Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who crossed the southern border made their way to the U.S. through the Darien Gap, a hazardous 60-mile roadless stretch of dense jungle that straddles the Panama and Colombia borders.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Newsmax on Wednesday he recently talked with José Raúl Mulino, Panama's newly elected president, about that nation's efforts to shut down the Darien Gap and secure its southern border.
"For your viewers who don't know what [the Darien Gap] is, that's the southern border of Panama," McCaul told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "It's very treacherous country, but it's where the migrants go through.
"The new president of Panama, and I've spoken to him, he wants to shut down his southern border. I think we've got a great opportunity to work with Panama to help secure their southern border."
The majority of migrants willing to risk the journey through the Darien Gap reportedly are from Venezuela, Haiti, and Ecuador, but a growing number from Asia, including from China and Afghanistan, and sub-Sharan Africa are embarking on the dangerous journey. Their route is to travel to a South American country that has no visa requirements, such as Ecuador for Chinese migrants, and then pay smugglers to make their way north.
A record 520,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in 2023, Reuters reported, more than double the number that crossed in 2022. The United Nations said last month the number of those crossing the gap this year is on pace to exceed 800,000, including 160,000 children and adolescents.
McCaul said by helping Panama secure its southern border, it would push "the border out, securing that Darien Gap."
"So, these migrants [who] are flooding in from Venezuela and other countries," McCaul said, "they can't make it up to our southern border."
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