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Notorious Routes For Smuggling And Illegal Immigration Suddenly Grow Silent With Trump’s Return

Published

2 months ago

10 minute read

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

From the treacherous Panamanian jungle to the Texas-Mexico border, pipelines into the U.S. frequented by hundreds of thousands of migrants have suddenly gone quiet — just as President Donald Trump returns to office.

Immigration enforcement officials at both the U.S.-Mexico border and abroad are reporting incredible drops in illegal migrant encounters in just the past few weeks. This downward trend is largely being credited to Trump’s return to the White House and the initiatives he has put into place shoring up border security, leaving many would-be migrants to not even bother with an unlawful entry attempt. 

The passage of illegal migrants through the Darien Gap, a jungle region in-between Panama and Colombia, dropped 94% in January compared to the same month last year, according to data released by Panama’s National Migration Service. A total of 34,839 illegal migrants crossed the Darien Gap in January 2024, with that number falling to just 2,158 last month when Trump returned to the White House.

“I would say that people are less inclined to go through the Darien when they know very well that they’re going to end up shipped back home,” Allan Baitel, a life-long Panamanian citizen, said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “So the carrot has disappeared, and there’s no reason for them to head north.”

The Darien Gap — a vast jungle region stretching roughly 40 miles wide and 100 long between Panama and Colombia — was a paramount transit area for illegal migrants headed for the United States during the height of the border crisis under President Joe Biden. More than half a million migrants crossed the Darien Gap on their northward journey in 2023, which was also the highest year in history for unlawful migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Thick jungles and the presence of organized crime have historically made the Darien difficult to police. While a majority of those crossing the region have been Latin Americans such as Venezuelans and Ecuadorians, many African and Asian migrants have also utilized the routes to unlawfully make their way to the U.S.

The organized crime syndicates smuggling migrants across the Darien all the way to the U.S southern border have made billions in the process, with smugglers pulling in as much as $14 million per day.

Venezuelan nationals had made up the vast bulk of migrants trekking across the Darien, armed with the knowledge that the Venezuelan government was refusing to accept deportation flights from the U.S. However, the prospect of repatriation for these migrants became all the more real when the Trump administration successfully pushed Caracas into once-again accepting repatriated Venezuelans.

The drop in foot traffic out of the Darien coincided with a visit Secretary of State Marco Rubio made to Panama where he secured a major infrastructure deal with President Raul Mulino that ultimately reduces Chinese influence in the region.

Mulino was elected into office in 2024 on the promise to cut migration through his country. He has since entered into an agreement with the U.S. to help repatriate the illegal migrants caught by Panamanian authorities.

“He’s always been pro-U.S.,” Surse Pierpoint, a third-generation Panamanian, said to the DCNF about Mulino. “And the fact that Marco Rubio’s first trip down here was the administration staking a claim that ‘this is Monroe Doctrine 2.0 stay out of our neighborhood’ — Marco Rubio came to state it explicitly.”

Rubio was on the tarmac in Panama City Monday and observed a deportation flight of Colombian nationals who had been stopped by Panamanian law enforcement. Such repatriation flights, the State Department argued, acts as a major deterrence for other would-be illegal migrants.

The January drop in crossings at the Darien coincide with drops in illegal migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks on Jan. 29 reported a 55% drop in migrant apprehensions from the prior week.

“This trend indicates that our enhanced border security measures produce results,” Banks said of the sharp decline. “With more boots on the ground, we’re making a substantial impact to the security of our borders.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is also confirming consistent drops in migrant encounters along the southern border, reporting a total of 446 illegal crossings on Monday. To put that number into perspective, there were over 12,600 unlawful border crossings in one single day in December 2023.

In Biden’s final full month in office, daily encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border averaged roughly 1,520 a day, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Once-major sectors for illegal migration have seen activity drop to near zero. Border Patrol agents reported roughly 1,800 daily average crossings in the El Paso Border Patrol sector December 2023. On Monday, that figure stood at just 98 encounters. Similar drops are being reported in the Rio Grande Valley, Big Bend and every other major sector along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The State of Texas has experienced a decrease in illegal border crossings,” Chris Olivarez, a DPS spokesperson, said to the DCNF. “In January 2024, Texas decreased illegal border crossings by 85%.”

