Morning Wire XX
[0] Migration through the Darien Gap, a narrow land bridge that connects South America to Central America has exploded in recent years.
[1] Immigrants from South America and around the world hike through the thick jungle on their way to the United States, hoping to take advantage of lax border policies.
[2] In this episode, we hear from a journalist who made the trek across the gap himself and saw firsthand the toll taken by the human trafficking operation there.
[3] I'm Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
[4] It's November 19th, and this is a Sunday edition of Morning Wire.
[5] Excerts of the following appeared on a previous episode.
[6] Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about mass migration through the Darian Gap.
[7] Hi, Tim.
[8] First, for those who aren't familiar with it, what is the Darian Gap?
[9] Sure, the Darian Gap is an undeveloped stretch of land that connects Columbia and South America to Panama in Central America.
[10] It's relatively narrow, about 100 miles wide, and packed with forest, rivers, and some of the highest mountains in Panama.
[11] The only pass through it are trails, no highways run through it, nor are there bridges or cell phone towers or any other modern infrastructure.
[12] It's like that for about 60 miles.
[13] The gaps inhabitants are mostly either indigenous tribal communities or criminal gangs.
[14] It's incredibly isolated, but despite that, hundreds of thousands of people now cross that gap each year.
[15] According to the Panama government's data, immigration across Darien exploded in 2021.
[16] An estimated 130 ,000 immigrants crossed the gap that year.
[17] The decade before, immigration had averaged less than 11 ,000 a year.
[18] So we're talking a 10 -fold increase.
[19] Immigration boomed again last year as nearly 250 ,000 migrants passed through the gap.
[20] Essentially, all the migrants are on their way north with the hope of settling in the United States at least 2 ,000 miles away.
[21] It's just a staggering jump in numbers there.
[22] Can you tell us more about the route through the gap?
[23] How do immigrants actually get through?
[24] Well, it's treacherous.
[25] To learn more, Morning Wire spoke with a journalist who has made the trip and experienced it firsthand.
[26] Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin and his brother spent about three weeks traveling through Ecuador and Columbia and then into the Gap and Panama.
[27] The most popular routes, which are also the cheapest, begin in the Colombian port town of Nakokli, where migrants find a boat and sail to either a condi or Kopargana on the Colombian side of the Darien Gap.
[28] From there, immigrants have about a five -day hike through the gap into Panama.
[29] Rubin took a third route, which took him in a boat from a condo.
[30] a little further up the coast before he set foot in Panama.
[31] Here's how he explained it.
[32] What I did is I took the route that the more wealthy illegal aliens are using, which is a route where basically you get smuggled by boat from Columbia already into Panamanian territory.
[33] Then from, and you landed a town called Coreto, which is not really a town.
[34] It's more like it's a native village.
[35] Then from there, you trek through the Darien Gap while already in Panamanian territory.
[36] It's a shorter route and it's a bit safer.
[37] The reason why it's more expensive, though, is because you have to pay a boat smuggler to take you into Panamanian territory in the middle of the night.
[38] And that's the route that a lot of the Chinese are using.
[39] There were also Syrians and Afghans that were using that.
[40] Basically, anybody that can afford it is going to take it because it's a lot safer.
[41] And yes, Syrians, Afghans, Chinese, many what are called extrater continental migrants travel to South America just to travel north to the U .S. Countries further south generally have looser immigration restrictions and migrants can blend in better with big groups coming out of countries such as Venezuela.
[42] Now, you described the journey as treacherous.
[43] What are the biggest threats to the migrants?
[44] Of course, the environment is a threat with the rough ground on marshes, but there's also a disease.
[45] This is made worse by the fact that there really isn't any medical care in the gap unless you happen to bring first aid supplies with you.
[46] And you can't always count on others being willing to share.
[47] Here's Rubin on that.
[48] If you get sick out there, if you break a foot out there, nobody's coming to save you, you're done.
[49] That became very obvious when I was going through there, you know, because I'm an in -shaped, man, I'm not like a super athlete or anything, but I'm in shape, you know, I can take care of myself.
[50] And I was just always thinking, like, how was it, how are some people dropping dead in there?
[51] You know, you just make it through.
[52] But it became very evident on, you know, day two, even just late to day one, how easily you could just drop dead in there, man, if you get sick or something happens, you're done.
