EAGLE PASS: A U.S. Border Patrol agent speaks with immigrants who recently crossed the Rio Grande River into the United States. John Moore/Getty Images
So far, in 2024, encounter numbers have decreased overall, but they remain high for certain countries. In the first five months of the year, CBP agents encountered more than nine hundred thousand migrants and asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The majority hailed from just six countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, and Colombia, in descending order.
U.S. border authorities have encountered
more than 647,000 migrants from highlighted
countries from January to May 2024.
Why Six Countries Account for Most Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico Border
The Joe Biden administration has responded by designing policies to mitigate “root causes” of migration and displacement, enacting temporary humanitarian protections for individuals from certain countries, while making it more difficult for migrants to apply for asylum in the United States. But push factors—including organized crime-fueled violence and extortion and a lack of economic opportunities—combined with the pull of a strong U.S. labor market, make it unlikely migration flows will decrease substantially in the near future.
When taking a closer look at the conditions driving people to leave these six countries, it’s clear why the challenge of managing large-scale migration and displacement is seemingly here to stay. Scroll below the graphics for a brief narrative about migration from each country when it was at its peak in 2021 and 2022.
Migration, country by country, at the U.S.-Mexico border – WOLA
The deadly risks migrants face to cross the land bridge between North and South America
Published November 12, 2024 9:06am EST
Tom Homan: We are going to take the handcuffs off ICE – Search
Tom Homan, Trump’s new border czar, discusses his plans for border security under the Trump administration on Hannity. Hundreds of migrants at a shelter on the Mexican side of the southern border say they are waiting anxiously to see if they can cross into the U.S. before President-elect Trump takes office and fear they may not get over the line in time.
According to a report in The Telegraph, more than 850 migrants are living at Senda de Vida shelter in the northern Mexican city of Reynosa, a town bordering McAllen, Texas. Many of them have applied using the CBP One app, which was created in 2020 to schedule appointments at points of entry into the U.S.
The migrants have been waiting for months to see if they can get an appointment to legally claim asylum via the app. If their appointment does not come in time, they say they will be forced to attempt to cross the border illegally, risking deportation or being preyed on by the cartels.
Migrants at the Senda de Vida shelter on Aug. 30, 2022, in Reynosa, Mexico.
(Michael Nigro/Getty Images)
The mood at the camp, which consists of tents and small wooden buildings, quickly turned from hope to fear in the wake of President-elect Trump’s crushing defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris last week.
Raquel Segura, 39, from Nuevo León, Mexico, tells the outlet that he and his two daughters are among those hoping to cross the border.
“If Harris had won, people would be jumping for joy and as you can see right now, they look sad, they are feeling down,” Silva tells The Telegraph.
One of Trump’s top election promises is to close the border and launch the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States. He has tapped former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Thomas Homan to be his border czar.
BORDER PATROL MOBILE APP FOR MIGRANTS SEEKING ENTRY FACES SCRUTINY FOR ITS LACK OF VETTING, SECURITY
Tom Homan, a FOX News contributor and former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), delivers the keynote speech at the Columbiana County Lincoln Day Dinner in Salem, Ohio, on Friday, March 15, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Homan, a former New York state police officer and former Border Patrol agent, is known as an immigration hardliner. At the Republican National Convention, he warned the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. to “start packing now,” and has also warned Democrat governors to “get the hell out of the way” if they plan to block the incoming administration’s mass deportation plans.
Homan said during an appearance on Fox & Friends that he supports Trump’s mass deportation plan, saying he would be prioritizing “public safety threats and national security threats.”
Illegal border crossings surged under the Biden administration, with nearly 3 million in fiscal year 2024, according to Homeland Security’s website. There have been more than 10.8 million illegal encounters since FY 2021.
Another migrant, Berta Lisa Matute, tells the outlet that she, her husband and their eldest daughter, 5, were forced to leave Honduras nine-months-ago after her brother was murdered and their lives were threatened. She gave birth to another child recently while at the camp, having carried her through their passage across Central America.
“I hope that God illuminates Trump so he doesn’t get rid of the app, or that maybe there’s another way we can go through, because everything we have been through was very difficult,” she says.
A group of 116 illegal immigrants, including 11 unaccompanied children at Eagle Pass, Texas. (Texas DPS)
“It’s not safe in Honduras, I would not want to go back, but if there are no legal pathways to enter the country, then we might try [to cross illegally].”
