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BAJO CHIQUITO, Panama — Rain-swollen rivers only briefly slowed the otherwise uninterrupted flow of migrants through this jungle-covered border area separating Colombia and Panama and by midweek another 2,000 bedraggled migrants stumbled out of the Darien jungle.
Pregnant women and men carrying children atop their shoulders waded across the waist-deep Tuquesa river and into the Indigenous outpost of Bajo Chiquito where some fell to the ground in exhaustion and relief as Panamanian officials waited to register their arrival.
Crossing through the dense, lawless jungle not long ago was unthinkable to most people. In recent years, it became a brutal slog of a week or more. But some migrants arriving this week described an organized trek completed in as little as 2 ½ days on trails marked by colored ribbons and assisted by guides and porters, part of what officials say has become a business generating millions of dollars.
That efficiency combined with the unrelenting economic factors pushing migrants to leave countries like Venezuela, whose citizens account for the majority of them, have resulted in more than 400,000 migrants crossing the Darien this year. The dizzying number of 500,000 – double last year’s record total – is now on the horizon.
That figure, and the corresponding number reaching the U.S.-Mexico border, factored into the United States decision to resume deportation flights to Venezuela in the coming days. The new measure announced Thursday is part of what U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas termed “strict consequences” for those who do not avail themselves of expanded legal pathways to enter the U.S.
In April, the U.S., Panama and Colombia announced a campaign to slow migration through the Darien jungle, but migrants’ numbers have only grown forcing the Biden administration to seek other options.
Last month, the U.S. Homeland Security Department announced plans to grant Temporary Protected Status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the country as of July 31, making it easier for them to get authorization to work in the U.S. That was in addition to about 242,700 Venezuelans who already qualified for temporary status before that announcement.
The Biden administration had also said it would accelerate work authorizations for people who have arrived in the country since January through a mobile app for appointments at land crossings with Mexico, called CBP One, or through parole granted to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have financial sponsors and arrive at an airport. It aimed to give them work permits within 30 days.
But anyone arriving after July 31 would not be eligible. On Thursday, U.S. officials said they had already identified Venezuelans who entered the U.S. illegally after that date who would not be eligible for protections and thus would be flown back to Venezuela.
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