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American perceptions of immigration policy tend to focus primarily on the southern border with Mexico.
Crossing the border might seem like the beginning of an immigration story from inside the US, but it’s not. Migrants may have already traveled many thousands of miles, fleeing lack of opportunity or violence at home, risking their life savings and their safety.
For some idea of how difficult the journey is, take a look at “The Trek: A Migrant Trail to America,” the first episode in CNN’s new in-depth Sunday night series – “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.”
A team of CNN journalists made the trek through the Darien Gap, 66 miles of muddy jungle. CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Gallón, Brice Lainé and Carlos Villalón describe the Darien Gap as “a stretch of remote, roadless, mountainous rainforest connecting South and Central America.”
See their full report here with videos, maps and photos. It is worth reading.
Here are some of the things that stuck out to me after watching the full video and reading the digital report:
The journey begins with guides from a drug cartel in Colombia. The cartel is making money providing passage, for a fee, to the Colombian side of the border. That organization ends days later, in Panama, where migrants run out of food and money and still have thousands of miles to travel to get to the US border.
Almost 250,000 people made the crossing in 2022, nearly double the figures from the year before, and 20 times the annual average from 2010 to 2020.
The numbers are only growing, according to CNN’s report: “Early data for 2023 shows six times as many made the trek from January to March, 87,390 compared to 13,791 last year, a record,…
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