illegal immigration
Panama Elects President Vowing Shutdown Of Key Routes To US Used By Over Half A Million Migrants
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
A tiny Central American country’s new president-elect is vowing to shut down a key corridor heavily used by migrants to enter the U.S.
Panamanian voters on Sunday elected center-right candidate Jose Raul Mulino as their new leader. The president-elect has notably vowed to shut down the trails used by hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants that run through the Darien Gap, a vast jungle region that sits across the Panama-Colombia border, and return them back to their home countries.
The 64-year-old lawyer was elected on a largely conservative platform, pledging to run a pro-private enterprise, pro-investment government and a crackdown on drug cartels, according to Bloomberg.
“The border of the United States, instead of being in Texas, moved to Panama,” Mulino said on the campaign trail, according to the Guardian. “We’re going to close the Darien and we’re going to repatriate all these people.”
Panama has served as a pivotal transit country for migrants beginning their journey in South America. More than half a million migrants crossed the Darien Gap en route to the U.S. in 2023, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
That number was double the nearly 250,000 migrants that crossed in 2022 and a significant increase from the few hundred who would cross annually a decade prior. While most of the migrants that cross the Darien Gap are Venezuelan nationals, others come from Ecuador, Haiti and also Africa and Asian countries.
With more than 90% of the votes tallied, Mulino held roughly 34% of the vote, a clear plurality over the 25% carried by nearest rival Ricardo Lombana, according to Bloomberg, and he is now due to assume office on July 1.
The number of illegal immigrants crossing the Darien Gap is expected to beat last year’s record, Juan Pappier, the Americas deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said to the Guardian. Given the first few months, the number could be as high as 700,000 or even reach 800,000 in 2024.
Mulino’s presidential victory and vow to close the gap are happening as the U.S. is months out from a presidential election, where illegal immigration has become a top concern among voters. The U.S.-Mexico border has experienced record-setting illegal migration under the current administration.
Since President Joe Biden took office, at least 6 million encounters have taken place at the southern border.
It remains to be seen how Mulino can effectively stop the flow of migrants through Panama.
Pappier framed the idea of shutting down the Darien Gap to be “virtually impossible“, given the rough terrain and dangerous drug cartels that have a presence in the region, according to the Guardian. Other experts have questioned whether Mulino is simply saying something American leaders want to hear, given the relative indifference Panamanian citizens actually have for irregular migration at the moment.
illegal immigration
Trump to declare national emergency on border, issue executive orders
From The Center Square
By
After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, President Donald Trump said he will sign “a series of historic executive orders … to begin the complete restoration of America and the ‘Revolution of Common Sense.’”
The first action he will take will be to declare a national emergency at the U.S. southern border, he said. Trump did not mention the northern border, which saw an unprecedented number of illegal crossings, record number of terrorists entering the U.S., and increased national security threats under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said. “We will reinstate my ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
Trump said he will designate Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The designation will also apply to violent transnational criminal organizations including the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, which is now operating in at least 22 states, The Center Square reported.
By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Trump will direct the federal government “to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” he said.
The act will be used to remove all cartel and gang members in the country illegally.
“As Commander in Chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions and that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody’s ever seen before,” he said.
Trump is expected to issue 10 executive orders Monday to implement border security measures. They include ending the Obama-era catch-and-release policy Trump ended in his first term, which former President Joe Biden reinstated. The policy led to more than 14 million foreign nationals illegally entering the country, including more than two million who evaded capture known as gotaways under the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.
Trump will reinstate a policy he created in his first term, Remain in Mexico, or “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP). It requires asylum seekers to wait outside the U.S. while their claims are processed. After the Biden administration sought to end it, Texas and Missouri sued. A federal judge ruled that ending the MPP was unlawful, The Center Square reported.
