Over the past 50 years at least 23m people born in Latin America migrated to the United States. It was the largest sustained(持续的) flow of migrants in the world to a single country, surging(急剧攀升) in the years after covid-19. Governments and people in Latin America got used to it(对此习以为常), and the money the new American residents sent home.
过去50年间，至少2300万出生于拉丁美洲的人移居美国。这是全球规模最大的、持续流向单一国家的移民潮，在新冠疫情后几年更是急剧攀升。拉美各国政府和民众对此早已习以为常，也习惯了这些新美国居民寄回家的钱。
Then Donald Trump returned to power. In the year to July 2026 US Customs and Border Protection recorded 137,000 encounters(遭遇次数) between its agents and migrants at the southern border. That was a decline of 94% from the same period in 2024, which saw 2.4m encounters. The Darién Gap(达连隘口：连接南美与中美的危险丛林), the jungle route from South America into Panama, tells the same story(讲述了同样的故事): crossings(过境) fell by 99.9% over the same period. In Costa Rica the number of migrants heading north has fallen to almost nothing, while the total going south has jumped (see chart 1). The world’s busiest migration corridor(走廊、通道) has fallen quiet.
然后特朗普重新掌权。截至2026年7月的一年里，美国海关与边境保护局记录到其探员与移民在南部边境的遭遇次数为13.7万次。与2024年同期的240万次相比，下降了94%。达连隘口——从南美洲进入巴拿马的丛林路线——也讲述了同样的故事：同期过境人数下降了99.9%。在哥斯达黎加，北上移民的数量已降至几乎为零，而南下的总数却大幅上升（见图表1）。全球最繁忙的移民走廊已经归于沉寂。
Some of the surge in the years after covid-19—the only other moment in the past decade when migration slowed—was always going to subside(消退、平息). But the change is almost entirely Mr Trump’s doing(特朗普一手造成). Migrants have reacted to him ending legal pathways to asylum, expanding enforcement, accelerating deportations, and making clear that they are not welcome.(移民们对他终止合法庇护途径、扩大执法、加速驱逐并明确表示不欢迎他们的一系列举措做出了反应。)
疫情后几年的移民激增——那是过去十年中移民潮唯一放缓的另一个时刻——其中一部分注定会消退。但这一变化几乎完全是特朗普一手造成的。移民们对他的一系列举措做出了反应：终止合法庇护途径、扩大执法、加速驱逐，并明确表示他们不受欢迎。
People come, people go
人来人往