[53] But the most dangerous aspect of the trip may be the people, many of whom are destitute and desperate, and some are hardened criminals.
[54] Some could even have terror connections.
[55] In fiscal year 2023, authorities on the southern border arrested or processed.
[56] 227 people on the FBI's terror watch list.
[57] And that kind of occurrence has gotten much more common the past two years.
[58] In 2021, southern border authorities only counted 15 terror suspects.
[59] Now, we can't know how many on the terror watch list came through the Darien Gap, but we know from Rubin's reporting that immigrants from terror hotbeds do use it.
[60] Here's Rubin again.
[61] Syria is one of four countries that have been designated as states, countries that promote state -sponsored terrorism.
[62] and I ran into, for example, a group of very angry military -aged Syrian men.
[63] There was no women with them.
[64] There was no children with them.
[65] Just military -age men extremely agitated when I put the camera on them.
[66] I encampeded them twice once before I went into the jungle at this staging place that I told you about.
[67] And once when I exited the jungle, and before I went into the jungle, I tried filming them.
[68] They got very angry with me, so I just turned off the camera.
[69] And I didn't bother them again because when you're in the jungle, that's no man's land.
[70] If they want to do something to me in there, you know, anything could happen.
[71] And so I waited, and then when we got out of the jungle and we got to a refugee camp, I saw them pulling up and then I put the camera on them again, and that actually kind of went viral on Twitter, very angry.
[72] If anything were to happen, the Gap's law enforcement, if you can call it that, is basically made up of indigenous tribes people.
[73] They work as guides and they carry firearms, and they're always clear about who's in charge and what's expected of view if you're in their group.
[74] Rubin was careful with his filming when his guides were nearby, since it was made clear to him that the guides were not to appear in any videos.
[75] But the massive amount of foot traffic has had a lot of negative impacts on the tribes as well, such as empowering local gangs and trashing the environment.
[76] Essentially, all the illegal immigration out of Columbia is through organized crime.
[77] And where do these guides take them?
[78] Are there any houses or campsites?
[79] There are campsites, but they're in really poor condition.
[80] Nobody stays for long, so people don't bother cleaning up after themselves.
[81] Here's Rubin describing one of the camps he stayed at.
[82] The first camp that you reach is basically a landfill slum in the middle of the jungle.
[83] If you can imagine these caravans come through and they all sleep at the same kind of campground and they all leave their garbage there and they all, you know, defecate there and piss everywhere.
[84] And then they march out.
[85] And then the next group comes.
[86] And they, you know, stomp over everything, get muddle over everything.
[87] And they leave.
[88] And so eventually you just left a landfill.
[89] So that's where you sleep.
[90] When Rubin traveled through, of course, he was well equipped with camping supplies, water purifier, those types of things, as well as his expensive camera equipment.
[91] That put an added target on his back.
[92] You got people coming up to you that are desperate.
[93] They don't have any water.
[94] Do you have any extra water?
[95] You have any extra water?
[96] I'm like, and I have to keep it on the hush -hush because if I let people know I have a water purification and water pump, I'm going to get swarmed.
[97] And so you just kind of have to keep it on the hush -hush -hush.
[98] But you could tell.
[99] You could see the trend and you could see how very easily the situation could go from calm to extremely desperate.
[100] What is the role of Panama's government in all of this?
[101] is it trying to actually proactively close its borders?
[102] Not really.
[103] None of the migrants want to stay in Panama, so the government doesn't have to plan on long -term solutions for them.
[104] According to Rubin, the answer from officials in Panama City has been to expedite the migrants' trip through the country as much as possible.
[105] One way or another, they enter Panama, they pop out of the jungle, and then basically what the Panamanian government does is they just greenlight them to get transported across the country into Costa Rica and the Panamanian government just basically pushes these people through the country as fast as possible.
[106] And that's it.
[107] They don't get their passport stamp or anything like that.
[108] It's just to visit the transit.
[109] They pop out of the jungle and then, boom, send them up to Costa Rica.
[110] Tim, thanks so much for joining us and giving us a chance to hear from Anthony Rubin.
[111] Great to be on.
[112] That was Daily Wire reporter Tim Pearson.
[113] This has been a Sunday edition of Porning Wire.