The Biden administration’s border policies have helped contribute to the destruction of indigenous tribes in Central and South America, according to one expert.
Panama’s indigenous Embera-Wounnaan tribe has seen a rapid decay in its way of life over the last three years, with tribal leaders blaming the flood of migrants journeying north from South America and crossing its territory en route to the United States.
“What struck me most listening to the five Embera chiefs is how much their concerns reminded me of the past very similar marginalizations of Native American tribes, who were pushed aside and destroyed by gold miners, settlers and U.S. cavalry who prioritized their own narcissistic agendas during the 19th century,” Todd Bensman a National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital.
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Vice President Kamala Harris clasps the hand of President Biden at the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The comments come after Bensman’s recent travels to areas around the famed Darien Gap, a large chunk of nearly inhabitable wilderness stretching through Colombia and Panama. The area also is home to the indigenous territory of the Embera, a 19,000-member tribe of hunters and farmers who now find themselves at the center of broader U.S. border security policy.
Bensman conducted interviews with all five chiefs of the Embera-Wounaan reservation and detailed their plight in a report for the New York Post, arguing that much of the blame for the situation faced by the tribe rests with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Rather that stop this dangerous flow, the White House has encouraged it.” Bensman wrote in the report. “The Biden-Harris administration lavished millions in tax money on United Nations agencies and non-governmental advocacy groups (NGOs) that descended on this region to ease the burdens of Darien Gap travel.”
The report outlines how mass migrations to the U.S., which have been encouraged by lax U.S. border policies, have been particularly damaging to the Embera, who have seen their native lands overrun with people, trash and human waste as migrants travel north to the United States.
But perhaps worse is the impact the situation has had on many of the tribe’s members, many of whom have abandoned their traditional way of life to chase the quick money that comes with helping facilitate travel through the dangerous wilderness.
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“Embera men do pilot pretty much every boat ferrying the immigrants. They are making money,” Bensman told Fox News Digital.
But the quick money has also led to an epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse within the tribe, as well as a mass-abandonment of its traditions of hunting, fishing and farming. As a result, many members of the tribe have also begun to suffer from food shortages, a problem exacerbated by passing migrants desperate for a meal themselves.
“There is infighting among them now to get at the currency paid by immigrants,” Bensman said. “The villages I saw were greatly changed from how residents described them as being just a few years ago. Radical changes have occurred in some of the places I saw. There is filth and garbage everywhere.”
A Panamanian Embera competes in spear throwing during the third ancestral indigenous games in Pueblo Nuevo Buri, Panama, on Dec. 16, 2021. (Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)
Bensman argued that the current situation faced by the tribe shares many traits with the plight of North America’s indigenous populations, only this time “American and international liberal groups” are the ones “clearly repeating that same terrible old history with the Embera.”
“One would think that the liberal progressives who staff the United Nations and all of those NGOs down there, facilitating a new kind of gold rush through tribal lands might occupy a higher moral plane than Gen. George Armstrong Custer or President Andrew Jackson during their days of dealing with indigenous peoples in the way as though they didn’t exist. But economic migrants rushing toward U.S. gold clearly are more important to these organizations,” Bensman said.
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Without a seat at the table to determine their own fate, the tribal leaders were left hoping to send a message to international leaders, including Biden.
“Mr. President and you candidates, you are finishing off and you are killing all the Indians on the Comarca!” General Chief Leonide Cunampia told Bensman during their interview. “You have to pay attention to what’s going on in our territory. The immigration is contaminating us!”
Migrants arrive at the Reception Center for Migrant Care in Lajas Blancas, in the jungle province of Darien, Panama, on June 28, 2024. (Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)
Bensman argued that instead of helping facilitate travel, the U.S. will have to commit enough resources for air deportations that would hopefully work to deter larger numbers of migrants, though he sees little hope that a potential Harris administration would change the approach of the current one.
“A Trump administration will flood the zone with the help Panama wants to close the gap. Hanging in the balance is the future cultural viability of this tribe out there,” Bensman said. “Either administration owes that tribe a seat at the table going forward.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
Michael Lee is a writer for Fox News. Prior to joining Fox News, Michael worked for the Washington Examiner, Bongino.com, and Unbiased America. He has covered politics for more than eight years.
