(ConservativeSense.com) – Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro said he will allow one million migrants to enter the United States next year. He told the New York Times he will not interfere with the migrant flow as countless numbers make their way across the Darien Gap in Panama, through Mexico, and onto the US southern border.
Mr. Petro told the New York Times that he refuses to go “chasing migrants” or use any method to prevent them from reaching the US. If the million figure is accurate, it would represent a significant increase from the 250,000 that entered America via the Darien Gap last year.
When it was discovered in 2022 that migrants were dying in the Darien Gap, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas expanded the jungle trail and provided funds for camps established in Panama. Journalist Michel Yon, who visited the Panama camps, said they were twice as large as they were in 2021.
In the jungles of Panama, bandit gangs threaten to kill or rape the migrants unless they pay, and these gangs have killed several people.
Meanwhile, record numbers continue to arrive. According to officials in Panama, 248,901 people traversed the jungle in 2023—a new high. On September 18, more than 8,000 made the journey in a single day.
The White House response to the crisis is largely quiet, but in January, a statement outlined the Biden administration’s primary policies. These included “surging additional resources to the border and the region, scaling up its anti-smuggling operations, and expanding coordination and support for border cities and non-governmental organizations.”
The statement also claimed the federal government would speed up expedited removals and open new pathways for legal migration.
GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has said migration will be his first priority if re-elected to the Oval Office next year. He explained that he would close the border on day one and end the automatic citizenship rights of children born to migrants to choke off a significant incentive.
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