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Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
State department ramps up Trump anti-immigration agenda with new ‘remigration' office
The state department is seeking to create an 'Office of Remigration' as part of a restructuring of the US diplomatic service to facilitate Donald Trump's rightwing anti-immigration policies. The plan would in effect repurpose the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), which sought to manage and facilitate the flow of people into the US under previous administrations, into a bureau meant to help deport immigrants from the country. A congressional notification from the state department obtained by the Guardian said the office would be involved in 'repatriation tracking', would 'actively facilitate' the 'voluntary return of migrants' to other countries, and would work with the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement to 'advance the president's immigration agenda'. 'Reflecting core administration priorities, these offices will be substantially reorganized to shift focus towards supporting the administration's efforts to return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status,' the document read. The overhaul is part of a broader restructuring of the state department under its secretary, Marco Rubio, to create a 'more agile department, better equipped to promote America's interests and keep Americans safe across the world'. Under the plan, which was submitted to Congress this week, the state department would eliminate or consolidate more than 300 offices and bureaus, leading to the firing, or 'reduction in force', of more than 3,400 employees. The firings would not target members of consular affairs or law enforcement and other key roles of state. The administration this week ordered US embassies to stop scheduling appointments for student visas in connection with plans to expand social media vetting of applicants. The supreme court on Friday allowed Trump to revoke the legal status of more than 500,000 people from countries including Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under a programme meant to protect them from economic and political turmoil in their home countries. The charge against migration has been led by Stephen Miller, the combative aide to the president who has railed against programmes that allow migrants and refugees into the country. Related: How remigration became a buzzword for global far right Remigration has become a buzzword for the global far right, with European nationalist movements such as Alternative für Deutschland brushing off allegations of racism to promote flashy ad campaigns depicting mass deportations of migrants. Donald Trump embraced the term in September, saying he would 'immediately end the migrant invasion of America' and, referring to his presidential rival in last year's election, 'return Kamala's illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration)'. The PRM has been a conservative target under the Trump administration because of its role in resettling immigrants to the US and in distributing grants to groups they say promote migration. In an article last September for the American Conservative, Phillip Linderman, the chair of the conservative Ben Franklin Fellowship, said it was 'past time for a complete overhaul of State's PRM bureau'. Members of BFF have occupied prominent roles in the state department under Rubio, pointing to a conservative vision for remaking US diplomacy and its apparatus. 'It is remarkable how many well-informed conservative foreign policy strategists have never even heard of PRM,' wrote Linderman. 'Even those who closely follow immigration and border issues rarely understand the role PRM plays in accommodating and promoting the worldwide movement of illegal migrants.' Several people at PRM told the Guardian after Trump's election that they expected it could be shut down entirely. Instead, Rubio's plan would reassign diplomats who work in the agency's Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs and Office of International Migration to staff the new Office of Remigration.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
New Trump Office Has Name Reportedly Linked to Racist Policy of the Far Right
In a sweeping State Department overhaul, the Trump administration plans to create an 'Office of Remigration,' embracing a term closely linked with the European far-right involving the race-based mass deportation of immigrants. The revamp is part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to deport millions of undocumented migrants. According to a document sent by the State Department to six congressional committees and obtained by multiple news outlets, the new office would serve as a hub 'for immigration issues and repatriation tracking.' The office would be part of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, a State Department official cited by Axios said. The plan, sent for approval by July 1, has sparked alarm as the term 'remigration' has become a buzzword for the global far right. In Europe, the ideology calls for the expulsion or forced repatriation of non-white immigrants and their descendants, regardless of their legal status. It has been used by far-right parties such as Austria's Freedom party (FPÖ) which in June 2024 urged the EU to name a 'remigration commissioner.' 'The Office of Remigration will serve as the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]'s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking,' the document said. 'It will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the President's immigration agenda.' In a nod to remigration ideology, the Office of Remigration 'will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,' Wired reported. The Daily Beast has reached out to the State Department for comment. Wendy Via, CEO and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, described the plans as 'outrageous.' 'There is no hiding from the fact that the ultimate goal of 'remigration' is purely about ethnic cleansing. It is a terrible day for our country when 'remigration' proponents are crediting the US and Trump's administration for normalizing the term,' she told Wired. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, said on X: 'In a move likely intended to cause public outrage, Sec. Rubio is proposing eliminating the refugee and migration division at the State Department and replacing it with an 'Office of Remigration' — a term closely associated with the European far right and ethnic cleansing.' 'The way that it worked before, Population Refugee Migration was basically an entire bureau dedicated to bringing people into the United States,' a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Axios. 'It had the migration function—it's in the name—we're just reversing the flow of migrants who shouldn't be here to go out of the country.' The development comes weeks after DHS data revealed that Trump—despite his fiery anti-immigrant rhetoric—is actually deporting people at a slower pace than his predecessor Joe Biden. According to Reuters, the Trump administration deported 37,660 people in its first month in office. That's below the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns during Biden's final year as president.