Migrant Francisco Gomez, 40, tells The Telegraph that he and his family left Honduras 10 months ago after a family member was murdered. They joined a caravan at Tapachula on the Guatemalan border and arrived in Reynosa two weeks later.
The father-of-one tells the outlet he’s not concerned about Trump’s election victory, as he trusts “God that he’s gonna be a good president, just like the way he was the first time.”
Pastor Hector Silva, who runs the shelter, hopes Trump will be compassionate to the migrants who are yearning for a better life in America, where they hope to work hard and raise their families in a safe environment.
“There are people that are doing things according to the law, according to the United States, and they won’t be doing things illegally,” Silva tells the migrant while leading prayers in the scorching heat.
The Darién Gap (UK: /ˈdɛəriən, ˈdær-/,[1][2] US: /ˌdɛəriˈɛn, ˌdɑːr-, dɑːrˈjɛn/,[1][3][4] Spanish: Tapón del Darién [taˈpon del daˈɾjen], lit. ’Darién plug’)[5] is a geographic region that connects the American continents, stretching across southern Panama‘s Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia‘s Chocó Department.
Consisting of a large watershed, dense rainforest, and mountains, it is known for its remoteness, difficult terrain, and extreme environment,[6] with a reputation as one of the most inhospitable regions in the world.[7] Nevertheless, as the only land bridge between North and South America, the Darién Gap has historically served as a major route for both humans and wildlife. The Darién Gap at the Colombia–Panama border Map of the Darién Gap and the break in the Pan-American Highway between Yaviza, Panama, and Turbo, Colombia
The geography of the Darién Gap is highly diverse. The Colombian side is dominated primarily by the river delta of the Atrato River, which creates a flat marshland at least 80 km (50 mi) wide. The Tanela River, which flows toward Atrato, was Hispanicized to Darién by 16th Century European conquistadors. The Serranía del Baudó mountain range extends along Colombia’s Pacific coast and into Panama. The Panamanian side, in stark contrast, is a mountainous rainforest, with terrain reaching from 60 m (197 ft) in the valley floors to 1,845 m (6,053 ft) at the tallest peak, Cerro Tacarcuna, in the Serranía del Darién.
Embera girl
The Darién Gap is inhabited mostly by the indigenous Embera-Wounaan and Guna peoples; in 1995, it had a reported population of 8,000 among five tribes.[8] The only sizable settlement in the region is La Palma, the capital of Darién Province, with roughly 4,200 residents; other population centers include Yaviza and El Real, both on the Panamanian side.
Owing to its isolation and harsh geography, the Darién Gap is largely undeveloped, with most economic activity consisting of small-scale farming, cattle ranching, and lumber.[7] Criminal enterprises such as human and drug trafficking are widespread.[9] There is no road, not even a primitive one, across the Darién: Colombia and Panama are the only countries in the Americas that share a land border but lack even a rudimentary link.
The “Gap” interrupts the Pan-American Highway, which breaks at Yaviza, Panama and resumes at Turbo, Colombia roughly 106 km (66 mi) away. Infrastructure development has long been constrained by logistical challenges, financial costs, and environmental concerns; attempts failed in the 1970s and 1990s.[10] As of 2024, there is no active plan to build a road through the Gap, although there is discussion of reestablishing a ferry service and building a rail link.
Consequently, travel within and across Darién Gap is often conducted with small boats or traditional watercraft such as pirogues. Otherwise, hiking is the only remaining option, and it is strenuous and dangerous. Aside from natural threats such as deadly wildlife, tropical diseases, and frequent heavy rains and flash floods, law enforcement and medical support are nonexistent, resulting in rampant violent crime, and causing otherwise minor injuries to ultimately become fatal.[11]
Despite its perilous conditions, since the 2010s, the Darién Gap has become one of the heaviest migration routes in the world, with hundreds of thousands of migrants, primarily Haitians and Venezuelans, traversing north to the Mexico–United States border.[12][13] In 2022, there were 250,000 crossings, compared to only 24,000 in 2019.[14] In 2023, more than 520,000 passed through the gap, more than doubling the previous year’s number of crossings.[9]
Illegal border crossings into the United States from Mexico have dropped in the last few months. But further south, hundreds of thousands of migrants are making dangerous journeys through the Darien Gap, one of the world’s most treacherous jungles. “Seventy Miles in Hell” from The Atlantic – Search documents migrant’s efforts through the region. Amna Nawaz discussed more with writer Caitlin Dickerson.
