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CNN
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American perceptions of immigration policy tend to focus primarily on the southern border with Mexico.
Crossing the border might seem like the beginning of an immigration story from inside the US, but it’s not. Migrants may have already traveled many thousands of miles, fleeing lack of opportunity or violence at home, risking their life savings and their safety.
For some idea of how difficult the journey is, take a look at “The Trek: A Migrant Trail to America,” the first episode in CNN’s new in-depth Sunday night series – “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.”
A team of CNN journalists made the trek through the Darien Gap, 66 miles of muddy jungle. CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Gallón, Brice Lainé and Carlos Villalón describe the Darien Gap as “a stretch of remote, roadless, mountainous rainforest connecting South and Central America.”
See their full report here with videos, maps and photos. It is worth reading.
Here are some of the things that stuck out to me after watching the full video and reading the digital report:
The journey begins with guides from a drug cartel in Colombia. The cartel is making money providing passage, for a fee, to the Colombian side of the border. That organization ends days later, in Panama, where migrants run out of food and money and still have thousands of miles to travel to get to the US border.
Almost 250,000 people made the crossing in 2022, nearly double the figures from the year before, and 20 times the annual average from 2010 to 2020.
The numbers are only growing, according to CNN’s report: “Early data for 2023 shows six times as many made the trek from January to March, 87,390 compared to 13,791 last year, a record, according to Panamanian authorities.”
“This is a large, voluntary trafficking operation run by a drug cartel who control the route and are the law in this part of the Colombian border near Panama,” Paton Walsh said in the video report. “You pay to get here, you pay to overnight here, you pay to walk on.”
CNN’s team began the walk with just over 800 people. They met migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Ecuador, China and India.
Paton Walsh said he was most shocked by the number of children on the grueling route.
The cartel identifies those who have paid for passage with colored wristbands.
Porters along the route wear numbered sports jerseys and charge to carry bags and children uphill, frequently separating children from parents.
Paton Walsh spoke in French to one young boy separated from his parents. They were headed to Miami, according to the boy. Asked what he wants to be when he grows up, the boy said, “to work.” (The boy was later reunited with his parents, but CNN lost track of them on the journey).
At the first night’s camping spot, the team saw cartel workers clearing more space with chainsaws to make room for tents. This was a relatively new route they’ve opened up.
“The people are coming faster than they can make space for them,” Paton Walsh said.
People making the trek are warned by an organizer to take care of their children. “A friend or anyone could take your child. And sell his organs,” a cartel guide named Jose shouts to a group of migrants. “So take care of your children. Don’t give your children to strangers.”
Multiple people end up hiking barefoot or in socks after their shoes were swallowed by the muddy trail.
A young woman, helping her 58 year-old mother, told Paton Wash she was a university student back in Venezuela and left after some of her fellow classmates were killed.
The group crossed into Panama on the second day, leaving the cartel and any semblance of organization behind.
A Chinese man from Wuhan said he researched the Darien Gap on TikTok. He told Paton Walsh his journey has taken him from Hong Kong to Thailand, to Turkey, and Ecuador before he arrived in Colombia to make the hike.
Many of the migrants said they felt misled about the length and difficulty of the journey and didn’t bring enough food or water.
Not everyone makes it through the Darien Gap. CNN’s team encountered decaying bodies along the route, but no evidence of the Panamanian government doing anything to investigate.
A man trying for a second time to make it to his brother in New Jersey said masked men on the route in Panama demanded $100 for passage and refused to let those who could not pay proceed.
But there were also moments of inspiring kindness. Strangers fashioned a stretcher to carry a Venezuelan man who twisted his ankle.
“It just strikes you how incredibly tough all these people are and the sheer grit that they’re showing to get this far, but also how incredibly unpleasant the places they must be fleeing from are to make them endure this kind of torture, to some degree, over many days,” Paton Walsh said.
This is just the most grueling 66 miles of a trek from South America. Migrants emerge from the Darien Gap to another charge they cannot afford – $20 for a ride on boats run by a local tribe.
Then, after finding their way to camps in Panama, some find themselves stuck, unable to come up with $40 to get a seat on a bus to Costa Rica.
With that perspective from the migrant trail, it’s worth taking another look at what’s happening with immigration policy in the US.
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez notes the Biden administration has turned to Trump-era policies as it prepares for an expected surge of migrants. The Covid-instigated policy known as Title 42 that has enabled US officials to turn away many migrants at the US southern border is set to end in May with the expiration of the pandemic public health emergency. There is consternation among some federal immigration officials and Biden allies frustrated by policies considered by the Biden administration.
Writes Alvarez:
A major point of contention is a new proposed regulation that largely bars migrants who traveled through other countries on their way to the US-Mexico border from applying for asylum in the United States, marking a departure from decadeslong protocol.
The proposed asylum rule is similar to one rolled out during the Trump administration, though administration officials have rejected the comparison, citing newly launched programs that provide a legal pathway for certain migrants trying to come to the US and therefore, they say, an alternative to crossing the border. Read more.
CNN is not the only organization to notice the number of children making the trip north toward the US border. There has been a seven-fold increase in children crossing the Darien Gap, to nearly 10,000 in the first two months of the year, according to UNICEF.
The US, Panama and Colombia announced a new monthslong effort to reduce traffic through the Darien Gap, although details and timing of the effort are not clear.
