The United States will start forking out cash for flights to help Panama deport illegal migrants caught using the treacherous Darien Gap — a major passageway used by those trying to get to the US border.
Under a new deal signed Monday, the US has agreed to “cover” the costs of repatriating the illegal migrants after Panama’s new President, José Raúl Mulino, vowed to shut down the dangerous stretch of jungle that has already been traversed by more than 500,000 migrants in the last year.
As part of the commitment, which was inked by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the US will offer up equipment, transportation and logistics to send the illegal migrants back to their native countries, the Panamanian government said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much money the US was set to contribute towards the flights.
US Homeland Security teams on the ground in the Central American country will also help the government there train personnel and build up its own expertise and ability to determine which migrants, under Panama’s immigration laws, could be booted from the country, according to two US administration officials.
For those migrants who are to be kicked out, the US would pay for charter flights or commercial airplane tickets for them to return to their home countries, the officials said.
The program would be entirely under Panama’s control and the US would have no say on who to deport, the officials added.
A National Security Council spokesperson declined to provide further details on the deal — only saying the US would “support” efforts to repatriate migrants in Panama illegally.
The deal is “designed to jointly reduce the number of migrants being cruelly smuggled through the Darien, usually en route to the United States,” the rep said in a statement, adding that the efforts would “help deter irregular migration in the region and at our southern border, and halt the enrichment of malign smuggling networks that prey on vulnerable migrants.”
Mayorkas signed the agreement after heading to Panama to attend the inauguration of the country’s new president, who has long-promised to shut down migration through the jungle-clad and largely lawless border.
“I won’t allow Panama to be an open path for thousands of people who enter our country illegally, supported by an international organization related to drug trafficking and human trafficking,” Mulino said in his inauguration speech.
The deal comes as the Darien Gap, which connects Panama and Colombia to the south, has become a superhighway for migrants who are trying to make it to the US.
More than half a million used the treacherous corridor last year and more than 190,000 people have already crossed so far in 2024 — largely hailing from Venezuela.
The agreement comes after it was alleged a vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, has been smuggling guns into Big Apple-run migrant shelters — in yet the latest struggle the city has been plagued with amid the ongoing asylum seeker crisis.
The claim was made by 19-year-old Bernardo Raul Castro Mata after he was nabbed for allegedly shooting two NYPD cops last month.
It sparked a flurry of calls from local lawmakers for heightened security at city-run migrant shelters — with many contending that lawlessness is spilling from the facilities into local neighborhoods.
With Post wires