They climbed onto the boat on Panama’s Caribbean Coast, around 40 people in all, their belongings stuffed in garbage bags and their children clinging tight to them for the arduous trip ahead.
They were not defying the U.S. government by moving toward the border. They were heading back to Venezuela — doing exactly what American officials want them to do — even though it meant facing threats of robbery, kidnapping and a dangerous crossing once again.
“It’s a broken dream,” said Junior Sulbarán, who, like the others, had fled Venezuela the year before, carrying his infant daughter thousands of miles north and through the treacherous jungle pass known as the Darién Gap.
He and his family arrived in Mexico City before President Trump’s second term, and soon heard the administration’s message. “If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it,” Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said in a White House video posted in February. “If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down.”
There is no clear figure for how many people have decided to leave the United States or given up on reaching it, and migration at the southern border had dropped sharply even before Mr. Trump took office for a second time.
But in one indication that some migrants are starting to return to South America, more than 10,000 people — virtually all from Venezuela — have taken boats from Panama to Colombia since January, according to Panamanian officials, who say that more are setting out each week.
That is a tiny number compared with the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who entered the United States and Mexico in recent years, but the busy new boat route toward South America is a sign, according to migrants, officials and rights groups, that the Trump administration’s harsh tactics are having an effect.
“The world is hearing our message that America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “Migrants are now even turning back before they reach our borders.”
For those in the United States, she said, “it’s an easy choice: Leave voluntarily and receive $1,000,” referring to the government’s offer for “voluntary self deportation.”
While the administration may claim success, experts say, many migrants face so many barriers to heading home that even if they are willing, it is extremely challenging to turn back.
“They’re stuck, wherever they are,” said Juan Cruz, who served as Mr. Trump’s top Latin America adviser during his first term, noting that many migrants are impoverished and indebted and lack travel documents. Venezuelans, he added, also face a government hostile to those who left for the United States.
The Trump administration may not care how people get home, said Mr. Cruz. But if it wants to encourage more people to leave, ignoring the obstacles that migrants face “isn’t the way to do it,” he said. “They don’t have a single thing going for them.”
Among those leaving, migrants from Venezuela, in particular, say they feel targeted by the administration, which recently ended deportation protections and has sent hundreds of men accused of being gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
In Texas, buses heading south are filling up with Venezuelans who say they fear being detained over tattoos or separated from their children. In Mexico, there is a desperate, monthslong competition to get on flights to Caracas. In Panama, the outskirts of Colón have become a hub for boat operators charging hundreds of dollars to get on rickety boats to skirt the Darién on the way back to South America.
For many migrants from Venezuela, it is not so easy as raising a hand and boarding a plane.
Some do not have travel documents after years on the road, or any documents at all — and because Venezuela has few consulates, they are extremely difficult to replace. One passenger on the boat in Panama, Adrián Corona, said that his passport had expired and his ID was lost in the Darién.
He had turned around in Mexico, much like Mr. Sulbarán, his wife and their toddler, Samantha Victoria, who had been on the move for over a year by the time they made it back to Panama.
“We left Santiago, Chile, went through Bolivia, then Peru, then Ecuador, then Colombia, and finally entered the Darién,” Mr. Sulbarán said of his tortuous escape from crumbling Venezuela. “We spent six days in the jungle.”
Leaving Mexico, they took buses south to Panama’s coast, where they put their belongings in trash bags to protect them from storms and splashing waves.
“All of it was a waste of time and money,” said Josliacner Andrade, Mr. Sulbarán’s wife.
Now, new obstacles stood in their way. Panama has all but sealed the Darién, seeking to help the United States stop northbound migration and asserting that the crossing, by foot, has become too dangerous.
“Since they closed the jungle, we had to take the boats,” said Dayerlín Sandoval, who had traveled to the boat from San Antonio, fearing that she would be deported without her son.
Many of the Venezuelans saved up for months to make the difficult journey, which can cost a small family a few thousand dollars.
Geraldine Rincón, who learned of the boat route on TikTok, said her mother had sold a motorcycle in Venezuela to help finance the trip for her and her small son and daughter.
Simply to squeeze on a boat, each migrant pays about $300, wearing pink wristbands as proof.
And once they’re onboard, the dangers don’t end.
The boats travel more than 200 miles across the Caribbean, stopping at a village on the edge of the Darién, before continuing toward their destination, Colombia. Along the way they sometimes pass postcard views — cargo ships by the Panama Canal, palm-covered islands — but often travel over rough seas and under a scorching sun.
At least one trip has been deadly. In February, an 8-year-old from Venezuela drowned and around 20 migrants had to be rescued after their boat capsized.
For a moment, the migrants who set out in early May feared another disaster. As their boat neared a migration checkpoint on the island of El Porvenir, there was a loud crack. A propeller had hit a reef.
They made it to the checkpoint, where the Panamanian authorities count heads and mainly ensure that migrants continue on their way. But about an hour later, the damaged motor gave out, leaving only one.
The captain searched for a cellphone signal to call for backup and the passengers baked in the midday sun. When the boat was moving steadily, the heat was bearable. At this pace, it was stifling.
Alejandra Rojas tore open a juice pack for her panting dog, Milú, who had followed her through the Darién jungle. Ms. Rojas wore a hat, but most passengers had nothing but their T-shirts to pull over their heads. Two children vomited.
After 40 minutes in the sun, the backup boat arrived, and one by one the migrants passed children, bags and the dog over the side. Then they were on their way, the surf rising and the boat banging down hard on the waves.
Finally, after eight hours, the group pulled into Puerto Obaldía, a tiny village without roads near the Colombian border.
There they were, at the edge of the Darién, facing a region that has come to see migrants as a financial opportunity — again.
Juanita Goebertus, the director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, said that the remote corner of Colombia where the boats go is essentially run by a criminal group. And the migrants knew what lay in store: paying locals top dollar for food, water, a scrap of space to sleep on their yards or floors.
“You’re a little gold mine, Mr. Corona said. “Everyone sees you like that.”
The migrants who made it to the border town would board boats to Colombia the next day, then scatter. Those heading to Venezuela knew their relatives, many going hungry, would have little to offer.
Prepared for the worst, Mr. Sulbarán said he and his wife planned only to pick up his 9-year-old son and see family. Then they would turn around and leave Venezuela once more.
Annie Correal reports from the U.S. and Latin America for The Times.
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