U.S. Border Enforcement Goes Global
Coming soon to a country near you
This is an installment of the “Ship’s Log” series, more personal entries on the beats we cover for paid subscribers.
If you haven’t signed up for a paid subscription, we urge you to consider doing so. We have plans that start at just $5/month and the resources help us continue bringing you the stories that most big media companies miss.
If you have, thank you, and read on!
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.