At Darien Gap, Migration Slows From Torrent to Trickle Under Trump
Virginia Allen | February 23, 2025
Human migration through the Darien Gap connecting Panama and Colombia has fallen by more than 90% when compared with the same time last year, according to Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.
“The numbers are fractional compared to where they were,” he said, adding that he asked a senior Panamanian official why there has been such a decrease in migration through the Darien Gap and received a one-word reply, “Trump.”
“The policies at the border, which are no longer catch-and-release, but … 100% detention and expulsion, [have] reached the world,” Bensman told The Daily Signal.
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, there was a slowing of migration through the gap as Mexico began cracking down on illegal immigration ahead of the U.S. election and as some Venezuelans stayed home to vote in the 2024 election in hopes strongman President Nicolás Maduro would not maintain control of the South American nation.
The Darien Gap is a 60-mile dense rain forest that connects Panama and Colombia. No roads run through the gap, meaning that migrants traveling north from South America have to cross the treacherous terrain on foot. Migrants who enter the gap and attempt to cross often do so without proper supplies or enough food and water. Sickness from drinking the river water or injuries in the Darien Gap can be deadly since the lack of roads provides little opportunity for rescue.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/23/darien-gap-migration-slows-from-torrent-trickle-under-trump/
