Chris Lange, FISM News

[elfsight_social_share_buttons id=”1″]

A second wave of Haitian migrants numbering around 60,000 is headed to the U.S., according to Panama Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes, who warns that this is only the beginning of what’s to come.

According to an Axios report, Mouynes expressed frustration that repeated warnings of the surge fell on deaf ears and that the Biden administration appeared to be caught completely off guard by the crisis, saying “we sounded the alarm when we should have.”

More than 85,000 mostly-Haitian migrants have entered Panama through Columbia since January, a journey that includes a trek through the dangerous Darién Gap jungles. From there, they travel north through Central America, Mexico, and into the U.S., eager to take advantage of Biden’s lax border policies. 

According to Mouynes, senior envoys representing South American countries, Mexico, and Canada, met with U.S. officials in August to discuss the burgeoning migrant crisis. Mouynes said it is “shocking” that the meeting did not occur sooner. 

“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,’” Mourynes stated, adding that the massive number of Haitians pouring into Panama has resulted in a humanitarian crisis that is putting a strain on the country’s resources:

When we receive them on the Panamanian side, they’re malnourished. The children are in terrible condition, so even getting them up to a healthy state takes time.

At the same time, officials in Columbia are struggling to hold back 30,000 migrants wanting to cross into Panama, where officials say they have neither the room nor the resources to deal with them.  

Both situations shine a spotlight on the way in which the chaos resulting from Biden’s failed border policies extends beyond America. 

Mouynes, who recently met with DHS Secretary Mayorkas and members of Congress, said she would like to see additional meetings take place between the U.S., Panama, and other affected countries in order to develop and implement plans to manage the extraordinary volume of migrants coming into their respective countries. 

“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,” she said.  “Let’s recognize that they all are heading toward the U.S.”

Meanwhile, a caravan of up to 10,000 additional Haitian migrants is also preparing to enter the U.S. from Tapachula, Mexico, according to an open border activist cited in a Just the News report. Irineo Mujica, Director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an organization that assists “migrants and refugees in transit,” says that 800 Haitians and Central Americans are crossing the Guatemalan border on the way to the U.S. every day.

“We are leaving in 20 days,” said Mujica in a video posted to social media, warning that “…this time, with papers or without papers, we are ready for war. If the National Guard comes and they are cowardly enough to beat women and children, let them prepare because God’s hand is with us.” The caravan is planning to depart from Mexico and head to the U.S. on or around October 25, “with  or without clearance” from Mexico.

Last month, DHS Secretary Mayorkas admitted in a “Fox News” interview that, among the tens of thousands of Haitian migrants who breached the southern border into Del Rio, Texas in September, at least 12,000 were released into the U.S., though many believe the number to be much higher.