Progress Report: Has Panama Closed the Notorious ‘Darien Gap’ Mass Migration Route to the U.S. Border as Promised?
An early Center for Immigration Studies assessment from the field
By Todd Bensman on September 9, 2024
PANAMA CITY, Panama — On the first day of July 2024, new Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino began his five-year term and quickly went to work implementing a chief promise that no previous contemporary leader of Panama has attempted.1 Within hours of inauguration, President Mulino ordered the first tentative steps to “close” the Darien Gap migrant passageway on his border with Colombia, an unprecedented policy U-turn for Panama with significant consequences for the United States.
The Darien Gap is the roadless 70-mile part of the isthmus that connects North and South America, through which a record-breaking 1.5 million foreign nationals from 170 countries passed from 2021 to mid-2024 en route to planned illegal U.S. southern border crossings.2
Colombia and Panama had never experienced such high numbers as in those three-plus years, and foot traffic was continuing at the record levels through to Mulino’s July 1 accession as president.3
The purpose of this report is to assess early progress of President Mulino’s highly consequential closure initiative, to chart its direction, provide a medium-term prognosis, and identify challenges to achieving Panamanian goals that might improve current U.S. border security and immigration-control management.
https://cis.org/Report/Progress-Report-Has-Panama-Closed-Notorious-Darien-Gap-Mass-Migration-Route-US-Border
