The Argentina’s far-right administration of Javier Milei established a repressive migration program on Friday, granting federal security forces broad powers to detain and deport foreign residents and tourists under suspicion of undocumented status.
The Government of President Javier Milei implemented a harsh migration control scheme in Argentina, empowering federal security forces to persecute, detain, and deport foreign residents and tourists.
This highly controversial measure, officially designated as the Migratory Security Program, was formalized through Resolution 551/2026 and published on June 19 in the Official Gazette. The Executive Decree, designed by the Ministry of Security, represents a sharp turn toward punitive policies directly modeled after the militarized border operations executed in the United States.
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Through this legal framework, the national government establishes specialized migratory security divisions within the Federal Police, the National Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture and the Airport Security Police (PSA) to conduct surveillance and enforcement.
Trump-inspired Migration Hunts
According to the new decree, these specialized security units will operate in close coordination with the National Migration Directorate. Their primary duties include intelligence gathering, prevention of administrative infractions, border patrol and direct participation in the physical apprehension and deportation of non-citizens.
Human Rights organizations and social movements have warned that this strategy effectively legalizes the institutionalized harassment and profiling of the migrant community. By expanding police authority to check papers and detain people arbitrarily, the state systematically criminalizes thousands of South American workers.
The political alignment between the Argentinean head of State and the chief of the White House, Donald Trump, serves as the ideological foundation for this crackdown. Officials within the Ministry of Security have defended the discriminatory program as a necessary step to optimize border security and control migratory flows. However, progressive observers emphasize that these actions replicate the xenophobic rhetoric of the U.S. far-right.
The strategy utilizes security apparatuses to create a climate of fear among vulnerable populations while diverting public attention from the severe economic crisis currently unfolding across the nation.
Argentina expulsa a 14.000 migrantes en 6 meses. El Gobierno de Milei endureció la política migratoria, con nuevas restricciones y agencias de control fronterizo. #Argentina #Migración #Milei #SurGlobal #teleSUR pic.twitter.com/eYN9icmVcT
— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) June 16, 2026
Human Rights Threatened
The decision has sparked widespread opposition from diverse social, political and religious sectors within the South American country. The Argentinean Catholic Church has formally raised its concerns regarding the dangerous humanitarian consequences of these mass enforcement procedures, warning that these arbitrary sweeps serve as a tool for political communication and media propaganda rather than addressing genuine social integration or protecting human rights.
Social organizations warn that modifying administrative categories and restricting regularisation pathways will exacerbate social vulnerability. Foreign residents will face severe obstacles in accessing legal identity documents, public healthcare services, state education and formal employment channels, forcing them into precarious underground labor markets.
This hostile administrative environment threatens the basic dignity of immigrant families who have historically contributed to the social and economic fabric of Argentina, consolidating a systematic structure of exclusion under the pretext of national security.
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