Speaking to Axios, Panama Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes said that there are as many as 60,000 more migrants, mostly Haitians, are headed for the U.S. southern border.
Mouynes is shocked and upset that the Biden administration has ignored her country’s warnings. She was sounding the alarm months before the last wave that ended up under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
“We sounded the alarm when we should have,” Mouynes told Axios. On Tuesday, she concluded two long days of meetings in Washington with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“We’ve engaged with every single authority that we can think of, that we can come across, to say, ‘Please, let’s pay attention to this.'”
Mouynes said Panama is expecting many more migrants to cross through the Darien Gap this month than did in all of 2019, when 27,000 made the journey, according to Panama’s estimates.
Mouynes is pleading with Majorkas to enforce a coordinated plan with the countries in the area to help.
“Let’s recognize that they all are heading toward the U.S.,” she said.
More than 85,000 migrants — mostly Haitians — have passed through Panama since January, with 20,000 to 25,000 making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border and most of them being allowed to enter the United States, according to Axios.
Read their full report at Axios
