U.S. Border Enforcement Goes Global

Coming soon to a country near you

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The United States first began pushing its border enforcement efforts into other countries a decade ago. In July 2014, then-president Obama began funding Mexico’s “Programa Frontera Sul” (Program Southern Border), which deported migrants entering the country's southern border in an effort to stem arrivals to the U.S.

The program included sending U.S. border patrol agents to Mexico for training and as advisors. Since then, the U.S. has carried out similar efforts throughout Central and South America in a series of efforts to make frontiers less porous— and thus more dangerous— across the Americas.

At the same time, they have pressured dozens of Latin American countries to demand visas from citizens of countries on the top ten list of those arriving at the U.S. border, most recently in Ecuador, which announced it will restrict the entry of Chinese nationals for the first time in the nation's history.

The program expanded this week when newly sworn-in Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced joint efforts with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deport migrants who have crossed the Darien Gap, the dense jungle crossing that separates South and Central America.