.
In Costa Rica, the deportation of third country nationals is causing some concerns. The process appears to be in violation of Costa Rican and international law.