Border Broke

It's hard out there for a smuggler:

Previously growing plantains or other crops for a living, many of the families living in the region switched to smuggling, according to the AP. Boat pilots, referred to as “lancheros,” could make as much as $300 a day, far more than the $150 a month locals were earning from crops. Luis Olea, like others in his town of Villa Caleta, Panama, abandoned his crops and invested in a boat, he told the AP. Off the money he earned ferrying U.S.-bound illegal migrants, he installed electricity in his home, bought a television, purchased a water pump, elevated his house and installed solar panels on top of his roof. However, Olea was no longer able to profit off the immigration crisis after migrants largely gave up on reaching the U.S.-Mexico border. His boat to carry migrants now sits idle and unused. “Before, we lived off of the migration,” Olea said to the AP. “But now that’s all gone.” Upon entering office, Trump immediately embarked on a number of executive orders and policy changes that drastically tightened border security and prompted many would-be illegal migrants to not even bother trying to enter.

No customers, no business...