Reverse Migration: Traveling With Migrants Abandoning Their Journey to the United States

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone documents the perilous journey of a group of migrants making their way back to Venezuela — part of a growing trend of reverse migration following Donald Trump’s return to office.

Transcript

00:00I think there's this general sense that because border crossings at the southern border are now at an all-time low,

00:06migration has simply stopped.

00:08But migration is happening. It's just happening in the opposite direction.

00:16There is a growing group of migrants that are choosing to go home.

00:20Some of them feel forced to self-deport, but others are choosing.

00:24And they're choosing to let go of the American dream.

00:26And in those moments, the idea of coming to the U.S., what was it?

00:33That's what you imagined.

00:35I was able to have something that you work at all in your work,

00:39to medium-food, medium-food.

00:42You're not going to eat and you're going to sit at your house and eat well.

00:46And you're not going to do it.

00:47For you, it was a better opportunity for your children.

00:50So, for this story, we meet Edison.

00:53Edison is a 37-year-old young Venezuelan man.

00:56He has two kids.

00:57And like millions of Venezuelans,

00:59he chose to leave Venezuela in 2024,

01:03just a month before Donald Trump's election.

01:06Take into consideration that at least 8 million Venezuelans

01:09have left the country since 2014, right?

01:12And this speaks to the very deep, complex, and difficult sociopolitical situation

01:17that that country is undergoing under someone like President Nicolás Maduro.

01:22Fast forward a couple of weeks,

01:24Donald Trump wins the election.

01:25Trump wins the election.

01:29Edison makes the calculation,

01:31that not only is it increasingly difficult to cross the southern border,

01:35but more than anything, that it's not worth it for him.

01:38That the idea of living under the United States that he was observing from afar,

01:42a United States where Venezuelans like him are being racially profiled,

01:46where many Venezuelans don't even have the right to due process,

01:49where many people that look exactly like him,

01:51not covered in tattoos, dark skin like him,

01:53were being deported to countries like El Salvador,

01:56he made the calculation that it wasn't worth it anymore.

01:59And so in that moment,

02:00he decides that he wants to return back to his homeland.

02:03But there's one thing he will not do,

02:05and that is he promises himself that no matter what,

02:09he will not go back through the Darien jungle.

02:11The Darien jungle is known across the world

02:18as the most dangerous jungle in the world.

02:21It's the 60-mile piece of land

02:24that borders the Colombia-Panamanian border.

02:28In it, it's governed by wildlife,

02:30by paramilitary groups,

02:32and by extreme violence, particularly in the Panamanian side.

02:36But when Edison was transversing that jungle,

02:38he saw four corpses,

02:41and many others that were walking with him saw dead bodies.

02:46So the question then becomes,

02:47how to avoid the Darien jungle

02:49as Edison is reverse-migrating.

02:54So Paso Canoes is a small town

02:56that sits on the Costa Rica and Panama border,

02:58and it's become a very important stop

03:00for many migrants that are reverse-migrating.

03:06So it's 1.50 in the morning,

03:08and this bus was just loaded by over 30 migrants

03:12that are leaving Paso Canoes and Costa Rica.

03:15And all of these people are about to officially head

03:18towards a Panamanian checkpoint,

03:19and from there, they'll be dropped off in Panama City.

03:22Then he took another bus that would take him

03:25to this province called Colón.

03:27Within the province of Colón,

03:28he went to this small town called Palenque.

03:37Now from Palenque,

03:38there is a group of local Afro-Panamanians

03:41that are helping migrants,

03:42essentially smuggling migrants,

03:44acting as coyotes,

03:45helping them take these 12-hour boat rides

03:48that take him from Panama all the way into Colombia.

03:57Comparado con el Darién,

03:59esto como se siente?

04:00No.

04:01No tiene nada que ver.

04:02Otra cosa.

04:04Muy fácil.

04:05Fácil.

04:06Sienten nervios, sienten nervios,

04:08ansiedad, temor, ansiedad.

04:10Ansiedad.

04:11Ahí, entonces, triunparable.

04:15Ansiedad de llegar a casa,

04:17de sobrevivir, de qué?

04:19Ah, no, de llegar a casa.

04:21Y este es el último golpe en la travesía,

04:23como parece.

04:24Ajá, es lo más difícil.

04:25Probablemente yo no llegué a Colombia

04:26y yo no dije que es realismo.

04:28Esto va a ser como lo más difícil.

04:30Pero...

04:32Una vez que estemos en Colombia,

04:33ya es por allá.

04:35So, there's about 30 migrants

04:38that each paid around $280

04:40to be smuggled by boat

04:42from this Panamanian coastal town

04:44all the way towards Colombian land.

04:47The trip itself takes around two days

04:49with stops.

04:50It's about 12 hours by sea.

04:52But what every single migrant is telling us

04:54is that this is preferable

04:55and the only way to avoid

04:57and bypass the Darien jungle.

04:59If you want to go south

05:00and you don't want to go through the jungle,

05:01this is the only option.

05:03But what was interesting, too,

05:04is understanding who was also migrating

05:07with Edison in that boat ride.

05:09Now, there were people that had

05:10literally self-deported from the United States.

05:12I met this one Venezuelan woman

05:15that didn't know how to swim.

05:17I met several other migrants

05:18that kept thinking about this idea

05:20and this fact that not too long ago

05:22a young Venezuelan girl had died

05:24taking that very same route

05:26that they were taking.

05:28There were many people like Edison

05:29that had waited in limbo in Mexico

05:31for many months

05:32and they, too, had decided to leave Mexico.

05:35There were others that were stuck

05:36in paso canoas for weeks.

05:38But the point is that this was a group of migrants

05:40that at some point in their journeys

05:42had come to the very same conclusion

05:44knowing that is that

05:45the American dream was no longer worth it.

05:47today is a new day

06:00a new beginning

06:02of a feeling that will come to the earth

06:08put Christ in your first place

06:10Pon a Cristo en tu primer lugar y tú verás la gloria de Dios.

06:18Él es la vida.

06:20Nadie viene al Padre sino solamente por Él.

06:23Oh Dios mío, yo te alabo.

06:26Oh Dios, yo te alabo, Señor.

06:31Porque tú has sido bueno conmigo, Padre Sanzo.

06:36Tú has sido bueno, Señor.

06:40Oh Dios mío, hay Padre de la sangre de Jesucristo, Señor.

06:47Hay Padre, Señor. Gracias, Padre. Gracias, Señor.

06:53Vayan con Dios.

06:55Levanten tus manos cuando lleguen a su lugar de vivir.

07:00The reverse migrating journey is one of despair.

07:03You know, most migrants, as you talk to them, do feel let down.

07:07And many of them feel a sense of grief.

07:11And many of them feel anxious about the idea of returning.

07:14All of that is true.

07:15And you see it in every stop of the way.

07:18But what you see in Palenque, as migrants are starting to board this 12-hour boat ride,

07:25is once again a sense of excitement as they start to reimagine what their lives can look like back in their homelands.

07:33I think there's something liberating about this idea of letting go of the American dream and finding that elsewhere.

07:39And that is definitely what Edison was thinking about.

07:44You know, when you ask them, how are you feeling?

07:46The one thing he kept saying is, I'm excited.

07:48I can't wait to go home.

07:49I can't wait to go home.

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