By —
By —
By —
Caitlin Dickerson
Read their Full Transcript
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
- Amna Nawaz: Illegal border crossings into the United States from Mexico have dropped precipitously in the last few months. But farther south, hundreds of thousands of migrants are still making dangerous journeys through one of the world’s most treacherous jungles.
- “The Atlantic”‘s September issue, titled “Seventy Miles in Hell” documents migrants’ efforts traveling through the Darien Gap, a once-considered-impassable region connecting Central and South America. Staff writer at “The Atlantic” Caitlin Dickerson made several reporting trips into the jungle following migrants through the crossing. She joins me now. Caitlin, welcome back. Thanks for being with us. Caitlin Dickerson, “The Atlantic”: Thanks so much for having me, Amna.
- Amna Nawaz: So you and photographer Lynsey Addario made a number of trips to the Darien Gap, this deadly, nearly impenetrable jungle that hundreds of thousands of people still walk every single year. Caitlin, for people who have never been there, will never be able to go there, just describe to us what it was like for you to make that journey, what stood out to you, what stays with you.
- Caitlin Dickerson: The Darien Gap is this narrow strip of land that extends out of Northern Colombia into Southern Panama. It’s the only way to walk north out of South America. It’s very, very dense. It’s mountainous. And the list of threats that migrants who make this crossing are facing is very long, everything from flash floods, which are quite common because it rains on a daily basis, to falling. People have heart attacks from overexertion from the terrain. There are deadly snakes. There are jungle cats. And on top of all of the natural risks, you also have bands of robbers who will attack migrants. Migrants are very often robbed and, unfortunately, also frequently experience sexual assault on this journey. So it’s grueling. I mean, that’s the only way to put it. It was certainly the hardest thing I have ever done physically. I think that is one of things that sticks with me to this day and just the amount of desperation. People walk into the Darien Gap and it’s almost impossible to be fully prepared. You don’t know what you’re going to run into. And so, you might run out of water. You might run out of food, even if you’re healthy and you’re as prepared as you can possibly be, that this is an incredibly treacherous thing to try to do.
- Amna Nawaz: And, as you include in your story, according to the United Nations, more than 800,000 people could make that same journey this year. That would be a more than 50 percent spike over last year’s numbers. Children under the age of 5, like this young girl, this 5-year-old girl named Susej, I believe her name is, that you met along the way. captured here by photographer Lynsey Addario, comforting her mother in this photo. Children under 5, Caitlin, are the fastest growing group. From spending time with these families, just tell us about them, and why are these numbers surging so dramatically now?
- Caitlin Dickerson: I think the first thing that I heard for most of the parents who had young children with them in the Darien Gap is that they would rather be anywhere else. So, a lot of families, including Susej’s — her name Susie in English — had tried resettling first in Chile. They were originally from Venezuela. They couldn’t make things work there. And lots of places in Latin America where people might prefer to resettle, their economies were devastated by the pandemic. And so, the Darien Gap is this last resort option. The smugglers who shepherd people into the Darien Gap do mislead people about what they’re in for, make it seem like it’s going to be easier. But most people who show up at the mouth of the jungle with young kids know that they’re risking their lives and know that they’re risking their children’s lives.
- Amna Nawaz: We know, of course, many of those people are hoping to make it all the way to the United States. The Biden administration, of course, put tougher border restrictions into place back in early June, severely limiting who can legally enter and claim asylum. And that has contributed to a dramatic decline at the U.S. southern border. We went from around 250,000 people apprehended in December to reportedly just 57,000 in July, though official numbers are not yet out. So, Caitlin, did people you met along the way know about those restrictions? Had word made it down to them?
- Caitlin Dickerson: Not at all. There’re so many different factors that come into play here.But, usually, when people are making the decision to migrate, they’re not talking about U.S. policy, because, again, they feel like they’re fleeing life-or-death circumstances, which is why they’re willing to take risks like crossing the Darien Gap. The Biden administration’s asylum policies have had some impact, I’m sure, as has its pressure on Mexico to crack down and basically intercept people on their way to the United States. One Biden administration policy that people in the Darien Gap did know about was the CBP One app that’s being used to relieve pressure at the border so you can apply for permission to fly to the border and get an interview, rather than having to take a more dangerous option. And it’s all playing a role, but it’s not enough to completely eliminate this migration because of the circumstances that people are fleeing. And so, I always caution against saying border crossings are down this month and it’s all attributable to a policy that’s just come down from the White House. It’s never that simple when it comes to a global issue.