Washington Post
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump's foreign aid freeze guts grassroots groups helping migrants in Latin America
MEXICO CITY — A busy shelter for migrants in southern Mexico has been left without a doctor. A program to provide mental health support for LGBTQ+ youth fleeing Venezuela was disbanded. In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so-called 'Safe Mobility Offices' where migrants can apply to enter the U.S. legally have shuttered. Barely a week into Donald Trump's new administration, his order to halt U.S. foreign assistance is having a profound effect on an issue that propelled him to the White House: migration. Across Latin America, grassroots organizations that assist migrants have been gutted, the already perilous trek northward has become more confusing and the future of programs to root out the violence, poverty and human rights abuses that has driven historic levels of migration in recent years are hanging by a thread. Trump, within hours of taking office Jan. 20, ordered a sweeping 90-day freeze on most U.S. foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department. The decision immediately halted thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide, forcing U.S. aid organizations and partners in the field to slash hundreds of aid workers. The United States is the world's largest source of foreign assistance by far, although several European countries allocate a much bigger share of their budgets. While aid to Africa dwarfs the roughly $2 billion that Latin America receives annually, the Western Hemisphere has long been a spending priority of both Democratic and Republican administrations. The region is closely tied to the U.S. through trade and migration as well as the flow of narcotics. And the rising influence of China and Russia in recent years has only enhanced the strategic importance of what used to be referred to, disparagingly, as 'Washington's backyard.' It's a message that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is likely to reinforce when starting Saturday he visits Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic in his first official overseas trip. Trump has made it a priority to deter migrants from entering the U.S. illegally and many of the aid programs he halted are funded through the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which provides humanitarian assistance to those fleeing persecution, crisis, or violence. One such beneficiary is the Peace Oasis of the Holy Spirit Amparito shelter in the southern Mexican city of Villahermosa. The shelter has been treading water for months as Mexican authorities — under pressure from the U.S. to stem migration flows — have dumped migrants rounded up throughout the country. The aid freeze dealt another blow, forcing the charitable organization that runs the facility to fire its only doctor as well as a social worker and child psychologist. In the days since Trump's order, the shelter has been appealing to the Mexican government for alternate funding for programs managed by the United Nations to pay for flights and bus rides to Mexico's southern border with Guatemala for migrants who want to return home. Currently, four families from Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador are stranded. 'The crisis is only going to worsen,' the shelter said in a statement. 'The most affected will be the population we serve.' Some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away from Villahermosa, in the Colombian capital of Bogota, aid workers are also scrambling. The city is a major hub for the more than 7 million Venezuelans who have fled economic collapse and abuse under Nicolás Maduro's increasingly authoritarian rule. Colombia is also the starting point for the more than 800,000 migrants — the majority Venezuelan — who have set out the past two years on the dangerous trek northward through once impenetrable Darien Gap connecting Central and South America on their way to the U.S. Among the most marginalized migrant groups are LGBTQ+ youth, who suffer significantly higher rates of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. The Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, for the past year has been readying a U.S.-funded project to provide mental health support to LGBTQ+ teenagers, from Venezuela as well Colombians internally displaced by decades of armed conflict. Leila Younes, a Lebanese gender specialist, had just arrived in Bogota to launch the project when she saw the devastating email with the stop-work order by the State Department. After breaking the news to local partners, she immediately returned home — and now the Human Rights Center is urgently seeking $300,000 to continue the research 'We spent a year preparing with our partners, and overnight, we were told to stop,' said Younes. 'No transition, no time to secure other funding.' Although the White House only paused humanitarian assistance for 90 days pending further review, Younes said she's under no illusion the work — and a sister project in Poland among Ukrainian youth fleeing the war with Russia — will resume. Trump on the campaign trail repeatedly blasted transgender youth and has issued sweeping orders instructing the federal government to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 'This isn't just a funding cut—it's part of a rollback on LGBTQI+ rights,' said Younes. The first Trump administration funded several programs by Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to integrate the Venezuelan diaspora as well as those by Costa Rica to resettle opponents of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The aid aligned closely with Trump's foreign policy goals to isolate anti-democratic governments and helped discourage migrants from heading to the U.S., said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. 