Donald Trump’s administration would shut down the Darien Gap, the dangerous Panamanian jungle hundreds of thousands of migrants cross each year on their way north, incoming border czar Tom Homan said Thursday in a one-on-one interview at the U.S. southern border.
“It needs to happen,” he said. “Shutting down the Darien Gap is going to protect our national security. It’s going to save thousands of lives.”
Panama has faced pressure to crack down on migration in recent years, and the country’s immigration authorities said this month there had been a 42% drop in crossings last year through the typically lawless 70-mile stretch of jungle.
“We’re going to work with the foreign government,” Homan said.
Homan’s comments come as the president-elect begins laying out an expansionist foreign policy for his second term. This week, Trump didn’t rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal or acquire Greenland.
Homan, acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump administration and a former ICE agent himself, also acknowledged that Trump’s mass deportation plan would include “collateral arrests” — undocumented immigrants without criminal records who are discovered as ICE agents search for their targets.