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.

Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan hit a brief stumbling block on January 26 when Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, refused to allow two US flights carrying deported Colombian migrants to land. Petro’s complaint was that the US government was treating the migrants like criminals by repatriating them in military planes.

Rift between US and Colombia, threats of tariffs on Mexico, designs on Panama Canal and mass deportations could encourage closer ties with Beijing