From The Guardian: More than 14,000 people, mainly Venezuelans, who hoped to reach the US have reversed course and turned south since the start of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, according to a report by the governments of Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica.
The phenomenon, known as “reverse flow” migration, is largely made up of Venezuelans who fled the country’s long-running economic, social and political crises only to encounter US immigration policy no longer open to asylum seekers.
Migration through the treacherous Darién Gap on the border of Colombia and Panama peaked in 2023 when more than half a million people crossed. It slowed somewhat in 2024, but ceased almost completely early this year.
The report, published on Friday with the support of the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that northward migration had dropped 97% this year.
The majority (97%) of the migrants traveling south who were interviewed were Venezuelans, and nearly all said they were turning back because they could no longer legally go to the United States.
About half said they were going back to Venezuela, while others either planned to go to Columbia, or were still uncertain where they would go.
In an effort to bring more illegal aliens to the U.S. without them being categorized as “illegal,” the Biden administration had rolled out the welcome mat by encouraging the migrants to use the “CBP One App.”
The Guardian lamented that the Trump administration had zapped that program:
A government smartphone app became the main way for asylum seekers to enter the US under the Biden administration. Thousands of people became stranded in Mexico when Trump ended the use of the app on his first day in office.
The migrants spent money traveling north, many going through the Darien Gap, and then across Mexico. Now they have to spend more money to go back.
The UN report fretted that the returning migrants now face more dangers.
“We urge authorities to aid people in this reverse migration to prevent them from being exploited or falling into trafficking networks run by illegal armed groups,” Scott Campbell, a UN human rights representative in Colombia, said in a statement.
Fox News also noted that the United Nations report “blames U.S. financial reductions for drying up humanitarian aid. As a result, NGOs and U.N. agencies that were filling protection gaps in places like the Darién Gap and along return routes had to shut down or scale back operations.”
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 2, 2025
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