The Long Journey North: How the U.S. Manages Migration through the Darién Gap
On the border between northwestern Colombia and eastern Panama lies a 60 mile long rainforest named the Darién Gap. The region represents not only Panama's dense rainforest, but for many, the hope for a new life in the United States.
The Darién Gap is one of the world’s most widely used and dangerous migration routes. In 2023, it’s reported that more than 500,000 migrants crossed the Darién Gap en route to the United States. Many migrants cite economic instability, violence, or political repression as reasons for leaving their home countries. Venezuelans, Cubans, and Haitians represent the highest numbers of those crossing the region. In recent years, the demographics of migrants crossing the Darién Gap have diversified beyond Latin America and the Caribbean to include people from countries as far as India, Sierra Leone, China, Somalia, and more. This shift has transformed the Darién Gap into a global migration route. Many migrants also face limited legal pathways to reach the U.S. Strict visa requirements and immigration costs often leave migrants with few alternatives.
Migrants often rely on smugglers, or coyotes, to guide them through the region. Travelers face hunger, dehydration, extreme weather, and violence along the route. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that more than 30,000 children crossed the Darién Gap in the first half of 2024 alone. For orphaned children, the dangers they face on the journey are significantly greater, such as greater risks of exploitation, trafficking, malnutrition, and sexual violence. Humanitarian organizations report that adults and children die every year to drowning, exhaustion, illness or violence along the route.
Regional governments have responded with stricter migration policies aimed at reducing crossings. Panama’s president, José Raúl Mulino, vowed to halt migration through the region by establishing an agreement with the U.S. government in 2024. One initiative includes deportation flights for undocumented migrants in Panama.
Policy changes implemented in Panama represent a broader shift in U.S. foreign policy, specifically how the U.S. is increasingly managing migration beyond its border by working with other Latin American governments to manage the flow across the continent. The Los Angeles Declaration, adopted under former President Joe Biden’s administration, is an agreement with more than 20 nations in the Western Hemisphere that seeks to expand legal pathways and support immigrant communities in their own countries. Under the agreement, the U.S. and partner countries would expand refugee resettlement programs to help the U.S. welcome 100,000 refugees. They would also open regional Safe Mobility Offices in countries such as Costa Rica and Ecuador to give migrants access to information, alongside the United States’ more than $1 billion investment in the L.A. framework. Unfortunately, the program was short-lived. In January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the executive order, “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” that indefinitely suspended the program.
Trump’s immigration policies marked a sharp shift from Biden’s approach. While the declaration still remains “active,” recent U.S. policy has been aimed at deportations and deterrence of migrants, with stronger emphasis on border enforcement long before migrants reach the U.S.-Mexico border. The ending of CBP One appointments, which allowed those in Central and Northern Mexico to request legal entry, along with the administration’s desires to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), signaling stricter enforcement and fewer legal pathways. Additional measures under Trump’s administration include mass expulsion of asylum seekers to Panama without “ … giving them any chance to claim asylum” and entering into agreements with governments in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico, and other Latin American countries to act as buffers for migration heading north.
Although Trump has not publicly focused heavily on the Darién Gap itself, his broader rhetoric on immigration has shaped regional policy. Throughout his 2024 campaign and return to office, Trump has framed migration as a security crisis and promised mass deportations and stricter immigration standards. Supporters of these measures argue that by tightening or eliminating programs such as TPS, along with increasing mass deportations, migrants will be discouraged from traveling through the U.S.-Mexico border. The reality is that the harder migration is made to be, the more smugglers will be able to profit from it, ultimately increasing the kinds of risks migrants will take to migrate. Migration experts and organizations such as the International Organization for Migration support this claim, arguing that safe and accessible pathways are at the center of “…[managing] migration more effectively.”
NGOs like the ACLU have responded with lawsuits to the actions of the administration, such as in the case of challenging TPS status for Haitian and Syrian refugees. While some lower courts initially blocked the administration’s several attempts to suspend refugee programs, in March of 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the administration’s desire to indefinitely pause the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
Ultimately, the future of the Darién Gap will depend not only on U.S. immigration policies, but whether Latin American governments will choose to cooperate or resist U.S. involvement in the region. Whether crossings decline or simply become more dangerous, one thing is certain: the Darién Gap will remain at the center of the Western Hemisphere’s migration crisis.