GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales says 100,000 migrants are heading towards the US from Central America and 52 were stopped in Panama because of TERRORISM ties
Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez said Monday that Panama foreign minister Erica Mouynes told him that as many as 100,000 migrants have crossed through her country on the way to the US, and 52 of those they apprehended had ties to al-Qaeda.
Speaking on the 'Real America' podcast with GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, the San Antonio congressman said the situation in Del Rio, Texas is the 'worst I've ever seen it.'
He said that Mouynes came to visit him and a number of other lawmakers to get word out about the coming onslaught.
'She goes, 'There's over 100,000 coming through Panama on their way to the US as we speak,' he said.
'I ask her, have you caught anybody on the terrorist watch list?' Gonzalez continued. 'She goes, 'Funny you ask that, Tony, because in Panama we do biometrics and we have apprehended 52 people that are associated with al-Qaeda.'
Erika Mouynes, Panama foreign minister
'I go, 'Holy smokes, does the administration know about this?' he said. 'She goes 'There's no one home. I'm talking to you because the administration is absent.'
A record-shattering number of Haitian migrants have come to the US in the last month, and the trend doesn't appear to be stopping as more people continue to pour into the Colombian town of Necocli, a popular spot for smugglers to shepherd people through the perilous Darien Gap in Panama.
The Darien Gap is a 66-mile stretch of rainforest between North and South America. Its dangerous terrain is part of the reason it's been left undeveloped and why it poses such a great risk to the people crossing it now.
More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said.
Most of the migrants in recent months have been Haitians, many of whom had been living in Chile and Brazil since the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
Migrants, many of Haitian origin, line up for asylum processing in Mexico
So far this fiscal year, from last October through August, US officials have apprehended 1,541,651 migrants at the southwest border. That figure follows 2020, where agents had apprehended 458,088 by this point in the year, 2019 where they had stopped 977,509 and 2018, 521,090.
Of those 1.5 million, at least 160,000 have been released into the interior of the US, either under parole authority or with a notice to report. Most of those with a notice to report do not turn themselves into an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office as they are told to.
The vast majority of those who did not get to stay in the US were deported under Title 42, the Centers for Disease Control's coronavirus public health order that activists have pressured Biden to do away with.
More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said
Smugglers shepherd people through the Darien Gap in Panama, a treacherous journey
The Darien Gap is a 66-mile stretch of rainforest between North and South America. Its dangerous terrain is part of the reason it's been left undeveloped and why it poses such a great risk to the people crossing it now.
But soon the Biden administration will reinstate the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy after losing a court battle against it.
A federal judge sided with the states of Texas and Missouri by ordering the Biden administration in August to reinstate the policy 'in good faith.'
The court filing says it should be in effect around mid-November.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, a Trump appointee, left open the possibility that the administration could try again to end the policy, and officials say they will release a plan soon that they hope will survive legal scrutiny.
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