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Boston Globe
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
A look at how Trump's big bill could change the US immigration system
Advertisement That's what happened earlier in June when protests triggered unrest in parts of Los Angeles. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'The lawlessness happening in LA is ANOTHER reason why we need to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill IMMEDIATELY,' House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X. 'It provides the ESSENTIAL funding needed to secure our nation's borders.' Plenty, though, remains unclear about the legislation. 'One thing about this bill, these sections are super vague,' said Adam Isacson, a researcher with the Washington-based human rights advocacy organization WOLA, including multibillion-dollar expenditures sometimes explained in just a few vague lines. 'There's no real specificity in the bill about how it's going to be spent.' Here's a look at some key immigration sections of the 1,000-page bill, as approved by the House, and what it could mean for the US government's posture on immigration: Advertisement PROJECT: The wall WHAT THE BILL SAYS: The bill sets aside $46.5 billion for what the House Homeland Security Committee calls an 'integrated border barrier system,' including fencing, water barriers, law enforcement access roads and technology like movement sensors. The funding would complete 701 miles of primary walls and 900 miles of river barriers along the US-Mexico border, according to the committee. It is the bill's largest expenditure. 'Any lawmaker who claims to care about border security will need to put their money where their mouth is and work to advance these recommendations,' said the committee's chairman, Republican Representative Mark Green of Tennessee. THE IMPACT: Building the wall has long been one of Trump's signature promises, but its impacts beyond political symbolism are unclear. Illegal border crossings have plunged since Trump took office in January amid a string of orders on immigration, including the suspension of the asylum system. Simply ending asylum meant tens of thousands of people who would've surrendered to law enforcement instead of trying to avoid capture didn't even attempt to cross. Plus, the effectiveness of border walls is hotly debated, even in populated areas where barriers tend to be heavily reinforced. Human smugglers, often linked to drug cartels, have used tunnels, ladders and power tools to cross walls. But, experts note that though illegal crossings are down now, that can change rapidly. PROJECT: Detention facilities and staff WHAT THE BILL SAYS: The bill, which top White House aide and immigration hawk Stephen Miller has called 'the most essential piece of legislation currently under consideration in the entire Western World,' sets aside $45 billion to expand the network of immigrant detention facilities for adult migrants and families. Advertisement The standards in adult facilities, the bill notes, would be set at 'the sole discretion of the Secretary of Homeland Security.' More than $12 billion was also requested for 18,000 new ICE and Border Patrol personnel. THE IMPACT: ICE has said it wants to increase its current detention capacity from about 41,000 people to 100,000. It's part of what ICE's acting director, Todd Lyons, has suggested is a deportation system that could function 'like Amazon, trying to get your product delivered in 24 hours.' ICE currently has about 6,000 deportation officers, a number that's been stagnant for years. While expanding staff and detention centers would make it easier for the administration to increase deportations, even the tens of billions of dollars the bill requests may not be enough to meet Trump's goals. Miller has said ICE should be making 3,000 arrests per day of people in the country illegally. That's a vast increase over the roughly 650 arrested a day in the first five months of Trump's second term. But the plans are a boon to America's private prison industry, with stock prices for the two dominant companies, Geo Group Inc. and CoreCivic, up more than 50 percent since Trump's election. PROJECT: Immigration courts WHAT THE BILL SAYS: The legislation sets aside $1.25 billion for the immigration court system, with funds to hire more immigration judges and support staff and to expand courtroom capacity. The courts' annual budget currently stands at roughly $850 million. THE IMPACT: The immigration court system, which has roughly 700 judges, has struggled for years with chronic understaffing and a backlog that has reached more than 3.6 million cases. Judges typically take more than five years to make decisions. Advertisement It's a chaotic system, with overworked judges, a shortage of translators and immigrants who often don't have lawyers. The chaos has grown in recent weeks, with immigration courts seeing a spike in arrests outside courtrooms as agents wait to detain immigrants attending routine hearings. The arrests have spread fed confusion and fear, especially among asylum-seekers, who are accustomed to remaining free while their cases plod their way through the system. The proposed funding would be 'a significant increase, and from an institutional perspective it's urgently needed money,' said Greg Chen, director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. But he also believes the rising numbers of courthouse arrests reflect an administration looking for ways to bypass immigration courts. PROJECT: Immigration fees WHAT THE BILL SAYS: The bill overhauls the system of immigration costs, with dramatic increases and new fees imposed for once-free services. Applying for asylum, which has long been free, will now cost $1,000, with asylum-seekers paying another $550 for employment applications. Among other fee increases, appealing an immigration judge decision jumps from $110 to $900 and applying for temporary protected status, which allows people from certain countries facing civil unrest or natural disasters to stay temporarily in the U.S., goes from $50 to $500. THE IMPACT: For wealthier immigrants, the new fees will be an inconvenience. But for the vast majority of people even a few hundred dollars could be enough to make them change their plans.