“This is in large part due to Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border mission which involves the deployment of Texas National Guard Soldiers and DPS personnel committed to constructing infrastructure along the Texas / Mexico border and interior enforcement targeting criminal smugglers, transnational criminal gangs, and criminal illegal immigrants,” Olivarez continued. “The combination of Texas’ border mission and the federal government’s implementation of stricter immigration policies and interior enforcement at the federal level, the number of illegal border crossings decreased significantly to below 500 for the entire southwest border which includes Texas, Arizona, and California.”

Since re-entering office, Trump has implemented numerous reforms and initiatives aimed at bolstering border security and establishing an infrastructure to quickly detain and deport illegal migrants residing in the country. The administration has deployed troops to the border, deputized agents across numerous federal agencies with immigration enforcement authorities and secured a massive number of detention space outside of the country.

In addition to militarizing the U.S. side of the border, Trump successfully wielded the threat of tariffs to coerce Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum into deploying 10,000 members of her own national guard to bolster border security efforts. A nearly similar victory was made at the northern border, where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to beef up border security to avoid sweeping tariffs on his country’s exports.

Under the auspices of the U.S.-Canada deal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government agreed to launch completely novel initiatives to tackle border security, such as the appointment of a fentanyl czar, the designation of cartels as terrorists, $200 million in spending on organized crime and drugs and around-the-clock monitoring of the U.S.-Canada border.

Trump’s election victory in November — making his promise to get tough on illegal immigration all the more real — resulted in many migrants choosing to turn around instead of bothering to show up at the southern border.

“The number of people arriving at the border is less, and I think Colombia, Venezuela, realize they have to reorganize themselves, and that there’s a new sheriff in town in the United States, and things are going to change,” Baitel said.

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Automotive

Tesla Vandals Keep Running Into The Same Problem … Cameras

Published on April 12, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hudson Crozier

People damaging Teslas in anger toward their owners and Elon Musk aren’t picking up on the fact that the vehicles have multiple cameras capable of catching them in the act.

At least nine perpetrators have been caught on video keying, writing graffiti or otherwise defacing Tesla vehicles in parking lots across the U.S. in the month of March alone. Most have led to an arrest or warrant based partly on the footage, which Tesla’s “Sentry Mode” automatically films from the side of the unattended vehicle when it detects human activity nearby.

“Smile, you’re on camera,” Tesla warned in a March 20 X post about its Sentry Mode feature. Musk’s company has been working to upgrade Sentry Mode so that the vehicles will soon blast music at full volume when vandals attack it. The camera system, however, has not stopped an increasing number of vandals from singling out Tesla owners, usually in protest of Musk’s work in the Trump administration for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

One incident happened on March 29, the same day leftists coordinated protests around the country for a “Global Day of Action” against Musk. That Saturday also saw alleged instances of violence at protests. The demonstrations stemmed from an online call to action by groups such as the Disruption Project, which encourages activists to foment “uprisings,” find a “target’s” home address and other confrontational tactics.

Tesla’s press team did not respond to a request for comment.

One man allegedly caught on camera keying a Tesla SUV on March 24 apologized to the owner who confronted him in a parking lot in Pennsylvania, police and media reports said. The man faces charges of criminal mischief, harassment and disorderly conduct for allegedly carving a swastika onto the vehicle.

“I have nothing against your car, and I have nothing against you,” the suspect said while the owner filmed him in the parking lot. “Obviously, I have something against Elon Musk.” The man called his own behavior “misguided.”

The defendant’s lawyer told Fox News his “client is a proud father, long-time resident, and is currently undergoing cancer treatment” and that he would not comment publicly “pending the outcome of the case.”

One of the most aggressive acts caught by Sentry Mode was in the case of a man who drove an ATV-style vehicle into a Tesla on March 25. Texas police identified the man as Demarqeyun Marquize Cox, arrested him and said he allegedly gave two other nearby Teslas the same treatment while also writing “Elon” on them. The public defender office representing Cox did not respond to a voicemail from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Tesla cameras also caught three other people in Florida, Texas and Arizona keying and smearing bubble gum on the vehicles in March. The three suspects named by police do not have attorneys listed in county records available for contact.

Many of the vandalism cases since Trump’s return have reportedly caused thousands of dollars in damage for individual owners. For example, the bubble gum incident in Florida brought $2,623.66 in costs, while another keying incident in Minnesota brought $3,200.

