A previous report from Reuters claimed that approximately 20,000 Haitian migrants were currently traversing Panama, on their way toward the US border. Now a new report suggests the number could be much higher.
According to the latest report from Axios, the Foreign Minister of Panama is warning US officials that the number could be as high as 60,000 mostly Haitian migrants traveling through Latin America in hopes of entering the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a recent interview that an estimated 12,000 Haitian migrants have been released into the US, while Border officials say government buses have been dropping off families at supermarkets, gas stations, and shelters for possibly months.
The number of Haitian migrants released in the interior goes beyond previous estimates and some sources within the CBP say the number of Haitians released into the US since July is closer to 30,000.
Approximately 14,000 Haitian migrants were waiting for days under the Del Rio-Acuna International Bridge, before being cleared out. The Biden administration claimed that most of the migrants were processed and deported, but according to sources inside CBP, most of the migrants were released at various destinations throughout the US and will remain in the country.
As immigration authorities are overwhelmed by the latest wave of migrants, journalists at the border are finding many of the migrants are discarding their forms of identification.
CBP officials say this tactic is used to conceal from asylum reviewers that many of the migrants were already safely situated for years in other countries before coming to America.
Journalist Bill Melugin published photographs of documents discarded by the migrants, and among the findings, he discovered that some of them had already been processed by the United States and released.
According to the New York Times, the migrant groups are not being tested for COVID upon arrival.
The overwhelmed Border Patrol says it has insufficient time and space to conduct coronavirus testing at processing stations. Reportedly, migrants get a basic health screening, but testing is usually being postponed until their release to local community groups, cities, and counties.
Many migrants say they’re never tested.
In one video posted by the Daily Caller, Haitian migrants confirmed that they were not tested for COVID upon arriving in the United States or after being resettled.
In the video you can see some of the Haitian migrants speaking almost fluent Spanish or Portuguese, revealing how long they have been situated in either Brazil, Chile, and other South American countries.
A recent forecast predicts that more than 1.8 million illegal immigrants are expected to cross the U.S.-Mexico border this year, making it the “worst ever” on record for illegal immigration.
The projection from Princeton Policy Advisors showed that a high of 1,864,000 illegal immigrants could cross the southwest border based on current trends and past averages.
Only around 1 million legal immigrants are processed in an average year, which would make the total immigration for 2021 nearly 3 million people. These numbers do not include those that cross undetected.