Boston Globe
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
The US lines up Latin American cooperation for migrant deportations
In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But none of the agreements have been detailed for the public, raising concerns about evading international protections for refugees and asylum-seekers. Adam Isacson, a researcher with the Washington-based human rights advocacy organization WOLA, suspects many were little more than improvised 'handshake deals.' Advertisement They were requests made while Trump threatened tariffs and to take back the Panama Canal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved through the region while U.S. foreign aid was suspended, bestowing exemptions when merited. Trump made deals during his first presidency with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to take in asylum-seekers, though only Mexico and Guatemala actually received them. But the agreements in his second term are more varied, ranging from Honduras letting Venezuelans get off a U.S. plane and board a Venezuelan one in its territory last week, to El Salvador offering to imprison deportees — and even U.S. citizen prisoners. 'They're being much more ambitious now,' Isacson said. 'The idea of sending people to be warehoused like goods, to deport them to third countries wasn't an issue' in Trump's first term. The numbers remain relatively small, but images of deportees deplaning in shackles and deportees holding up signs asking for help in the Panama hotel where they're held are powerful. Advertisement 'Shock and awe' to get things started This is still a preliminary phase because Congress has not approved a new budget, Isacson said. 'While they're at that lowest level of resources they are doing all of the shock and awe possible,' he said. 'The idea is to scare them.' Now the migration flow that is visible is of deportations and migrants boarding boats in Panama to take them south to Colombia rather than migrants riding trains north through Mexico or massing at the U.S. border. In just a month, Mexico has received more than 3,300 foreign deportees, who advocates say were from at least seven nationalities. A number of them carried unusual U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents that read: 'Reason for transfer: removal. Name of new facility (immigration): MEXICO.' They appear to have nothing to do with the Remain in Mexico program from Trump's first term that made asylum-seekers wait out the U.S. process from Mexico. President Claudia Sheinbaum has said little about Mexico's participation other than highlighting her administration's willingness to cooperate. The U.S. Department of State has praised Mexico for receiving deportation flights and for returning migrants from elsewhere to their countries. Farther south the numbers are smaller, but the imagery has been stronger. Panama, a bridge in the other direction Panama, where more than 500,000 migrants passed en route to the U.S. border in 2023, suddenly became a bridge this month for U.S. efforts to deport asylum seekers. Nearly 300 U.S. deportees from 10 mostly Asian countries were held in a Panama City hotel. Some put signs to their windows that read 'Help' and 'We are not save (sic) in our country.' About one-third of those in the hotel who refused to voluntarily return to their countries were then sent to a remote camp back in the very jungle they had probably crossed in the other direction. One deportee in the camp told The Associated Press they were not informed of their rights and weren't told how long they would be in the camp, which concerned her because of its poor conditions. Advertisement Similar flights landed in Costa Rica last week and they were sent to a remote facility that had also previously received migrants headed north. In addition to those flights, 50 to 75 migrants are moving south through Costa Rica on their own daily, according to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica's vice minister of the interior. He raised the possibility of Panama and Colombia getting involved to organize boat trips south for migrants, but neither of those governments has publicly confirmed their involvement. Panama and Costa Rica say U.N. agencies are assisting with the repatriations and that the U.S. government is paying. The International Organization for Migration said that it was helping authorities provide basic services and facilitating voluntary repatriations 'when it is safe to do so.' 'With the old flow (south to north) the situation is pretty under control,' Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday. 