The number of migrants trying to travel through the dangerous jungles of the Darién Gap to get from Colombia into Panama has fallen dramatically in recent months to the lowest levels since the pandemic, new data show.
Why it matters: The decline is the latest sign that fewer migrants from South America are risking the treacherous, 2,600-mile journey north to the U.S. border in the early days of President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
- The number of migrants illegally crossing the U.S. southern border plummeted in February to its lowest level in decades.
Zoom in: Only 408 migrants traveled northward through the Darién Gap in February, according to Migración Panama, an agency in Panama that keeps track of migration in the region.
- That’s the fewest in a month since November 2020, when 365 traveled the path during the pandemic.
- Nearly 82,000 people traveled through the Darién Gap in August 2023, data collected by Migración Panama and reviewed by the human rights advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America found.
- The August 2023 surge led to a historic rise of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for weeks afterward.
- During the Biden administration, monthly traffic in the Darién Gap ranged from a few thousand to tens of thousands.
State of play: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday touted the drop in Darién Gap traffic as part of Trump’s overall immigration enforcement.
- “The Trump administration is committed to delivering on President Trump’s mandate from the American people to stop the invasion of migrants, secure our borders, and enforce our immigration laws,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Axios.
- Trump border czar Tom Homan promised weeks before the president took office that he’d “shut down” the Darién Gap.
The big picture: The Darién Gap is a 60-mile, roadless, treacherous jungle of crocodiles, snakes, harsh terrain and drug gangs that human rights groups say exposes migrants to harm and disease.
- It’s the only break in the Pan-American Highway, a 19,000-mile-long network of roads that runs from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina.
Between the lines: No one knows precisely why migrant traffic along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Darién Gap has fallen so much, but immigration experts tell Axios that it’s likely because migrants and smuggling networks are waiting to see how Trump’s enforcement actions play out.
- Boston College law professor Daniel Kanstroom tells Axios that Mexico is also intercepting more migrants, and many migrants aren’t trying to go north because they don’t know if they’ll be able to apply for asylum in the U.S.
- “We’ve seen this for decades. It’s just episodic. It’ll go back up again, because the forces that move people north have not changed. It’s a temporary low,” Kanstroom said.
An Axios analysis of Darién Gap migration numbers found that most migrants traveling the route from 2020 through 2024 were from Venezuela, followed by those from Haiti and Ecuador.
- Experts say such migrants were escaping political unrest, gang violence, weather disasters caused by climate change and extreme poverty.