The number of South Americans crossing the Darien Gap between the nations of Colombia and Panama has plummeted in recent months amid border security efforts from the United States.

The stretch of dense rainforest at the juncture between North America and South America witnessed over 500,000 crossings as recently as 2023, but in the several weeks after President Donald Trump prioritized closing the southern border, those crossings have nearly stopped.

There were slightly over 400 migrants observed crossing the Darien Gap in the entire month of February, a drop of 99% compared to the more than 37,000 who made the trip last February.

Panamanian law enforcement saw an average of 16,400 migrants per week in 2022, but now the sprawling tent cities once packed with eventual illegal aliens bound for the United States are largely empty. There were just a few migrants from Venezuela, Angola, and Nigeria seen in Lajas Blancas, one of the encampments that was previously packed with hordes of migrants.

Tom Homan, the former ICE director who serves as border czar for the Trump administration, revealed in the days before the inauguration that closing the Darien Gap would be a priority.

The law enforcement official said that closing the passage “needs to happen,” because the move was “going to protect our national security” and would ultimately “save thousands of lives.”

The decline in crossings at the Darien Gap comes as the southern border sees the lowest number of apprehensions ever recorded by the United States after new security measures were implemented. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks announced that there were a mere 8,300 apprehensions of illegal aliens in February, amounting to roughly 300 apprehensions each day.