If you have been following the reporting I have been doing all along our southern border, you know I have spent a lot of time down there. In fact, by my rough estimate, I have spent a total of two and a half months down at the U.S.-Mexico border this year alone. The reason I have traveled to border towns, all the way from San Ysidro, California, to Brownsville, Texas, and many places in between, is because the border crisis the Biden administration has helped create continues to occur unabated.
A new report from Axios shows it could get much worse.
Panama Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes said the Biden administration should not have been caught off guard with the thousands of Haitians who illegally entered the United States recently because her government previously warned the United States. Now, as many as 60,000 illegal immigrants are headed to the southern border:
- "Panama is expecting more migrants to cross through the dangerous jungles of the Darién Gap this month than in all of 2019 — nearly 27,000, according to Panamanian government estimates provided to Axios.
- "Mouynes is calling on the U.S. to help enforce a plan coordinated with countries in the region, saying, ultimately, 'Let's recognize that they all are heading toward the U.S.'"
- "'We've engaged with every single authority that we can think of, that we can come across, to say, 'Please, let's pay attention to this,' Mouynes said."
This would not surprise me at all for a couple of reasons.
First, the summer months are now over, which means it will be cooler and therefore less risky, weather-wise, to make the dangerous trip north. While it'll still be warm in the south, it won't compare to the daytime temperatures in June, July, and August.
Second, the Haitians, most of whom are not coming directly from Haiti, saw how many of those detained in Del Rio, Texas, were able to stay in the United States. At least 12,000 of the 15,000 illegal immigrants who camped underneath Del Rio's international bridge were not deported and allowed to continue traveling into the United States. Those are pretty good odds if you make it the border.
It's not just Haitians who are taking advantage of our open border. It's anyone who wants to skip the line because who wouldn't? Since the legal way of becoming a U.S. citizen is long and can be costly, of course, people will go to great lengths to do it the illegal way if those in charge are signaling to them that it's ok to do so, which is exactly what the Biden administration has been doing all year.
The migrant caravans can be stopped if Mexico uses its law enforcement and military assets, similar to how they stopped the caravans in 2019, but they know Biden will not take steps to ensure they do their part like former President Donald Trump.
Therefore, the sad and avoidable cycle of Border Patrol being overwhelmed resulting in dangerous and poor conditions for the migrants, and the brutal crimes committed against the migrants by cartels and human traffickers will continue so long as the open border posture the Biden administration has adopted rolls on.