'That shows that now the problem is coming in the opposite direction and we hope that can be managed in an orderly fashion.' Concerns about vulnerable migrants Even with the involvement of U.N. agencies, concerns abound about vulnerable migrants being passed from country to country and even sent back to countries they fled. Advocates worry the U.S. may be using third countries to deport migrants from countries where the U.S. may not have diplomatic relations or strained ones, to get around constraints in international law that are supposed to prevent people from being sent back to places they would not be safe. Advertisement Gretchen Kuhner, director of IMUMI, a nongovernmental legal services organization in Mexico, said recently a flight carrying Venezuelans from the United States to Venezuela made a stop in Cancun. But IMUMI wasn't able to speak with the migrants aboard directly to know if they wanted to try to request asylum in Mexico while in the country's territory. Isacson said among the Venezuelans sent back to that country have been people who deserted the armed forces, who would now be in the hands of the military. The risks could be even more dire for some migrants from Iran and Afghanistan. The region's governments are understandably sensitive about appearing to be aiding in Trump's deportation efforts, but Isacson said transparency will better shield them from those criticisms. Associated Press journalist Juan Zamorano contributed to this report from Panama City.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The US lines up Latin American cooperation for migrant deportations
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it's a U.S. immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas. It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the U.S. border is no longer worth it. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region's migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the U.S. hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. Making deals across Latin America See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But none of the agreements have been detailed for the public, raising concerns about evading international protections for refugees and asylum-seekers. Adam Isacson, a researcher with the Washington-based human rights advocacy organization WOLA, suspects many were little more than improvised 'handshake deals.' They were requests made while Trump threatened tariffs and to take back the Panama Canal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved through the region while U.S. foreign aid was suspended, bestowing exemptions when merited. Trump made deals during his first presidency with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to take in asylum-seekers, though only Mexico and Guatemala actually received them. But the agreements in his second term are more varied, ranging from Honduras letting Venezuelans get off a U.S. plane and board a Venezuelan one in its territory last week, to El Salvador offering to imprison deportees — and even U.S. citizen prisoners. 'They're being much more ambitious now,' Isacson said. 'The idea of sending people to be warehoused like goods, to deport them to third countries wasn't an issue' in Trump's first term. The numbers remain relatively small, but images of deportees deplaning in shackles and deportees holding up signs asking for help in the Panama hotel where they're held are powerful. 'Shock and awe' to get things started This is still a preliminary phase because Congress has not approved a new budget, Isacson said. 'While they're at that lowest level of resources they are doing all of the shock and awe possible,' he said. 'The idea is to scare them.' Now the migration flow that is visible is of deportations and migrants boarding boats in Panama to take them south to Colombia rather than migrants riding trains north through Mexico or massing at the U.S. border. In just a month, Mexico has received more than 3,300 foreign deportees, who advocates say were from at least seven nationalities. A number of them carried unusual U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents that read: 'Reason for transfer: removal. Name of new facility (immigration): MEXICO.' They appear to have nothing to do with the Remain in Mexico program from Trump's first term that made asylum-seekers wait out the U.S. process from Mexico. President Claudia Sheinbaum has said little about Mexico's participation other than highlighting her administration's willingness to cooperate. The U.S. Department of State has praised Mexico for receiving deportation flights and for returning migrants from elsewhere to their countries. Farther south the numbers are smaller, but the imagery has been stronger. Panama, a bridge in the other direction Panama, where more than 500,000 migrants passed en route to the U.S. border in 2023, suddenly became a bridge this month for U.S. efforts to deport asylum seekers. Nearly 300 U.S. deportees from 10 mostly Asian countries were held in a Panama City hotel. Some put signs to their windows that read 'Help' and 'We are not save (sic) in our country.' About one-third of those in the hotel who refused to voluntarily return to their countries were then sent to a remote camp back in the very jungle they had probably crossed in the other direction. One deportee in the camp told The Associated Press they were not informed of their rights and weren't told how long they would be in the camp, which concerned her because of its poor conditions. Similar flights landed in Costa Rica last week and they were sent to a remote facility that had also previously received migrants headed north. In addition to those flights, 50 to 75 migrants are moving south through Costa Rica on their own daily, according to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica's vice minister of the interior. He raised the possibility of Panama and Colombia getting involved to organize boat trips south for migrants, but neither of those governments has publicly confirmed their involvement. Panama and Costa Rica say U.N. agencies are assisting with the repatriations and that the U.S. government is paying. The International Organization for Migration said that it was helping authorities provide basic services and facilitating voluntary repatriations 'when it is safe to do so.' 