U.S. to fund flights to help Panama evacuate migrants who may be heading north

WASHINGTON — The United States will pay for flights and offer other assistance to Panama to expel migrants under an agreement signed Monday, as the Central American country's new president pledged to close the dangerous Darien Gap used by people traveling north to the United States.

The memorandum of understanding was signed during an official visit led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to Panama for the inauguration Monday of José Ral Mulino, the country's new president.

“The agreement aims to jointly reduce the number of migrants cruelly smuggled across the Darien, typically en route to the United States,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

Efforts to return some migrants to their home countries will help deter irregular migration in the region and at our southern border, and stop the enrichment of malicious smuggling networks that prey on vulnerable migrants, she said.

Irregular migration is a regional challenge that requires a regional response, Mayorkas said in a statement.

Shortly after Mulinos' inauguration, the Panamanian government released a statement saying that Mayorkas had signed an agreement with Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martnez-Acha in which the U.S. government committed to covering the costs of repatriating migrants who enter Panama illegally through the Darien River.

The agreement stipulates that the United States will support Panama by providing equipment, transportation and logistics to return to their country migrants caught entering Panama illegally, according to Panama.

Mulino, the country's 65-year-old former security minister and new president, has vowed to end migration across a jungle-covered and largely lawless border.

“I will not allow Panama to be an open route for thousands of people to enter our country illegally, supported by an international organization linked to drug trafficking and human trafficking,” Mulino said in his inauguration speech.

Under the terms of the agreement, U.S. Homeland Security teams on the ground in Panama would help the government train personnel and develop its own expertise and capacity to determine which migrants, under Panamanian immigration laws, could be expelled from the country, according to two senior administration officials.

They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to provide details of the deal that had not previously been made public.

The United States will also fund charter flights or commercial airline tickets to return them to their home countries. Officials did not specify the total amount of the U.S. contribution to those flights or the countries to which the migrants will be returned.

Officials said the United States would provide assistance and expertise on how to carry out the deportations, including helping Panamanian authorities screen migrants for protections. But the United States does not decide who to deport, they said.

The program would be entirely under Panama's control, in accordance with the country's immigration laws, and decisions would be made by that government, U.S. officials said. They added that Panama already has a repatriation program, but it is limited.

The deal comes as Panama's Darien Gap has become a sort of highway for migrants from across the Southern Hemisphere and beyond trying to reach the United States. The Darien Gap connects Panama and Colombia to the south.

More than half a million people crossed the corridor last year and more than 190,000 people have already crossed it in 2024, with most migrants coming from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and China.

The deal comes as the Biden administration struggles to show voters in an election year that it has a handle on immigration and border security. Former President Donald Trump, who made immigration a key election-year issue, has been a vocal critic of Biden, saying he is responsible for the problems at the border.

In early June, President Joe Biden announced a new measure to halt asylum access when the number of people arriving at the southern border reaches a certain number. Homeland Security officials have credited the restrictions with reducing the number of people encountered by Border Patrol by 40% since they were put in place.

The Biden administration also decided to allow some spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship without having to leave the country first. The move by Biden, a Democrat, could affect more than half a million immigrants.

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Juan Zamorano in Panama City contributed to this report.

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