The United States on Wednesday announced a $3 million partnership with the government of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino to undo environmental damage from tons of garbage left behind by hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants that transited through the dangerous Darién Gap jungle trail in recent years.
In an official statement, the the U.S. Embassy in Panama detailed that the $3 million partnership will work directly with officials from the Panamanian Environment Ministry and local communities to remove the piles of garbage left by migrants who passed through the jungle, encouraged to reach the U.S. through its southern border by the open border policies of former President Joe Biden.
The cleanup initiative was jointly revealed by U.S. ambassador Kevin Marino Cabrera and President Mulino during a graduation ceremony for 285 new agents of Panama’s Senafront National Borders Service and 39 new officials of Panama’s National Migration Service in Metetí, Darién. President Mulino explained that the Darién cleanup efforts will require the hiring of 150 local workers.
“We are announcing a $3 million partnership with Panama’s Ministry of Environment to support restoration efforts in the Darién following the devastating impact of mass illegal immigration driven by the previous administration’s failed open borders policies,” Ambassador Cabrera said. “Thanks to the leadership of Presidents Trump and Mulino, the Darién is now closed to drug cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and illegal immigrants.”
“This is more than addressing the damage caused by illegal immigration,” he added. “It is a testament to the strong and enduring cooperation between the United States and Panama under Presidents Trump and Mulino, as well as our dedication to securing borders, dismantling cartels, and building a safer and more prosperous future for the region and the country. As President Trump has long stated, a country without borders is not a country at all.”
“Thank you very much to your government, Mr. Ambassador, and to you for your support,” President Mulino expressed.
The Darién Gap is a dangerous 30-mile-wide, 100-mile-long jungle trail between Panama and Colombia and the only land bridge that connects South and Central America. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants — largely, Venezuelans fleeing from their nation’s socialist regime — and nationals from South American, African, and Asian nations passed through the dangerous jungle towards the U.S. southern border. Most notably, Panamanian authorities detected a significant surge of crossings by Chinese nationals — some of which used “VIP” routes to avoid the more dangerous parts of the journey that have since then been dismantled by local law enforcement officials. According to local outlets, it is estimated that some 1.2 million migrants passed through the Darién Gap between 2021 and 2024.
Darién Gap crossings have dramatically plummeted in the past two years after President Mulino took office in July 2024 and implemented policies to curb the flow of U.S.-bound illegal migrants. According to official statistics from Panama’s Migrant Authority, documented crossings went from over 302,000 in 2024 and 3,091 in 2025 to only 135 documented crossings during the first four months of 2026.
The migrants left behind a significant amount of waste, including litter. In some cases, authorities have discovered the bodies of migrants who died along the way and could not be recovered due to the inaccessible conditions of the area.
Reports published in September indicated that the garbage left behind had contaminated the waters of the nearby Esmeraldas River — a vital source of water for the local Emberá indigenous communities. Members of the indigenous community denounced last year that they stopped using river water for bathing after noticing skin problems. Similarly, locals reportedly denounced that their fish now “smells like gasoline” because of the engines used by boats that transported migrants out of the jungle. Panamanian authorities estimate that there is as much as 2.5 tons of garbage spread across the jungle trail.
“They weren’t just migrants crossing the border; they were criminal cartels, organizations that were profiting from people’s suffering and trafficking drugs, weapons, and all sorts of things — none of which help Panama, the United States, or the hemisphere,” Ambassador Cabrera reportedly said on Wednesday. “Panama has been our number one partner for five years in a row in seizing more than 100 metric units of drugs, and we will continue to collaborate because drugs are not good for Panama, nor for us, nor for our hemisphere.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.