Latin American Country Sees Drop In Migration To U.S., Attributes Decline To Trump Border Policies

The Colombian government has noted a drastic increase in the number of Venezuelan migrants that appear to be returning to their country of origin and a drop in the number of migrants attempting to reach the United States, changes that the Latin American government attributes to President Donald Trump’s border security measures.

Colombia recorded 9,353 Venezuelan migrants who entered the country from Panama between January and February, marking a drastic increase from the previous year, when only 4,031 Venezuelans entered the country from Panama. The change is an indication that an increasing number of migrants have abandoned their attempts to enter the United States.

The report from the Colombian government attributes the increase to the new immigration policies of the Trump administration. “The majority of migrants indicate they come from Mexico, where they had been waiting for an appointment with U.S. authorities for one to three months,” the report states, adding that “with the change in U.S. immigration policies, they made the decision to return.”

The Colombian government also noted a drastic decrease in the number of migrants attempting to cross through the treacherous Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle connecting South America to Central America. Colombia recorded a striking 61 percent drop in migratory flow through the area, which has historically been a key route that would-be migrants use to enter Central America on their way to the border of the United States.

The plummeting number of migrants coming from Venezuela and attempting to enter the United States comes less than three months after President Donald Trump took office and rolled out a slate of immigration policies aimed at securing the southern border and disincentivizing illegal immigration into the United States.

The administration shut down Biden’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One app, which allowed migrants to remotely schedule parole appointments, expediting the flow of more than a million migrants into the interior of the United States. The administration refashioned the app this week, naming it the CBP Home app. The platform now allows illegal aliens to declare their intent to depart the United States.

The Trump administration has also deported 11,000 illegal aliens in the first 18 days of his second term. The deportation effort is being bolstered by various different agencies within the executive branch, with the Department of Defense working to prepare the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to house tens of thousands of criminal illegal alien detainees.

Vice President JD Vance celebrated the steep decline in illegal border crossing attempts at a recent visit to the southern border, where he touted a 98 percent drop in crossings and said “we didn’t need fancy legislation, we just needed a new President of the United States.”