A video recorded by a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee reveals how migrants are traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border via Panama, with an estimated 1,500-2,000 mostly Venezuelans passing through one village each day as they aspire to enter the U.S.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., is part of a congressional delegation inspecting U.S. operations in Panama and Colombia. He took video, shared with Fox News, showing how migrants emerge from the jungle in the Darien Gap into a Panamanian village.
There they are transported to another site, before being registered and leaving Panama to head to the U.S.
Gimenez, a Cuban-born member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees, said officials were encountering 1,500-2,000 a day in that village.
“People are coming out of the jungle into this village, overwhelming this village, and then they move on their way. They’re coming to the United States because the door is open and that’s why we’re here,” he added.
He later showed a stop-off aid center that is run with assistance from the U.N., U.S., and Panama, which he said was more organized than the village.
“This is a stop-off before they continue their journey to the north, and finally when they get to the border with Costa Rica, they are released and they make their way up through Costa Rica, Central America and then into the United States,” he said.
The footage comes amid concerns that the reported decline in the record high migrant encounters at the southern border that followed the end of Title 42 on May 11 may not be sustainable and an increase in traffic could be imminent, especially during the typically busy summer months.
For more, see Fox News.