Migrants flow north to US border ahead of policy changes

The long wooden boats packed with migrants in orange life jackets arrived one after another, pushed down the Tuquesa river by outboard motors. By day’s end, authorities had registered some 2,000 migrants at this remote riverside outpost on the edge of the Darien jungle that links Panama and Colombia.

Some had vague information — from relatives, social media, smugglers — about coming border policy changes by the United States government and were hustling to make it to that distant border.

Migrants ride on a boat along the Membrillo River en route to Canaan Membrillo, Panama, after walking across the Darien Gap from Colombia, Sunday, May 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

On May 11, the United States government will end pandemic-related restrictions on people requesting asylum at the border — also known as Title 42, under which migrants have been expelled from the U.S. more than 2.8 million times since March 2020.

The uncertainty around what happens after the end of the restrictions, as well as the prospect of new limits on asylum, was fodder for migrant smugglers to create an unnecessary sense of urgency for people making decisions with imperfect information.