Notorious migrant route to US suddenly shows signs of life as migrants hoof it back home with Trump’s return

Migrants who once flooded the U.S. southern border under the Biden-Harris administration are now using the Darien Gap to head home or travel to other foreign countries instead of heading toward the U.S.

The border crisis, which became a major issue for both former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris during their campaigns, saw record-high encounters, with officials estimating a total of 10.8 million encounters since fiscal year 2021. With the new administration tightening immigration policies, migrants are reportedly in a “reserve flow,” returning home through routes like the Darien Gap, according to the Associated Press.

One major route used to travel to the U.S. southern border, the Darien Gap—a dense jungle region—is now reportedly being used by migrants to flee from the U.S. border due to Trump’s efforts to secure it. Smugglers, according to AP News, are charging between $200 and $250 per person to transport people back through this “reverse flow,” including minors.

In Trump’s first month at the White House, both the U.S.-Mexico border and international crossing ports went quiet, with reports showing sharp declines in illegal migrant encounters. Since his inauguration, Trump has signed a series of executive orders aimed at ending taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal migrants, designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist entities, and declaring a national emergency at the southern border.

Over the years, the Darien Gap has been a treacherous passage for illegal migrants due to the presence of organized crime and smugglers making as much as $14 million per day. Spanning 40 miles wide and 100 miles long between Panama and Colombia, over half a million migrants crossed through the Darien Gap in 2023, contributing to a record number of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border that year.

However, in July 2024, Panama’s National Border Service, which functions as the country’s version of border patrol, reported a 9,000-person drop in crossings from Colombia compared to the same time the year prior, crediting their efforts to reduce illegal migration through the Darien Gap.

Along with his executive orders, Trump gave Border Czar Tom Homan and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem the authority to direct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest “criminal aliens,” including rapists and murderers.

But, according to AP News, not all migrants are returning home despite the stricter border crackdown; some are heading to other countries.

“There’s no way I’m going back to Venezuela. There are many of us who don’t want to go back. They are going to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia—just like before,” Celia Alcala, a woman waiting for a boat ride through the Darien Gap, told the outlet.

Since Trump’s inauguration, the president has pushed to fulfill his campaign promise of conducting a mass deportation operation and addressing the border crisis, with one of his first actions being the shutdown of the CBP One app. The app, which gained popularity under Biden, had allowed an estimated 166 million asylum seekers to secure appointments with U.S. immigration officials over the past two years, according to CBS News.

“When Trump arrived and eliminated the application (CBP One), all our hopes went up in smoke,” 36-year-old Venezuelan Karla Castillo, traveling with her younger sister, told AP News.

With mass deportations still underway, it remains unclear exactly how many illegal migrants were allowed to pass through the southern border under the Biden-Harris administration. However, Noem estimated on Fox News that hundreds of thousands of criminal migrants have been allowed into the U.S. over the past four years, including thousands connected to gangs.

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