14,000 U.S.-bound migrants have returned south since Trump’s border changes, UN says
Nation Aug 29, 2025 11:46 AM EDT
MEXICO CITY (AP) — More than 14,000 mainly Venezuelan migrants who hoped to reach the United States have reversed course and turned south since U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown began, according to a report published Friday by the governments of Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica.
The phenomenon, known as “reverse flow” migration, is largely made up of Venezuelan migrants who fled their country’s long-running economic, social and political crises only to encounter U.S. immigration policy no longer open to asylum-seekers.
Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Migration through the treacherous Darien Gap on the border of Colombia and Panama peaked in 2023 when more than half a million migrants crossed. That flow slowed somewhat in 2024, but dried up almost completely early this year.
Friday’s report, published with support of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that northward migration had dropped 97% this year.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/14000-u-s-bound-migrants-have-returned-south-since-trumps-border-changes-un-says
