Trump effect.
According to a New York Post exclusive report, the once-overrun Dairen Gap — Panamanian jungle path illegal migrants use en route to the U.S. — has seen a 99% plummet in crossings since President Trump’s border crackdown.
According to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security, only 408 migrants were recorded using the route in February, compared to 37,166 crossings in February 2024 under President Joe Biden.
From The New York Post:
Before-and-after photos of the Darien Gap show the small river port of Lajas Blancas — inundated by hordes of migrants just a year ago — now sitting empty as crossings plummet.
Panamanian authorities were seeing an average of 16,400 migrants making the grueling trek each week at their peak in 2022, according to DHS.
Massive tents previously packed with migrants now sit vacant, and a river where migrants would cross by foot is abnormally quiet, according to the photos taken by the Associated Press.
Just a few migrants from Venezuela, Angola and Nigeria were seen sleeping on the ground of the Lajas Blancas camp while being watched by cops.
And the aid groups have all left.
“Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, no one comes here anymore,” Venezuelan Hermanie Blanco, 33, who arrived in Panama days after Trump took office, told the outlet.
“It’s deserted.”
Panama’s right-wing President José Raúl Mulino vowed to shut down the 70-mile stretch of jungle, and the number of migrants crossing there plummeted by 40% last year.
More over at The New York Post:
Migrant crossings through once-overrun Darien Gap plummet 99% under Trump’s border crackdown https://t.co/lvIcluvr3g pic.twitter.com/nkV360vwC7
— New York Post (@nypost) April 11, 2025
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