Notorious Routes for Smuggling and Illegal Immigration Suddenly Grow Silent With Trump’s Return

From the treacherous Panamanian jungle to the Texas-Mexico border, pipelines into the U.S. frequented by hundreds of thousands of migrants have suddenly gone quiet — just as President Donald Trump returns to office.

Immigration enforcement officials at both the U.S.-Mexico border and abroad are reporting incredible drops in illegal migrant encounters in just the past few weeks. This downward trend is largely being credited to Trump’s return to the White House and the initiatives he has put into place shoring up border security, leaving many would-be migrants to not even bother with an unlawful entry attempt. (RELATED: ‘Extraordinary’: El Salvador Agrees To Take In Any Gangbangers, Convicted Criminals Deported Out Of US)

The passage of illegal migrants through the Darien Gap, a jungle region in-between Panama and Colombia, dropped 94% in January compared to the same month last year, according to data released by Panama’s National Migration Service. A total of 34,839 illegal migrants crossed the Darien Gap in January 2024, with that number falling to just 2,158 last month when Trump returned to the White House.

“I would say that people are less inclined to go through the Darien when they know very well that they’re going to end up shipped back home,” Allan Baitel, a life-long Panamanian citizen, said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “So the carrot has disappeared, and there’s no reason for them to head north.”

The Darien Gap — a vast jungle region stretching roughly 40 miles wide and 100 long between Panama and Colombia — was a paramount transit area for illegal migrants headed for the United States during the height of the border crisis under President Joe Biden. More than half a million migrants crossed the Darien Gap on their northward journey in 2023, which was also the highest year in history for unlawful migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border. […]

— Read More: dailycaller.com