'We're likely to see much of the foreign assistance in the region understood through a migration lens,' said Selee. 'That means stopping funding for programs that support migrants in transit but perhaps increasing funding for efforts to integrate returned migrants and those already living in other countries in the region.' What is less likely to resume, says Selee, is foreign aid attacking the root causes of migration — a priority, at least initially, of the Biden administration. Trump has also suspended offices opened by Biden in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala where migrants could apply for asylum and other legal pathways to enter the U.S. instead of trekking to the border. Traditionally, U.S. funding in Latin America has been channeled to support everything from child health nutrition, legal reform and press freedom. By far the biggest chunk funds security assistance to combat gangs, eradicate illegal crops and strengthen the rule of law. Liliana Ayalde, a former American ambassador to Brazil and Paraguay, said long term investments in state-building like the more than $10 billion spent on 'Plan Colombia' since 2000 generate enormous goodwill even if it is difficult to measure the number of people who chose not to uproot as a result of such assistance. 'Trust isn't something you can turn on and off in a conflict zone,' said Ayalde, who started her diplomatic career at the U.S. Agency for International Development and now serves on the board of two non-profit organizations who also saw their funding cut. 'Partners aren't going to trust the U.S. again if they don't feel safe and think we're in it for the long haul.' That may good news for China, Washington's top adversary for influence in Latin America. As Latin America has faded from the U.S. foreign policy agenda since the end of the Cold War, China has made deep inroads through billions in infrastructure investment and no-string attached lending. 'Champagne bottles are uncorking right now in Beijing,' said Adam Isacson, who has studied foreign aid trends for years and directs the defense oversight program at the Washington Office on Latin America. 'It's really hard for the U.S. to compete with a geopolitical rival when we're disarming unilaterally.' — Goodman reported from Miami. AP reporter Sonia Perez in Guatemala City and Astrid Suarez en Bogota, Colombia contributed to this report.
Associated Press
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Trump's foreign aid freeze guts grassroots groups helping migrants in Latin America
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A busy shelter for migrants in southern Mexico has been left without a doctor. A program to provide mental health support for LGBTQ+ youth fleeing Venezuela was disbanded. In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so-called 'Safe Mobility Offices' where migrants can apply to enter the U.S. legally have shuttered. Barely a week into Donald Trump's new administration, his order to halt U.S. foreign assistance is having a profound effect on an issue that propelled him to the White House: migration. Across Latin America, grassroots organizations that assist migrants have been gutted, the already perilous trek northward has become more confusing and the future of programs to root out the violence, poverty and human rights abuses that has driven historic levels of migration in recent years are hanging by a thread. Trump, within hours of taking office Jan. 20, ordered a sweeping 90-day freeze on most U.S. foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department. The decision immediately halted thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide, forcing U.S. aid organizations and partners in the field to slash hundreds of aid workers. The United States is the world's largest source of foreign assistance by far, although several European countries allocate a much bigger share of their budgets. While aid to Africa dwarfs the roughly $2 billion that Latin America receives annually, the Western Hemisphere has long been a spending priority of both Democratic and Republican administrations. The region is closely tied to the U.S. through trade and migration as well as the flow of narcotics. And the rising influence of China and Russia in recent years has only enhanced the strategic importance of what used to be referred to, disparagingly, as 'Washington's backyard.' It's a message that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is likely to reinforce when starting Saturday he visits Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic in his first official overseas trip. Shelter has been appealing for alternate funding Trump has made it a priority to deter migrants from entering the U.S. illegally and many of the aid programs he halted are funded through the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which provides humanitarian assistance to those fleeing persecution, crisis, or violence. One such beneficiary is the Peace Oasis of the Holy Spirit Amparito shelter in the southern Mexican city of Villahermosa. The shelter has been treading water for months as Mexican authorities — under pressure from the U.S. to stem migration flows — have dumped migrants rounded up throughout the country. The aid freeze dealt another blow, forcing the charitable organization that runs the facility to fire its only doctor as well as a social worker and child psychologist. In the days since Trump's order, the shelter has been appealing to the Mexican government for alternate funding for programs managed by the United Nations to pay for flights and bus rides to Mexico's southern border with Guatemala for migrants who want to return home. Currently, four families from Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador are stranded. 