Trump will also direct federal agencies to finish building the border wall along the southwest border, completing a project he began in his first term. Biden halted border wall construction on his first day in office. Texas and Missouri again sued and won that lawsuit as well, The Center Square reported.policy
Another executive order will end parole programs for illegal border crossers created by former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was impeached in part for creating them. Multiple attorneys general sued to stop them, arguing they were illegal.
The parole programs, including using a phone app, facilitated illegal entry into the U.S. for millions, including those with criminal records. Many released through the parole programs were later found to commit violent crimes against Americans, The Center Square reported.
Another will direct federal efforts to “crack down on criminal sanctuaries,” referring to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. More than 200 were identified and already given notice to comply with federal law or face prosecution. Sanctuary cities expected to be targeted first include Boston, Chicago, Miami and New York.
Trump’s massive deportation efforts will be led by his Border Czar Tom Homan, who has said the priority is to find and locate the most violent criminals to process for removal.
Another executive order will suspend the federal so-called refugee resettlement program through which local communities nationwide “were forced to house large and unsustainable populations of migrants, straining community safety and resources,” Trump’s transition team said.
Trump will also direct members of the U.S. military, including the National Guard, to engage in border security operations, deploying them to the border to assist existing law enforcement personnel. According to a poll ahead of the election last year, the majority of Americans support U.S. troops being sent to the border, The Center Squarereported.
Another order will direct the Department of Justice to seek the death penalty for illegal border crossers who kill U.S. citizens, including law enforcement officers.
Last year, criminal illegal border crossers made international headlines after brutally assaulting and murdering American women and girls, The Center Square reported. Their mothers and family members endorsed Trump for president.
Another order will direct the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to enhance vetting and screening processes after national security concerns were raised about the Biden administration flying illegal border crossers into the country who weren’t vetted, The Center Square reported.
Daily Caller
Sweeping Deportations to Begin in Chicago Day After Inauguration
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Hopkins
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to launch his promised large-scale deportation operation the day after he is sworn into office, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The incoming Trump administration will immediately begin mass deportation efforts in major sanctuary cities across the United States, with Chicago predicted to be first on the docket, according to The Wall Street Journal. The raid in Chicago is anticipated to begin Tuesday morning and last the entire week, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deploy 100 to 200 agents to execute the operation.
Incoming border czar Tom Homan — who led ICE during the first Trump administration — previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the White House will focus on the “worst first,” prioritizing illegal migrants who have criminal histories and orders of removal. However, Homan also made clear that any illegal migrant in the U.S is fair game.
“Like the first Trump administration, we’re going to prioritize public safety threats, national security threats and fugitives,” Homan stated to the DCNF, adding that gang members and other criminals would be their main focus. “Those that had due process at great taxpayer expense, were given orders of deportation, never left and became a fugitive – them too, they’re a priority.”
“The ones who pose the biggest threat to the country – they come first. The worst first,” Homan went on. “But let’s be clear, if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table.”
The Chicago City Council recently slapped down an attempt by two moderate aldermen to scale back the sanctuary city laws currently in place.
Aldermen Raymond Lopez and Silvana Tabares, both Democrats, proposed amending Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance to allow for ICE cooperation when an illegal migrant has been arrested of certain criminal activities, arguing that such a policy would be a net benefit for the city’s immigrant community as it would allow deportation officers to better focus on criminals instead of making enforcement actions in the city at large. However, their proposal was quickly shot down by the council on Wednesday.
Other sanctuary cities in the U.S. have also expressed steep opposition to Trump’s enforcement agenda. Los Angeles passed its sanctuary law shortly after Trump emerged victorious in the presidential election, San Diego County doubled down on its existing law and Boston reaffirmed its sanctuary status in December.
Homan has said that city officials refusing to cooperate with ICE will not deter their agenda, and he added that those who knowingly harbor illegal migrants from law enforcement will be recommended for prosecution.
Along with large-scale deportation operations, Trump has also vowed to end birthright citizenship for those born on U.S. soil by illegal migrant parents, resume construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall, bring back the Remain in Mexico program and implement other hawkish policies.
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