Photo courtesy of Gustavo Ross via Wikimedia Commons. The United States, Panama, and Colombia may partner on a campaign to stop immigration through the Darién Gap between Panama and Colombia.
By Kiera McLaughlin ’26
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article mentions sexual assault and murder.
The United States, Panama and Colombia have issued a new plan to end migration through the Darién Gap, a jungle passage between Colombia and Panama. According to Al Jazeera, this 60-day campaign was created to “end the illicit movement of people and goods through the Darién by both land and maritime corridors,” and will implement “new lawful and flexible pathways for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees,” per a U.S. Department of Homeland Security statement. The Associated Press described the third part of this new plan as an investment to lessen poverty and build more jobs in the communities that are on the border of Colombia and Panama to discourage trade from smuggling migrants.
According to The Guardian, this announcement comes as Title 42 — a law introduced by the Trump administration — expires on May 11. Title 42 currently prohibits migrants from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Initially introduced as a COVID-19 precaution, the policy forces Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Haitian and Cuban migrants to make official claims and reach certain requirements to apply for asylum. CNN reported that the Biden administration has since expanded Title 42. This expansion empowered immigration officials to send migrants who would have previously qualified for asylum back to Mexico or other countries of origin. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, explained that the Biden administration is “concerned that there may be an increase in the level of migration” once Title 42 expires, as The Guardian reported.
Thousands of people, including children, made the 66-mile hike through the Darién Gap last year because of economic and humanitarian crises in their home country, CNN reported. Panamanian migrant officials stated that 88,000 migrants have made the trip this year—seven times the number of people that migrated this time last year, per the Guardian. The officials predicted that up to 400,000 people will travel through the Darién Gap in 2023.
From January to October 2022, 32,488 children traveled through the Darién Gap, which is 10 percent more than was recorded the year before, UNICEF reported. UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hannan Sulieman explained that “violence, poverty and the hope to find better life conditions drive families with children to flee their homes and face threats in inhospitable environments such as the Darién Gap.”
The Associated Press explains that the passway is one of the most dangerous parts of the route to the U.S. border and people are often sexually assaulted, robbed and killed. “The stories we have heard from those who have crossed the Darién Gap attest to the horrors of the journey. Many have lost their lives or gone missing, while others come out of it with significant health issues, both physical and mental,” Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration in Panama, Giuseppe Loprete, said.
In February of this year, a team from CNN spent five days passing through the Darién Gap to report on the treatment of migrants along the way. CNN reported that each migrant must pay a minimum of 400 dollars to smugglers for entry, but must navigate the jungle passage alone. Cartels earn tens of millions of dollars through smuggling each year. One U.S. State Department official explained that the cartels’ fees are “definitely big business, but it is a business that has no thought towards safety or suffering or well-being … just collecting the money and moving people,” CNN reported.
Latin American migrants are not the only ones to use this dangerous and deadly passage to the U.S. Many migrants from around the world also travel through the Darién Gap. CNN reported that around 2,200 Chinese citizens went through the passage in January and February of this year, according to Panamanian data.
Blaine Bookey, the legal director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies told The Guardian that she doubted authorities would be able to stop migrants from traveling through the Darién Gap. According to Bookey, “when people are fleeing for their lives and there is no opportunity to seek safety, they will find a way.” Along with a lack of confidence in the authorities’ abilities to stop migrants, people are uncertain if this new plan will deter smuggling. Nicole Phillips, the legal director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigration policy non-profit, said “[migrants] will find other ways, and the smugglers who want to make money will also find other ways that are more dangerous.” She continued by explaining that “the thought of [the U.S., Panama and Colombia] further militarizing in order to keep migrants out is terrifying for people’s safety,” the Guardian reported.
The 60-day campaign to stop migration has not started yet and is still being considered, according to Associated Press, but attempts to prepare for the end of the Title 42 restrictions are imminent.