Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzalez said Monday that Panama foreign minister Erica Mouynes told him that as many as 100,000 migrants have crossed through her country on the way to the US, and 52 of those they apprehended had ties to al-Qaeda.
Speaking on the 'Real America' "podcast with GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, the San Antonio congressman said the situation in Del Rio, Texas is the 'worst I've ever seen it.'
He said that Mouynes came to visit him and a number of other lawmakers to get word out about the coming onslaught.
'She goes, 'There's over 100,000 coming through Panama on their way to the US as we speak,' he said.
'I ask her, have you caught anybody on the terrorist watch list?' Gonzalez continued. 'She goes, 'Funny you ask that, Tony, because in Panama we do biometrics and we have apprehended 52 people that are associated with al-Qaeda.'
'I go, 'Holy smokes, does the administration know about this?' he said. 'She goes 'There's no one home. I'm talking to you because the administration is absent.'
A record-shattering number of Haitian migrants have come to the US in the last month, and the trend doesn't appear to be stopping as more people continue to pour into the Colombian town of Necocli, a popular spot for smugglers to shepherd people through the perilous Darien Gap in Panama.
The Darien Gap is a 66-mile stretch of rainforest between North and South America. Its dangerous terrain is part of the reason it's been left undeveloped and why it poses such a great risk to the people crossing it now.
More than 70,000 migrants have traveled through the Darien Gap this year, Panamanian authorities have said.
Most of the migrants in recent months
