Smugglers living along key migration routes thrived off the U.S. border crisis, but are now left with next to no income after illegal migrants have largely given up trying to reach the southern border under the Trump administration’s watch.
Residents living in the Darien Gap — a vast jungle region between Colombia and Panama that serves as a pivotal way station for northbound migrants — took advantage of the endless number of illegal immigrants who trekked across their lands during the Biden-era, according to locals who spoke with the Associated Press. Noticing an opportunity from those that needed to be ferried across water, many residents invested in boats and charged migrants for passage, earning income substantially higher than their local average.
However, the economic landscape changed drastically after President Donald Trump entered office and quickly began instituting hardline policies that kept illegal immigration at bay.
“When Donald Trump won, everything came to a screeching halt,” Zobeida Concepcion, a woman living with her family in Lajas Blancas, a major river port destination in Panama for boats dropping off migrants, said to the AP.
Illegal immigration into the U.S. exploded during the Biden administration, with fiscal years 2023 and 2024 being the two worst years for total migrant encounters, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Many of these migrants previously crossed the Darien Gap, with over half a million migrants having passed through the region in 2023 — roughly double the nearly 250,000 that had crossed the year prior.
As the migrants began to roll in, so did the money. Many migrants crossing the Darien Gap paid for boat rides, food, clothing and water, infusing cash into incredibly remote areas that were accustomed to poverty.
Previously growing plantains or other crops for a living, many of the families living in the region switched to smuggling, according to the AP. Boat pilots, referred to as “lancheros,” could make as much as $300 a day, far more than the $150 a month locals were earning from crops.
Luis Olea, like others in his town of Villa Caleta, Panama, abandoned his crops and invested in a boat, he told the AP. Off the money he earned ferrying U.S.-bound illegal migrants, he installed electricity in his home, bought a television, purchased a water pump, elevated his house and installed solar panels on top of his roof.
However, Olea was no longer able to profit off the immigration crisis after migrants largely gave up on reaching the U.S.-Mexico border. His boat to carry migrants now sits idle and unused.
“Before, we lived off of the migration,” Olea said to the AP. “But now that’s all gone.”
Upon entering office, Trump immediately embarked on a number of executive orders and policy changes that drastically tightened border security and prompted many would-be illegal migrants to not even bother trying to enter.
The Trump administration deployed troops to the border, deputized agents across numerous federal agencies with immigration enforcement authorities and secured a massive amount of detention space outside of the country.
In addition to militarizing the U.S. side of the southern 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 in the region. A very similar victory was made at the northern border, where former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to beef up border security to avoid sweeping tariffs on his country’s exports.
Once under an unprecedented crisis, immigration officials are now reporting the lowest number of migrant encounters at the southern border in history. Border Patrol agents counted roughly 7,180 crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border during March — a far cry from the monthly average of 155,000 border crossings from the previous four years.
While Trump has worked to reduce illegal immigration into the U.S., his efforts have been assisted by Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, who was elected into office on the promise of reducing illegal travel across his country.
Other Panamanian locals who took advantage of the American crisis reported similar despair at the changing economic landscape.
“I’m trying this to see if things get better, see if I can buy some food,” Pedro Chami, another former boat pilot who gave up on his crops to ferry migrants, said to the AP. “Before, I would always have my $200 a day without fail.”
“Now, I don’t even have a cent,” Chami continued.
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