'With the old flow (south to north) the situation is pretty under control,' Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday. 'That shows that now the problem is coming in the opposite direction and we hope that can be managed in an orderly fashion.' Concerns about vulnerable migrants Even with the involvement of U.N. agencies, concerns abound about vulnerable migrants being passed from country to country and even sent back to countries they fled. Advocates worry the U.S. may be using third countries to deport migrants from countries where the U.S. may not have diplomatic relations or strained ones, to get around constraints in international law that are supposed to prevent people from being sent back to places they would not be safe. Gretchen Kuhner, director of IMUMI, a nongovernmental legal services organization in Mexico, said recently a flight carrying Venezuelans from the United States to Venezuela made a stop in Cancun. But IMUMI wasn't able to speak with the migrants aboard directly to know if they wanted to try to request asylum in Mexico while in the country's territory. Isacson said among the Venezuelans sent back to that country have been people who deserted the armed forces, who would now be in the hands of the military. The risks could be even more dire for some migrants from Iran and Afghanistan. The region's governments are understandably sensitive about appearing to be aiding in Trump's deportation efforts, but Isacson said transparency will better shield them from those criticisms. ___ Associated Press journalist Juan Zamorano contributed to this report from Panama City. ___ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
The Independent
26-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
The US lines up Latin American cooperation for migrant deportations
Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it's a U.S. immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas. It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the U.S. border is no longer worth it. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region's migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the U.S. hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. Making deals across Latin America In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But none of the agreements have been detailed for the public, raising concerns about evading international protections for refugees and asylum-seekers. Adam Isacson, a researcher with the Washington-based human rights advocacy organization WOLA, suspects many were little more than improvised 'handshake deals.' They were requests made while Trump threatened tariffs and to take back the Panama Canal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved through the region while U.S. foreign aid was suspended, bestowing exemptions when merited. Trump made deals during his first presidency with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to take in asylum-seekers, though only Mexico and Guatemala actually received them. But the agreements in his second term are more varied, ranging from Honduras letting Venezuelans get off a U.S. plane and board a Venezuelan one in its territory last week, to El Salvador offering to imprison deportees — and even U.S. citizen prisoners. 'They're being much more ambitious now,' Isacson said. 'The idea of sending people to be warehoused like goods, to deport them to third countries wasn't an issue' in Trump's first term. The numbers remain relatively small, but images of deportees deplaning in shackles and deportees holding up signs asking for help in the Panama hotel where they're held are powerful. 'Shock and awe' to get things started This is still a preliminary phase because Congress has not approved a new budget, Isacson said. 'While they're at that lowest level of resources they are doing all of the shock and awe possible,' he said. 