A chartered plane took off from Panama City in mid-November to deport to India and Vietnam more than 130 people who had crossed through the Darien Gap, a notoriously deadly jungle that separates Colombia and Panama and has become a common migrant path.
That’s according to Tom Cartwright, who monitors deportation flights as a volunteer with Witness at the Border.
Panamanian officials told Agencia EFE, a Spanish language news wire service, that the United States paid for the flight.
For many people trying to reach the U.S. border from South America and outside the Western Hemisphere, passing through the Darien Gap has become the only option. The United States pressures its southern neighbors to help with the deterrence strategies that I wrote about in the last Border Report, blocking many other possible routes.
In San Diego and across the southwest border, migrants die trying to cross in dangerous conditions — through the desert, across the mountains or over the 30-foot wall — because the U.S. government has blocked safer routes. The strategy, officially named prevention through deterrence in the 90s, reasons that if it becomes difficult or painful or risky enough, people will stop trying to come.
Despite decades of this kind of policy, they haven’t stopped.
Meanwhile, the United States has pushed for changes in other countries to expand this strategy through a collection of foreign policies that I call the system of external deterrence that range from getting other governments to change visa requirements to supporting enforcement efforts through training and cash and even stationing U.S. immigration officials abroad. The policies are usually not covered as a collective, but together they have made travel through the hemisphere much more difficult for anyone who is likely to be fleeing persecution and seeking asylum.
The system has grown during each of the recent presidential administrations. Though it receives less media attention than incoming President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportation, it will be a key area to watch as he works to fulfill his pledge to stop migrants from coming.
And, President Joe Biden’s own maneuvers to expand the external deterrence system will give Trump more options than he had the last time he was in office.
Earlier this year, Biden reached an agreement with Panama to fund a $6 million pilot program of deportation flights from the country that receives people coming out of the Darien.
Cartwright reported that the United States paid for 23 flights from the program’s inception in August through Nov. 2, mostly to Colombia.
The Panamanian government announced in October that it would also begin fining migrants between $1,000 and $5,000 if they enter the country without inspection at an official port.
Earlier in the Biden administration, Brazil stopped giving humanitarian visas to most Afghans after many fleeing the Taliban’s takeover used the country as a way to access the hemisphere and, ultimately, the United States. Mexico similarly restricted travel for Venezuelans, Ecuadorans, Brazilians and Peruvians, who had previously been allowed to visit the country without visas but now have to get approved prior to flying there.
Many advocates have argued that these restrictions haven’t stopped migrants from these countries from trying to reach the United States. Like the taller walls and increased enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border, they say, these policy changes have pushed migrants into more dangerous routes where many have died.
That includes the Darien Gap, where a coalition of advocates including Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which helps asylum seekers in San Diego and Tijuana, visited earlier this year to document conditions. On top of migrants’ stories of the treacherous environmental conditions of steep mountains, swift rivers and poisonous snakes, coalition members documented numerous cases of violence against migrants, including rape and sexual assault, robbery and murder, which they shared during a webinar this month to discuss the findings of their report from the trip.
“It was outraging, traumatizing, soul crushing,” said Heidi Cerneka, a staff attorney with El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
She said many of the people that the coalition interviewed had become accustomed to these kinds of violations. The migrants reasoned that it was the price they had to pay to have a chance at safer lives, Cerneka said.
Margaret Cargioli, an attorney with Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said the group met a woman from Haiti who had been waiting in Brazil to get approved for a family-sponsored visa to go to the United States, but the visa backlog kept her stuck in limbo. After more than 10 years, Cargioli said, the woman gave up on waiting and decided to try traveling through the jungle.
The group also said its members observed Panamanian officials mistreating migrants, including retaliation for speaking with the coalition.
“The terrible part is this tragedy is kind of man-made,” said Martina Rapido of Human Rights Watch. “Governments across the Americas provide inadequate access to asylum and other forms of international protection for those escaping ongoing human rights crises such as Venezuela and Haiti.”
She said the lack of effort to support newcomers, the lack of options to get legal status to work and live in the country they’ve escaped to and the lack of resources to integrate also pushes people north through the jungle.
According to Rafael Lara, Panama coordinator for Franciscan Migration Network, the new president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, has increased the country’s cooperation with the United States’ deterrence mission. That includes closing some popular paths through the Darien, Lara said, which has pushed people to even more dangerous routes through the already dangerous jungle.
Julia Neusner of International Refugee Assistance Project said that with Trump coming back into office, that trend is likely to accelerate.
Thank you for reading. I’m open for tips, suggestions and feedback on Instagram and Threads @katemorrisseyjournalist and on X/Twitter and Bluesky @bgirledukate.
In Other News
Border death: Tijuana’s Zeta reports that a 21-year-old Colombian woman’s remains were found near Tecate in mid-November after she was reported missing in Tijuana.
A closed office: Advocates are criticizing Mayor Todd Gloria’s decision earlier this year to close the city’s immigrant affairs office as they brace for Trump to come back into office, Gustova Solis reports for KPBS.
Militarized border: Alexandra Mendoza explains in The San Diego Union-Tribune what sending military to the border has looked like in the past in the context of Trump’s proposal to use the military to conduct deportations.
Newcomer students: Alexander Nguyen reports for KPBS that Crawford High School opened a Newcomer Welcome Center last week to support students who recently moved to the United States
15 years: The Karen Organization of San Diego will host a community party on Dec. 13 at Colina Del Sol Park to commemorate its 15 year anniversary. The organization supports ethnic minority groups from Burma who live in San Diego.
