What Makes Florida a Magnet for Brazilian Migrants?

 The Darién Gap is a jungle area that separates Colombia and Panama. It is the only part of the Pan-American Highway that is missing from Alaska to southern Argentina. It used to be thought to be impossible to get through for a good reason. But in 2023, a record 520,000 people, many of them children, crossed it on their way north. A lot of people have died trying to cross it. More and more people are also going out on the water. The Bahamas have become a new way for people smugglers to cross the Caribbean Sea. As is also true in Europe, when safer roads are closed, people start taking ones that are more dangerous. Millions of people are leaving countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to get away from dictatorships, crime, poverty, and natural disasters. So, the USA is still a big draw for people wanting to move there. Its stricter rules on immigration are the main reason why people are going into the bush and the sea.

Trends that change

More than the number of Syrian or Ukrainian refugees who have left their country since 2017, 7.7 million Venezuelans have left since 2017. Almost three million have stayed in neighboring Colombia, while about 1.5 million have gone to Peru, and close to 500,000 have gone to both Brazil and Ecuador. Hundreds of thousands have gone to other countries in the region. Latin American host countries are usually pretty friendly. Politicians in the global north don't usually feed into prejudice or make migrants look bad for political reasons. States also don't usually turn people away at the border or deport them; instead, they try to give them ways to become legal residents. They've been practical enough to find a mix between being open and making sure people can get in without a problem. Because of this, a lot of Venezuelans who have moved to other countries have gotten some kind of legal standing there. But host states haven't thought about how to integrate people for a long time. They face problems that are common in the global south, like a lot of unmet social needs and a lot of injustice. Because of this, many of the people coming to the US are from Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela and had already been living in other countries. They do it mostly because they don't have any other options, but for Haitians, language hurdles and racial discrimination are also big reasons.

The USA has made it harder for people to come to the country, but many people are still drawn to its open southern border, which is the longest border between the global north and global south. During the fiscal year of 2022, US officials met a record 2.4 million people crossing the border illegally. Many had come a long way. They had gone through the Darién Gap and then across Central America and Mexico.

Trips that are dangerous

It's very dangerous for people to do that. The Missing Migrants Project of the United Nations said that at least 1,275 people died or went missing while migrating in the Americas in 2023.

It's not clear how many people have died in the Darién Gap so far. A lot of the time, deaths aren't recorded and bodies are never found. It could take anywhere from three to fifteen days to cross. People have to deal with the rough jungle and bad weather as they cross rivers and mountains. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says that the Darién is one of the most dangerous places in the world because it is very hot and doesn't have the right infrastructure. It's easy to slip and fall on the steep slopes or drown in the fast-moving rivers. People who hire guides can leave them behind. People who can't keep up can get lost and confused. Many people have to leave their goods, like food and water, along the way because the terrain is so rough.

Criminal groups in the area also often target migrants and steal from, kidnap, or rape them. MSF saw a sevenfold rise in the number of sexual assaults each month in December 2023. But even though it was dangerous, almost twice as many people crossed in 2023 as in 2022.

You can get to Central America through the Darién Gap, but that's only the beginning of a much longer trip. There are still risks. Many of them stay somewhere in Mexico, but others keep moving north and face many dangers as they try to get to the United States. They risk drowning or dying of heat and dehydration in the desert during the day, or of hypothermia at night. Migrants have also died of suffocation when attempts to smuggle them have gone wrong. Smugglers often use threats to get them to do what they want, and Border Patrol agents violate their rights by hurting or killing them.

As of early 2021, President Joe Biden's administration made a number of changes to US immigration policies

These included lifting the travel ban on mostly Muslim and African countries, bringing back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and giving Venezuelans living in the US Temporary Protection Status, among other things. But it wasn't until May 2023 that the Biden administration finally lifted Title 42. This was a public health order that the Trump administration used to send people back to their home countries right away if they were caught crossing the border, even if they had asked for refuge. But at the same time, the government put out new rules that became known as the "asylum ban." Before going to the border, people must now either use a smartphone app to make an appointment or show proof that they have tried to get protection in the countries they have traveled through on their way to the US before and failed. If they don't meet these requirements, they are generally thought to not be eligible for asylum and may be sent back to their home country quickly.