Illegal Immigration Thoroughfare Left Trashed, Environmentally Damaged As Migrant Influx Subsides
Opinion by Audrey Streb • 12h
Crowds of illegal immigrants who trekked through the vast jungle region between Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap while making their way to the U.S. southern border left behind heaps of garbage, gasoline and fecal matter, which South American officials say has resulted in an environmental crisis in the region.
Up to 3,000 migrants would routinely cross the dangerous region every day until illegal immigration plummeted by 94% following President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, according to February 2025 data from Panama’s National Migration Service. The 2,500 tons of trash left behind in the region by migrants traveling to the U.S. southern border during former President Joe Biden’s term has amassed a $12 million cleanup cost, according to the Associated Press.
“[The United States is] not cleaning up their mess,” Panamanian Environmental Minister Juan Carlos Navarro told the AP. “If the United States is responsible because it opened its borders, then the United States should pay for it.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/illegal-immigration-thoroughfare-left-trashed-environmentally-damaged-as-migrant-influx-subsides/ar-AA1EdHvb?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=d31370b946254c86a1db3f12df2ef0e8&ei=49