- Amna Nawaz: It does go back in some ways to this other recent piece you wrote for “The Atlantic” in which you said — quote — “Trying to stop migration at the border is like telling someone they can’t run a marathon when they’re at the finish line. This was in a piece that was actually entitled, “There’s No Such Thing as a Border Czar.” You are referencing there, of course, how Republicans have been labeling Vice President Kamala Harris. And we should point out she, yes, was not charged with the border, per se, but she was charged with addressing root causes. It sounds like, from your reporting, the root causes forcing people to leave have only gotten worse over time.Is that fair?
- Caitlin Dickerson: It is. But the answer is a little bit more complicated, in that when the Biden administration came to office and Kamala Harris was given this position, most people crossing the southern U.S. border were coming from Central America. And so that’s where she focused her efforts.She raised about $5.5 billion in private funds to support more jobs and improved quality of life in Central America. And migration from Central America is going down. But the problem is that circumstances have worsened elsewhere. And so we have increasing numbers of people crossing the border from Venezuela, from China, from Haiti, from Ecuador, from throughout Latin America.A single American diplomat or official can’t change circumstances abroad on their own. But I think the changing dynamic underscores just how tough this is. You focus your efforts in one place, and then they get more difficult in another.
- Amna Nawaz: That’s Caitlin Dickerson of “The Atlantic.” Her cover story “Seventy Miles in Hell” is out now. – Search
- Opinion: Now is the time for finger-pointing. Democratic elites must own their loss.
- Two Documentaries: Two Searing Takes on Open Border USA
- Opinion | Newsom Raises Gas Prices Again
- Sen. Bill Hagerty: There’s a palpable desire for change here in America | Watch Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) joins ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss President-elect Trump’s election victory, implementing Trump’s policy agenda, potential roles he’d serve in the new Trump administration, state of the Senate majority leader vote, and more.
 | |||
How did Kamala Harris’s campaign rack up a debt after record fundraising?
Kamala Harris certainly needs to produce receipts.
A thorough investigation is called for. “Money,” and “Laundering” are the two words that jump at you when you read this story. Wait, what? She spent 582 million on staff in 107 days? That is 5.4 million a day. If she had 300 staff members that 18k a day.. this doesn’t pass the smell test. SO, kamala is $20 BILLION in DEBT and Trump had a SAVINGS of $25.42 million!
Probably more than half of that staff money went into her pocket.
This was a very good example of how our tax dollars are being spent.
Clashes, confusion and secrecy consume the Harris campaign’s finances
Because just as everyone on X was saying, her platform was nothing but paid endorsements, paid entertainment, and probably paid rally attendees too. It was all to create the ILLUSION of a viable candidate…I think Kamala held her own going away party and just made a ton of money so that she can retire and enjoy the rest of her life.
It’s a shame all the lies that she told to the people through the media.
Democrats are Pro death—Pro pedophilia—Pro censor—Installed a vegetable—Spent billions—Always cheats—Inside trading—Corrupted the entire government. What kind of a person would choose Kamala, with these records, to run the government?
Just imagine her having control of the federal dollars.
Congress has that job, but she bragged about throwing “trillions” to the people. Yikes! Congress should be ashamed though, no balanced budget since 1991… I wonder what happened to the broadband billions they laundered.
Ray Charles – America The Beautiful (Official Video)
A top one of the highest peaks in the United States sits a picturesque example of what the United States means to America means to Me
America the Beautiful and Story about Katherine Lee Bates and how she wrote the poem that became America the Beautiful … The official video celebrating 50 years of Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful” Ray Charles classic rendition – America The Beautiful (Official Video) – YouTube
Was originally released on the album A Message from The People (1972), quickly became our second national anthem and has inspired countless generations since its release 50 years ago. This new video of the iconic track has been released to honor this historic release. A Message From The People [Full Album] remains one of Charles’ most celebrated albums, as well as the most socially conscious work of his six-decade career.
The record directly confronts societal ills of poverty and injustice while offering a universal message of brotherhood and hope for peace; topics that are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. The album includes classic tracks like “They’ll Be No Peace on Earth Without All Men As One,” “Abraham, Martin and John,” the Gospel infused “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “Heaven Help Us All.”
The album includes recordings of “Hey Mister,” which was played during a Congressional joint hearing in 1972 to speak on behalf of common citizens to a government that was widely seen as ignoring their needs. A newly remastered version of A Message from The People will be available June 17, 2022, on platforms for the first time in almost a decade. This US President Increased the National Debt by Over 700%
Democrats press Biden to protect executive branch from Trump’s return
Actress Justine Bateman declares woke era is ‘over’ after Trump’s win | Watch