President of Panama José Raúl Mulino on Thursday urged President-elect Donald Trump to maintain an U.S.-funded deportation flight agreement that his administration signed this year with the outgoing administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
Mulino issued his request to President-elect Trump in remarks given as part of his weekly press conference. The Panamanian president stated that, while he has yet to engage in formal conversations with the incoming U.S. administration, he believes, based on his “political intuition,” that immigration is a subject on which he and Trump could engage in fruitful conversations.
“We are still implementing the repatriations program based on the memorandum of understanding that we signed on July 1 with President Biden’s administration and that, unless there is a better detail, I believe should be maintained with the Trump administration,” Mulino told reporters.
The Panamanian president reminded reporters that he has previously stated that the “new U.S. border” is located at the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle trail that Panama shares with Colombia and that has been used by hundreds of thousands of migrants from South America and other regions to reach the U.S. southern border in recent years. Mulino asserted that immigration is an issue that Trump and his new administration “cannot avoid, as President Biden’s administration did not.”
Mulino, who took office on July 1, signed an active agreement with the United States on his first day in office in which the U.S. Department of State provide $6 million in financial aid to Panama for the funding of deportation flights of U.S.-bound illegal migrants caught passing through the Darién Gap.
Panama reportedly conducted its first U.S.-funded deportation flights in late August and, according to statements Mulino gave to local media on Thursday morning, 36 such deportation flights have taken place as of this week.
While Venezuelan nationals represent the overwhelming majority of migrants passing through the Darién Gap, Mulino pointed out to local media that no Venezuelans have been deported on U.S.-funded flights, as Panama does not have a flight connection with Venezuela after socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro abruptly cut ties with Panama and other countries that questioned the dictator’s fraudulent July 28 presidential election, which Maduro claims he “won.”
Mulino repeatedly vowed that his government would curb illegal migration passing through the Darién Gap, which experienced record-high numbers prior to the start of his administration in July. Since then, the Panamanian government has implemented several measures to crack down on illegal migration such as imposing steep fines on migrants, the installation of barbed wire fences on some of the Darién’s commonly used routes, and the dismantling of “VIP” route services used by U.S.-bound Chinese migrants, among others.
Mulino’s policies preceded a noticeable reduction in the number of migrants passing through the Darién Gap jungle trail. According to statistical information from Panama’s Migrant Authority released this week, 11,144 migrants were recorded passing through the Darién jungle trail in November, 51.37 percent down from the 22,914 registered during October.
Panamanian authorities further stated this week that, in total, 206,368 migrants crossed through the country by the start of December, down from the 505,809 migrants registered at the start of December 2023.
Panama’s Migrant Authority recorded a record-breaking number of 520,085 migrants passing through the Darién Gap during 2023, 248,284 in 2022, 133,726 in 2021, and 6,465 in 2020. Between 2010 and 2019, Panamanian authorities registered a combined total of 109,293 migrants that passed through the Darién gap jungle trail.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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