Panama's foreign minister Erika Mouynes has notified the White House that close to 60,000 migrants, majority of them of Haitian origin, are on their way through the Central American country and the group is headed towards the US-Mexico border.
The large group of migrants en-route to the US border pose a fresh illegal migration crisis to the Biden administration which is already under intense pressure to solve the border issue.
''We've engaged with every single authority that we can think of, that we can come across, to say, 'Please, let's pay attention to this'. We all have a role to play in this issue, and the regional approach is the correct approach. It is impossible for Panama to solve it on its own,'' said Mouynes in an interview with Axios.
Mouynes, who paid a visit to Washington on official duty, met with members of Congress, especially Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and also Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Ted Cruz in an interview with Fox News described his meeting with Mayorkas and said that she informed him that Panama has seen ''over 80,000 Haitian immigrants, Haitian evacuees, crossing from South America, through Panama, headed to the United States.''
Cruz laid the blame squarely on Biden and Harris for creating a crisis at the border and said, ''This is all happening because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refuse to enforce the law. They have essentially said anyone who wants to come to America, they're gonna resettle them, they're gonna give them benefits, they're gonna let them stay, and it's resulting in a public health crisis and a humanitarian crisis.''
Haiti has seen a surge in people leaving the country in droves after the tragic earthquake in 2010 that killed 2,00,000 people and demolished over 250,000 houses and 30,000 commercial buildings.
Majority of Haitian migrants are moving towards their immediate neighbors Columbia, Costa Rica and other South American countries and the rest are braving tough conditions and making their way towards the US-Mexico border in the hopes of being allowed into the U.S.
Just recently, a U.S immigration judge heard the cases of 13,000 Haitian migrants and 10,000 of them has now been released into the United States.
