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A new report reveals that more than 14,000 migrants who had hoped to cross into the United States have turned back and reversed course due to the Trump administration’s hardline border enforcement policies.
The new phenomenon, referred to as “reverse flow” migration, has mainly impacted migrants fleeing the economic and political turmoil in Venezuela and who had been moving north through Central America toward the U.S.
Since 2017, around 8 million people have fled the political crisis in Venezuela.
The report, published by the governments of Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica with the support of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that northward migration had plummeted by 97% this year.
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“It’s time to go back — the American dream wasn’t like this,” one migrant said, per the report.
The report links the reversal to President Donald Trump’s border policies, with 46% of migrants citing policy changes and 49% saying they could not enter the U.S. Another 34% ran out of resources and 17% feared detention or deportation.
Migration through the treacherous Darién Gap on the border of Colombia and Panama peaked in 2023 when more than half a million migrants crossed.
The report also blames U.S. financial reductions for drying up humanitarian aid. As a result, NGOs and UN agencies that were filling protection gaps in places like the Darién Gap and along return routes had to shut down or scale back operations.
Additionally, tougher transit restrictions in Panama mean the traditional pipeline toward the U.S. is nearly shut.
That flow slowed somewhat in 2024 but dried up almost completely early this year as President Trump fulfilled his campaign promise of shutting the border.
Southwest border apprehensions hit a monthly record low in July, with only 4,399 apprehensions, according to the United States Border Patrol. For the third month in a row, there were zero releases. This is the new all-time record low, beating the prior record low of 6,070 in June.
Biden repeatedly had single days when apprehensions ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 migrants, with his highest single month being December 2023, when 249,785 Border Patrol apprehensions were recorded.
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The migrants who had hoped to reach the U.S. now find themselves in a difficult situation and some face violence, abuse and exploitation, the report states.
Roughly 50% of those interviewed in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia said they intended to go back to Venezuela, with around a quarter of those interviewed planning to go to neighboring Colombia, previously the epicenter of the mass migration from Venezuela. Others said they didn’t know where they were going.
Some migrants will continue moving south within Latin America, but the report warns they face unsafe boat journeys, dependence on smugglers and criminal groups that prey on returnees. Others remain stranded in places like Palenque, Miramar, Necoclí, Bahía Solano and Medellín, sleeping in parks or abandoned buildings without access to food, shelter or medical care.
Humanitarian monitors said many are turning to survival strategies such as informal work, begging or even transactional sex.
“We don’t know whether to stay in Colombia or go to Chile. I worry a lot about my children; they’re tired of moving so much,” one migrant said.
“Imagine, I’m back in the same place I left many years ago chasing a dream,” another said. “Now I don’t know what to do.”
Scott Campbell, the U.N. human rights representative in Colombia, said the returnees are among the most vulnerable people on the continent and urged governments not to abandon the migrants.
“Most of these people are already victims of human rights abuses,” Campbell said. “We urge authorities to aid people in this reverse migration to prevent them from being exploited or falling into trafficking networks run by illegal armed groups.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