'The idea is to scare them.' Now the migration flow that is visible is of deportations and migrants boarding boats in Panama to take them south to Colombia rather than migrants riding trains north through Mexico or massing at the U.S. border. In just a month, Mexico has received more than 3,300 foreign deportees, who advocates say were from at least seven nationalities. A number of them carried unusual U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents that read: 'Reason for transfer: removal. Name of new facility (immigration): MEXICO.' They appear to have nothing to do with the Remain in Mexico program from Trump's first term that made asylum-seekers wait out the U.S. process from Mexico. President Claudia Sheinbaum has said little about Mexico's participation other than highlighting her administration's willingness to cooperate. The U.S. Department of State has praised Mexico for receiving deportation flights and for returning migrants from elsewhere to their countries. Farther south the numbers are smaller, but the imagery has been stronger. Panama, a bridge in the other direction Panama, where more than 500,000 migrants passed en route to the U.S. border in 2023, suddenly became a bridge this month for U.S. efforts to deport asylum seekers. Nearly 300 U.S. deportees from 10 mostly Asian countries were held in a Panama City hotel. Some put signs to their windows that read 'Help' and 'We are not save (sic) in our country.' About one-third of those in the hotel who refused to voluntarily return to their countries were then sent to a remote camp back in the very jungle they had probably crossed in the other direction. One deportee in the camp told The Associated Press they were not informed of their rights and weren't told how long they would be in the camp, which concerned her because of its poor conditions. Similar flights landed in Costa Rica last week and they were sent to a remote facility that had also previously received migrants headed north. In addition to those flights, 50 to 75 migrants are moving south through Costa Rica on their own daily, according to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica's vice minister of the interior. He raised the possibility of Panama and Colombia getting involved to organize boat trips south for migrants, but neither of those governments has publicly confirmed their involvement. Panama and Costa Rica say U.N. agencies are assisting with the repatriations and that the U.S. government is paying. The International Organization for Migration said that it was helping authorities provide basic services and facilitating voluntary repatriations 'when it is safe to do so.' 'With the old flow (south to north) the situation is pretty under control,' Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday. 'That shows that now the problem is coming in the opposite direction and we hope that can be managed in an orderly fashion.' Concerns about vulnerable migrants Even with the involvement of U.N. agencies, concerns abound about vulnerable migrants being passed from country to country and even sent back to countries they fled. Advocates worry the U.S. may be using third countries to deport migrants from countries where the U.S. may not have diplomatic relations or strained ones, to get around constraints in international law that are supposed to prevent people from being sent back to places they would not be safe. Gretchen Kuhner, director of IMUMI, a nongovernmental legal services organization in Mexico, said recently a flight carrying Venezuelans from the United States to Venezuela made a stop in Cancun. But IMUMI wasn't able to speak with the migrants aboard directly to know if they wanted to try to request asylum in Mexico while in the country's territory. Isacson said among the Venezuelans sent back to that country have been people who deserted the armed forces, who would now be in the hands of the military. The risks could be even more dire for some migrants from Iran and Afghanistan. The region's governments are understandably sensitive about appearing to be aiding in Trump's deportation efforts, but Isacson said transparency will better shield them from those criticisms. ___ Associated Press journalist Juan Zamorano contributed to this report from Panama City. ___
Associated Press
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
The US lines up Latin American cooperation for migrant deportations
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it's a U.S. immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas. It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the U.S. border is no longer worth it. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region's migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the U.S. hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. Making deals across Latin America In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But none of the agreements have been detailed for the public, raising concerns about evading international protections for refugees and asylum-seekers. Adam Isacson, a researcher with the Washington-based human rights advocacy organization WOLA, suspects many were little more than improvised 'handshake deals.' They were requests made while Trump threatened tariffs and to take back the Panama Canal. