The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 established Title 8 of the U.S. Code which says that all migrants and/or asylum-seekers who reach America must be given at least an interview to determine whether their lives would be in danger if they returned to their own country. However, in the early days of COVID, President Trump used a provision of the U.S. public health code called Title 42 to send people who were illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border back into Mexico without the opportunity for them to have their asylum interview. Over 2.6 million people were turned back under this temporary emergency policy during the pandemic. On May 11, 2023, the Title 42 pandemic emergency rules along the U.S.-Mexico border expired. When this happened, the U.S. returned to the archaic, unsustainable Title 8 immigration rules.

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Weirdly, in the days right before the ending of Title 42, illegal border crossings averaged over 10,000 a day, the highest levels ever recorded. However, in the days right after its expiration, apprehensions dropped around 50 percent. But that didn’t last long. Border apprehensions then increased over 30 percent over July and August 2023. By September, record numbers of migrant families were trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border – 123,815 migrants who were part of a family unit were encountered by U.S. Border Patrol in September (the previous one-month record of 84,486 people, in May 2019 of the Trump administration, was broken in August 2023 when 116,722 people who were part of a family attempted to cross).

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The most concerning aspect of these numbers is the significant increase in the number of families and unaccompanied children crossing our southwest border – which means that more and more children are being put in significant danger to travel to America. In FY2021, there were 478,492 Individuals in a Family Unit (FMUA) and 146,054 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC); in FY2022, there were 560,646 FMUA and 152,057 UAC; in FY2023, there were 821,537 FMUA and 137,275 UAC; and in FY2024, there were 804,456 FMUA and 109,998 UAC.

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One of the main drivers behind this new influx of migrants is how lucrative of an industry it has become. The business of moving people north – particularly through the Darién Gap, the only land route from South America to the United States – has become a modern-day Gold Rush. For decades, this unforgiving, arduous terrain acted as a natural barrier between North and South America, but now “entrepreneurs” have made this dangerous, dense jungle passable, providing boat rides, camps, porters, guides, restaurants, and even all-inclusive packages to make the entire experience easier. “Like a ticket to Disney,” one Venezuelan construction worker told The New York Times.

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When you imagine migrants being “smuggled” into the United States, you may picture old-school, thuggish “coyotes” hiding people in the bottoms of battered trucks or walking them through the hot desert or across rapid rivers or helping them creep through secret tunnels. But that’s no longer the case.

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The New York Times reports that, now, the people shepherding migrants through the dangerous jungle are “politicians, prominent businessmen and elected leaders, now sending thousands of migrants toward the United States in plain sight each day – and charging millions of dollars a month for the privilege… today, that profit is greater than ever, with local leaders collecting tens of millions of dollars this year alone from migrants in an enormous people-moving operation – one that international experts say is more sophisticated than anything they have seen.” In 2023, 520,085 people crossed through the Darién Gap, shattering 2022’s record of 250,000.

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One of the things, among many, that makes this so dangerous is that the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces, often called the Gulf Clan – an uber powerful drug-trafficking group – essentially rules the Urabá region of Antioquia, which includes the entrance to the jungle… to such an extent that the Colombian government considers the Gulf Clan to have “criminal governance” over the area. Colombian President Gustavo Petro estimates that the group earns $30 million a year or more from the migration business alone.

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In April 2023, the United States, Colombia, and Panama signed an agreement to “end the illicit movement of people” through the Darién Gap, a practice that they warned “leads to death and exploitation of vulnerable people for significant profit.” If you judge solely by the numbers, the deal seems to be working. Although 302,203 migrants still crossed the Darién Gap into Panama in 2024, that is 42 percent fewer than 2023. It’s important to note that almost 70 percent of these migrants were Venezuelans, who are fleeing dire economic conditions in their own country.

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However, there is reason to be skeptical of the possible long-term success of the agreement. In an interview with The New York Times, President Petro acknowledged that “the national government had little control over the region but added that it was not his goal to stop migration through the Darién anyway – despite the agreement his government signed with the United States. After all, he argued, the roots of this migration were ‘the product of poorly taken measures against Latin American peoples,’ particularly by the United States, pointing to Washington’s sanctions against Venezuela. He said he had no intention of sending ‘horses and whips’ to the border to solve a problem that wasn’t of his country’s making.” Hmmm…that’s not very reassuring.