BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei issued a decree on Wednesday curbing immigration to the South American nation, a move coinciding with the immigration restrictions put in place by the Trump administration.
In a country that has long prided itself on its openness to immigrants, Milei’s abrupt measures and declaration that newcomers were bringing “chaos and abuse” to Argentina drew criticism from his political opponents and prompted comparisons to US President Donald Trump.
Milei’s government welcomed those parallels to its close American ally, with presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni saying it was “time to honor our history and make Argentina great again.”
Wednesday’s executive order tightens restrictions on citizenship, requiring immigrants to spend two uninterrupted years in Argentina or make a significant financial investment in the country to secure an Argentine passport.
Immigrants seeking permanent residency must show proof of income or “sufficient means” and have clean criminal records in their home countries.
The decree makes it much easier for the government to deport migrants who enter the country illegally, falsify their immigration documents or commit minor crimes in Argentina. Previously, authorities could only expel or deny entry to a foreigner with a conviction of more than three years.
It also asks the judiciary to fast-track otherwise lengthy immigration court proceedings.
“For some time now, we’ve had regulations that invite chaos and abuse by many opportunists who are far from coming to this country in an honest way,” Adorni told reporters. The presidential spokesperson is also the main candidate for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party running in the key Buenos Aires legislative elections Sunday.
In a big shift, the new decree also charges foreigners to access Argentina’s public health care and education while mandating that all travelers to the country hold health insurance. Adorni claimed that public hospitals had spent some $100 million on treating foreigners last year, without offering evidence.
“This measure aims to guarantee the sustainability of the public health system, so that it ceases to be a profit center financed by our citizens,” he said.
Foreign residents from all over the world have been guaranteed free access to Argentina’s extensive education and health systems since a 2003 law under then-President Néstor Kirchner, a left-leaning populist. Public universities and hospitals are now struggling to cope with sharp government spending cuts under Milei’s austerity program.
Right-wing politicians for years have railed against what Adorni described on Wednesday as “health tours,” in which people hop over the border, get treatment and go back home. Already, several northern provinces and the city of Buenos Aires have started charging non-resident foreigners fees to access health care.
Adorni said the decree allows universities to introduce fees for foreign studies if they so choose.
Critics worried that the new rules would challenge Argentina’s tradition of openness written over waves of migration through the decades. Although bursts of xenophobia have prompted crackdowns at various moments of turmoil, Argentina has welcomed surges of foreigners from all over Latin America, the Arab world, Asia and, more recently, Russia, offering a path to citizenship and ensuring their right to basic services.
Argentina orders immigration crackdown with new decree to ‘make Argentina great again’
https://arab.news/9fv7v
Argentina orders immigration crackdown with new decree to ‘make Argentina great again’
Counter protesters chase off conservative influencer during Minneapolis immigration crackdown
MINNEAPOLIS: Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement though not yet deployed to city streets.
There have been protests every day since the Department of Homeland Security ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers.
Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-ICE demonstration, saying on social media beforehand that he intended to “burn a Qur’an” on the steps of City Hall. But it was not clear if he carried out that plan.
Only a small number of people showed up for Lang’s demonstration, while hundreds of counterprotesters converged at the site, yelling over his attempts to speak and chasing the pro-ICE group away. They forced at least one person to take off a shirt they deemed objectionable.
Lang appeared to be injured as he left the scene, with bruises and scrapes on his head.
Lang was previously charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes before receiving clemency as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Jan. 6 defendants last year. Lang recently announced that he is running for US Senate in Florida.
In Minneapolis, snowballs and water balloons were also thrown before an armored police van and heavily equipped city police arrived.
“We’re out here to show Nazis and ICE and DHS and MAGA you are not welcome in Minneapolis,” protester Luke Rimington said. “Stay out of our city, stay out of our state. Go home.”
National Guard ‘staged and ready’
The state guard said in a statement that it had been “mobilized” by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to support the Minnesota State Patrol “to assist in providing traffic support to protect life, preserve property, and support the rights of all Minnesotans to assemble peacefully.”
Maj. Andrea Tsuchiya, a spokesperson for the guard, said it was “staged and ready” but yet to be deployed.
The announcement came more than a week after Walz, a frequent critic and target of Trump, told the guard to be ready to support law enforcement in the state.
During the daily protests, demonstrators have railed against masked immigration officers pulling people from homes and cars and other aggressive tactics. The operation in the deeply liberal Twin Cities has claimed at least one life: Renee Good, a US citizen and mother of three, was shot by an ICE officer during a Jan. 7 confrontation.
On Friday a federal judge ruled that immigration officers cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including while observing officers during the Minnesota crackdown.
Living in fear
During a news conference Saturday, a man who fled civil war in Liberia as a child said he has been afraid to leave his Minneapolis home since being released from an immigration detention center following his arrest last weekend.
Video of federal officers breaking down Garrison Gibson’s front door with a battering ram Jan. 11 become another rallying point for protesters who oppose the crackdown.
Gibson, 38, was ordered to be deported, apparently because of a 2008 drug conviction that was later dismissed. He has remained in the country legally under what’s known as an order of supervision. After his recent arrest, a judge ruled that federal officials did not give him enough notice that his supervision status had been revoked.
Then Gibson was taken back into custody for several hours Friday when he made a routine check-in with immigration officials. Gibson’s cousin Abena Abraham said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told her White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered the second arrest.
The White House denied the account of the re-arrest and that Miller had anything to do with it.
Gibson was flown to a Texas immigration detention facility but returned home following the judge’s ruling. His family used a dumbbell to keep their damaged front door closed amid subfreezing temperatures before spending $700 to fix it.
“I don’t leave the house,” Gibson said at a news conference.
DHS said an “activist judge” was again trying to stop the deportation of “criminal illegal aliens.”
“We will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
Gibson said he has done everything he was supposed to do: “If I was a violent person, I would not have been out these past 17 years, checking in.”
