Record Number of US-Bound Migrants Enters Panama Amid Complaints Colombia Not Cooperating

While U.S. officials record less encounters with illegal immigrants at the southwest border, Panama’s migration authorities reported a record number of northbound migrants have arrived from the Darien Gap. In just seven month, 2023 saw more migrants pass through the Central American jungle on their way to the United States than in all of 2022.

Haitian migrants cross the jungle of the Darien Gap, near Acandi, Choco department, Colombia, heading to Panama, on September 26, 2021. Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images

The population of an entire U.S. city has trudged through the Darien Gap so far this year.

Panama migration officials reported that upwards of 260,000 illegal immigrants have entered their country from the jungle that defines the border with Colombia, exceeding total migrant traffic for 2022 in just seven months. For perspective, that’s more than the population of Des Moines, Iowa.