Panama's foreign minister warned Wednesday that up to 60,000 migrants, many of them of Haitian origin, are making their way through the Central American country toward the US-Mexico border - threatening the Biden administration with a fresh illegal immigration crisis.
Erika Mouynes claimed in an interview with Axios that her government had notified the White House of the most recent migration surge, which culminated in more than 15,000 people gathering under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas and waiting to be picked up by border authorities earlier this month.
Mouynes met Monday and Tuesday in Washington with members of Congress as well as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
One lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz, told Fox News Wednesday that Mouynes had described how her country has seen "Over 80,000 Haitian immigrants, Haitian evacuees, crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States [this year]."
As jobs there have dried up, their hopes have focused on the US. Mouynes told Axios that Panama has started a migrant quota system in partnership with its two immediate neighbors, Columbia and Costa Rica.
Mayorkas revealed earlier this week that 13,000 Haitian migrants from the most recent surge will have their cases heard by an immigration judge - 10,000 of whom have been released into the United States.
President Biden famously handed off responsibility for the border issue to Vice President Kamala Harris, who embarked on a much-touted trip to Mexico and Guatemala in early June in an effort to address the "Root causes" of illegal immigration.
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Panama's government warns bigger Haitian migrant surge headed for U.S. border
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment