PANAMA CITY – On July 1, Panama’s new President José Raúl Mulino took office with an unprecedented promise to close a major illegal immigration route that has seen at least 1.5 million foreigners pour into the country since 2021.

Mulino said he would close the notorious Darién Gap, a 70-mile-long trackless jungle wilderness that South American migrants cross on their way north to the United States.

He secured a commitment from the Biden-Harris administration to achieve this goal: it would provide money and possibly even planes to return illegally arriving migrants to their countries.

Yet nearly two months after the U.S. promised a “deportation flight program” to assist Panama, help is nowhere to be seen and immigrants are once again streaming through the Darién Gap after seeking shelter at home or in Colombia, waiting to see if Panama might actually deport people.

“We need support”

“We are waiting,” said a senior Panamanian government official who asked not to be identified because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue. “We are ready to fulfill our part of the agreement, but we need the resources. We do not have the planes to transport the large quantities we need.”

The official said the lack of consistency in American action was likely for “political” reasons, but that it had become all the more urgent to counter a new wave of Venezuelans – who have long been among the most numerous nationalities to pass through Panama – now fleeing a new wave of political violence.

Panama wants to drastically increase the number of Venezuelans returned to Colombia by plane in order to “change their mindset” so that fewer people want to take the dangerous journey.

But the Panamanian politician said his country could not afford to continue alone for much longer.

“We understand that we need logistical support to increase the expulsion of migrants … so that we can prevent the movement and the normal flow into the United States,” the official said. “We need to change migration policy at the United States border so that we can send a very clear message to migrants.”

His comments followed a similar public push from Panama’s presidential palace.

“The ball is in their court; we have done everything we can do,” President Mulino said at a press conference in Panama City on August 9, referring to the Biden-Harris White House. “The border is in Panama, not Texas.”

Catch & release logic

The American delay in the face of recent unrest in Venezuela – and also the paltry $6 million the White House reportedly offered Panama for the airlifted expulsions – is inexplicable, given that Panama’s new willingness to reduce immigration from the United States to its territory represents a golden opportunity for the government.

Polls suggest the border crisis is a major political burden for Harris.

But it is consistent with a Biden-Harris administration that has worked overtime to increase the number of illegal border crossings.

Instead of making passage through the Darién Gap more difficult, the United States worked with the previous Panamanian government to facilitate passage.

In 2022, for example, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressured the Panamanian government to open a shorter sea and river route, build larger and new rest camps, and ensure that dozens of migrant rights groups and nonprofit advocacy organizations provided all kinds of assistance and support.

These measures prompted hundreds of thousands of additional cross-border commuters to undertake this journey each year.

As a direct result of Biden and Harris’ catch-and-release policies, passage through the Darién Gap became a major factor in the worst mass migration crisis in U.S. history, pushing millions of illegal immigrants north.

Election pressure

Before the Biden-Harris administration, fewer than 20,000 economic migrants passed through the Colombia-Panama Passage each year, but in 2022, 250,000 passed through, last year 520,000, and by the end of 2024, 800,000 are expected to pass.

In the run-up to the election, Biden put pressure on Mexico to reduce the number of border crossings, which are currently at an absolute record high of 10,000 to 14,000 per day.

This initiative helped to alleviate the flood somewhat and prevent some of the most shocking images and videos of overcrowded border checkpoints from being created.

So why the delay with Panama?

Perhaps it is because the border problem was sufficiently “solved” before the election for optical reasons. But Kamala Harris has absolutely no intention of implementing a stricter border policy if she is elected.

If Harris wins in November, she won’t have to abandon her commitment to actual deportations in Panama, which neither she nor her progressive liberal base really support or want. And the Darién Gap highway they support can remain open.

Todd Bensman, a senior national security expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, is the author of Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Biggest Border Crisis in U.S. History. Follow his journey through the Dairen Gap and Panama on CIS.org.