Internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documents show the Biden administration is well aware a great proportion of the migrants travelling to the US from South America are coming for economic reasons, rather than escaping persecution.
A December report from CBP obtained by NewsNation’s Ali Bradley described how US border officials interviewed hundreds of migrants passing through the Darién Gap — the narrow stretch of jungle terrain that connects Central America to South America — but that not a single one reported fleeing political prosecution in their home countries.
“Aside from the extortion threat, there were no reports of gangs or other criminal organizations targeting the migrants for assassinations, etc., and none of the migrants claimed political prosecution,” the report read.
Officials conducted their interviews in the dangerous stretch of cartel controlled-jungle that most migrants traveling to the US must pass through on their way north to determine what “push/pull factors” were driving them to make the journey.
In total, 235 migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti and the Dominica Republic were interviewed by CBP along with Panamanian immigration officials.
Poor and corrupt economic conditions were the most cited motivations, according to the report, with migrants describing countries where basic childcare cost almost twice common monthly incomes, groceries fetched exorbitant prices, and extortion was commonplace.
Seeking better futures for their children, and reuniting with family members already in the US, were also cited by some people.
Those motivations run counter to what is required to meet the criteria to apply for asylum in the US — a credible fear of prosecution based on race, religion, nationality, politics or social identify, according to CBP.
Under current asylum laws, each migrant interviewed in the Darién Gap would not qualify for entry to the country to pursue asylum.
The existence of the report also suggests that since at least early December the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been aware many migrants coming to the US do not meet the requirements for entry.
It is unknown if any of those interviewed in the Darien Gapo made it to the US or what they told border officers during interviews to assesss whether they qualified for entry.
It is well known that Cartel people smugglers, nicknamed ‘coyotes’, coach people what to tell US forces on the border in order to gain entry.
Asylum applicants must wait 150 days after submitting their asylum application before they can apply for a work permit, a measure enacted more than a decade ago to discourage migration for ecnominc reasons.
However, a bill introduced to congress by a group of Democrats including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chuck Shumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in May 2023 sought to reduce this waiting period to 30 days.
Despite this information, in December more than 276,000 people claiming asylum were encountered by border agents crossing the US-Mexican border, the most encountered in a single month in history.
Those hundreds of thousands come on top of the 3.2 million nationwide migrant encounters in the 2023 fiscal year — 2.4 million of which were along the southern border.
Immigration courts now face a backlog of over three million cases, which are expected to take years to address. Most asylum seekers, whether they will qualify or not, are allowed to remain in the country for years until they get their day in court.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.