'The crisis is only going to worsen,' the shelter said in a statement. 'The most affected will be the population we serve.' Psychological, physical, and sexual abuse Some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) away from Villahermosa, in the Colombian capital of Bogota, aid workers are also scrambling. The city is a major hub for the more than 7 million Venezuelans who have fled economic collapse and abuse under Nicolás Maduro's increasingly authoritarian rule. Colombia is also the starting point for the more than 800,000 migrants — the majority Venezuelan — who have set out the past two years on the dangerous trek northward through once impenetrable Darien Gap connecting Central and South America on their way to the U.S. Among the most marginalized migrant groups are LGBTQ+ youth, who suffer significantly higher rates of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. The Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, for the past year has been readying a U.S.-funded project to provide mental health support to LGBTQ+ teenagers, from Venezuela as well Colombians internally displaced by decades of armed conflict. Leila Younes, a Lebanese gender specialist, had just arrived in Bogota to launch the project when she saw the devastating email with the stop-work order by the State Department. After breaking the news to local partners, she immediately returned home — and now the Human Rights Center is urgently seeking $300,000 to continue the research 'We spent a year preparing with our partners, and overnight, we were told to stop,' said Younes. 'No transition, no time to secure other funding.' Trump's first administration funded several programs Although the White House only paused humanitarian assistance for 90 days pending further review, Younes said she's under no illusion the work — and a sister project in Poland among Ukrainian youth fleeing the war with Russia — will resume. Trump on the campaign trail repeatedly blasted transgender youth and has issued sweeping orders instructing the federal government to terminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 'This isn't just a funding cut—it's part of a rollback on LGBTQI+ rights,' said Younes. The first Trump administration funded several programs by Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to integrate the Venezuelan diaspora as well as those by Costa Rica to resettle opponents of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The aid aligned closely with Trump's foreign policy goals to isolate anti-democratic governments and helped discourage migrants from heading to the U.S., said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. 'We're likely to see much of the foreign assistance in the region understood through a migration lens,' said Selee. 'That means stopping funding for programs that support migrants in transit but perhaps increasing funding for efforts to integrate returned migrants and those already living in other countries in the region.' What is less likely to resume, says Selee, is foreign aid attacking the root causes of migration — a priority, at least initially, of the Biden administration. Trump has also suspended offices opened by Biden in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala where migrants could apply for asylum and other legal pathways to enter the U.S. instead of trekking to the border. 'Trust isn't something you can turn on and off' Traditionally, U.S. funding in Latin America has been channeled to support everything from child health nutrition, legal reform and press freedom. By far the biggest chunk funds security assistance to combat gangs, eradicate illegal crops and strengthen the rule of law. Liliana Ayalde, a former American ambassador to Brazil and Paraguay, said long term investments in state-building like the more than $10 billion spent on 'Plan Colombia' since 2000 generate enormous goodwill even if it is difficult to measure the number of people who chose not to uproot as a result of such assistance. 'Trust isn't something you can turn on and off in a conflict zone,' said Ayalde, who started her diplomatic career at the U.S. Agency for International Development and now serves on the board of two non-profit organizations who also saw their funding cut. 'Partners aren't going to trust the U.S. again if they don't feel safe and think we're in it for the long haul.' That may good news for China, Washington's top adversary for influence in Latin America. As Latin America has faded from the U.S. foreign policy agenda since the end of the Cold War, China has made deep inroads through billions in infrastructure investment and no-string attached lending. 'Champagne bottles are uncorking right now in Beijing,' said Adam Isacson, who has studied foreign aid trends for years and directs the defense oversight program at the Washington Office on Latin America. 'It's really hard for the U.S. to compete with a geopolitical rival when we're disarming unilaterally.'