Some reported attacks on Tesla vehicles and chargers have gotten the attention of federal law enforcement, including cases of alleged firebombing or shooting.

Two other suspected vandals in New York, one in Minnesota and one in Mississippi have reportedly avoided arrest for now — with one owner declining to press charges — but were all seen on the Teslas’ cameras scratching up the vehicles. Police identified the Mississippi suspect as an illegal migrant from Cuba.

One Tesla owner in North Dakota ridiculed a man who allegedly carved the letter “F” into his Cybertruck in a Costco parking lot — as seen on the Cybertruck’s camera. The defendant faces charges of criminal mischief, and county records say he is representing himself in court.

“I can’t believe this guy is potentially ruining his life to follow a political ideology,” the owner told WDAY News.

“If you’re going to vandalize these vehicles, you’re going to get caught,” the owner said.

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Daily Caller

AI Needs Natural Gas To Survive

Published on April 11, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

As recent studies project a big rise in power generation demand from the big datacenters that are proliferating around the United States, the big question continues to focus in on what forms of generation will rise to meet the new demand. Most datacenters have plans to initially interconnect into local power grids, but the sheer magnitude of their energy needs threatens to outstrip the ability of grid managers to expand supply fast enough.  

This hunger for more affordable, 24/7 baseload capacity is leading to a variety of proposed solutions, including President Donald Trump’s new executive orders focused on reviving the nation’s coal industry, scheduled to be signed Tuesday afternoon. But efforts to restart the permitting of new coal-fired power plants in the US will require additional policy changes, efforts which will take time and could ultimately fail. In the meantime, datacenter developers find themselves having to delay construction and completion dates until firm power supply can be secured. 

Datacenters specific to AI technology require ever-increasing power loads. For instance, a single AI query can consume nearly ten times the power of a traditional internet search, and projections suggest that U.S. data center electricity consumption could double or even triple by 2030, rising from about 4-5% of total U.S. electricity today to as much as 9-12%. Globally, data centers could see usage climb from around 536 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2025 to over 1,000 TWh by 2030. In January, a report from the American Security Project estimated that datacenters could consume about 12% of all U.S. power supply. 

Obviously, the situation calls for innovative solutions. A pair of big players in the natural gas industry, Liberty Energy and Range Resources, announced on April 8 plans to diversify into the power generation business with the development of a major new natural gas power plant to be located in the Pittsburgh area. Partnering with Imperial Land Corporation (ILC), Liberty and Range will locate the major power generation plant in the Fort Cherry Development District, a Class A industrial park being developed by ILC.   

“The strategic collaboration between Liberty, ILC, and Range will focus on a dedicated power generation facility tailored to meet the energy demands of data centers, industrial facilities, and other high-energy-use businesses in Pennsylvania,” the companies said in a joint release.  

Plans for this new natural gas power project follows closely on the heels of the March 22 announcement for plans to transform the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania, the Homer City generating station, into a new gas-fired facility. The planned revitalized plant would house 7 natural gas turbines with a combined capacity of 4.5 GW, enough power 3 million homes.  

Both the Homer City station and the Fort Cherry plant will use gas produced out of the Appalachia region’s massive Marcellus Shale formation, the most prolific gas basin in North America. But plans like these by gas companies to invest in their own products for power needs aren’t isolated to Pennsylvania.  

In late January, big Permian Basin oil and gas producer Diamondback Energy told investors that it is seeking equity partners to develop a major gas-fired plan on its own acreage in the region. The facility would primarily supply electricity to data centers, which are expected to proliferate in Texas due to the AI boom, while also providing power for Diamondback’s own field operations. This dual-purpose approach could lower the company’s power costs and create a new revenue stream by selling excess electricity.  

Prospects for expansion of gas generation in the U.S. received a big boost in January when GE Vernova announced plans for a $600 million expansion of its manufacturing capacity for gas turbines and other products in the U.S. GE Vernova is the main supplier of turbines for U.S. power generation needs. The company plans to build 37 gas power turbines in 2025, with a potential increase to over 70 by 2027, to meet rising energy demands. 

The bottom line on these and other recent events is this: Natural gas is quickly becoming the power generation fuel of choice to feed the needs of the expanding datacenter industry through 2035, and potentially beyond. Given that reality, the smart thing to do for these and other companies in the natural gas business is to put down big bets on themselves. 

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

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