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved through the region while U.S. foreign aid was suspended, bestowing exemptions when merited. Trump made deals during his first presidency with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to take in asylum-seekers, though only Mexico and Guatemala actually received them. But the agreements in his second term are more varied, ranging from Honduras letting Venezuelans get off a U.S. plane and board a Venezuelan one in its territory last week, to El Salvador offering to imprison deportees — and even U.S. citizen prisoners. 'They're being much more ambitious now,' Isacson said. 'The idea of sending people to be warehoused like goods, to deport them to third countries wasn't an issue' in Trump's first term. The numbers remain relatively small, but images of deportees deplaning in shackles and deportees holding up signs asking for help in the Panama hotel where they're held are powerful. 'Shock and awe' to get things started This is still a preliminary phase because Congress has not approved a new budget, Isacson said. 'While they're at that lowest level of resources they are doing all of the shock and awe possible,' he said. 'The idea is to scare them.' Now the migration flow that is visible is of deportations and migrants boarding boats in Panama to take them south to Colombia rather than migrants riding trains north through Mexico or massing at the U.S. border. In just a month, Mexico has received more than 3,300 foreign deportees, who advocates say were from at least seven nationalities. A number of them carried unusual U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement documents that read: 'Reason for transfer: removal. Name of new facility (immigration): MEXICO.' They appear to have nothing to do with the Remain in Mexico program from Trump's first term that made asylum-seekers wait out the U.S. process from Mexico. President Claudia Sheinbaum has said little about Mexico's participation other than highlighting her administration's willingness to cooperate. The U.S. Department of State has praised Mexico for receiving deportation flights and for returning migrants from elsewhere to their countries. Farther south the numbers are smaller, but the imagery has been stronger. Panama, a bridge in the other direction Panama, where more than 500,000 migrants passed en route to the U.S. border in 2023, suddenly became a bridge this month for U.S. efforts to deport asylum seekers. Nearly 300 U.S. deportees from 10 mostly Asian countries were held in a Panama City hotel. Some put signs to their windows that read 'Help' and 'We are not save (sic) in our country.' About one-third of those in the hotel who refused to voluntarily return to their countries were then sent to a remote camp back in the very jungle they had probably crossed in the other direction. One deportee in the camp told The Associated Press they were not informed of their rights and weren't told how long they would be in the camp, which concerned her because of its poor conditions. Similar flights landed in Costa Rica last week and they were sent to a remote facility that had also previously received migrants headed north. In addition to those flights, 50 to 75 migrants are moving south through Costa Rica on their own daily, according to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica's vice minister of the interior. He raised the possibility of Panama and Colombia getting involved to organize boat trips south for migrants, but neither of those governments has publicly confirmed their involvement. Panama and Costa Rica say U.N. agencies are assisting with the repatriations and that the U.S. government is paying. The International Organization for Migration said that it was helping authorities provide basic services and facilitating voluntary repatriations 'when it is safe to do so.' 'With the old flow (south to north) the situation is pretty under control,' Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday. 'That shows that now the problem is coming in the opposite direction and we hope that can be managed in an orderly fashion.' Concerns about vulnerable migrants Even with the involvement of U.N. agencies, concerns abound about vulnerable migrants being passed from country to country and even sent back to countries they fled. Advocates worry the U.S. may be using third countries to deport migrants from countries where the U.S. may not have diplomatic relations or strained ones, to get around constraints in international law that are supposed to prevent people from being sent back to places they would not be safe. Gretchen Kuhner, director of IMUMI, a nongovernmental legal services organization in Mexico, said recently a flight carrying Venezuelans from the United States to Venezuela made a stop in Cancun. But IMUMI wasn't able to speak with the migrants aboard directly to know if they wanted to try to request asylum in Mexico while in the country's territory. Isacson said among the Venezuelans sent back to that country have been people who deserted the armed forces, who would now be in the hands of the military. The risks could be even more dire for some migrants from Iran and Afghanistan. The region's governments are understandably sensitive about appearing to be aiding in Trump's deportation efforts, but Isacson said transparency will better shield them from those criticisms. ___
