'Border industrial complex': Undercover footage shows Red Cross helping migrants in Colombia headed north

New footage obtained by Anthony Rubin's watchdog outfit, Muckraker, and published by the Oversight Project shows a Red Cross employee in the northwestern town of Necoclí, Colombia, providing aid to an individual whom he apparently believed to be yet another migrant headed north for the human trafficking corridor multitudes have transited to get to the United States.

The footage also shows staff from MedGlobal — an NGO that, like the Red Cross, has received significant funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development — offering instruction and material aid to what was actually an undercover reporter, again working under the apparent assumption that he was a migrant planning to transit the Darién Gap.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, "The Red Cross is supposed to be keeping people safe. The idea that they'd coach illegal aliens to go through one of the most dangerous jungles on the planet on their way to breaking into the United States is absolutely upside down."

'My mission is to simply give you some strategies.'

Blaze News reached out to the Red Cross and to MedGlobal but did not immediately receive responses.

In the footage, a Red Cross employee identifies himself as a psychologist, then notes that it's not easy being a migrant.

"My mission is to simply give you some strategies," said the Red Cross employee. "There are some things that I think are important that you have in mind for your safety, yes? Because we know that making the journey to Mexico or the United States on this route has some risks, yes?"

In addition to sharing journey-specific financial advice, the employee detailed some of the risks in the lawless Darién jungle between Colombia and Panama.

According to the Guardian, at least 300,000 migrants traveled through the human trafficking corridor last year. The Panamanian government reported 520,085 migrants making the journey the previous year. Among the illegal aliens making the trek through the Darién Gap that year were hundreds of Somalians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, Congolese, Sudanese, and Iranians.

In 2024, 55 U.S.-bound migrants reportedly died while crossing the Darién Gap and hundreds of children were abandoned in the jungle.

After discussing how long the trip would take and how much food to bring, the Red Cross employee showed the undercover reporter different routes from Necoclí to the entrance of the Darién Gap, providing tips for what to do along the way.

'Rein in this weaponization and abuse of taxpayer money.'

The Red Cross, which has long enjoyed the support of the U.S. government at taxpayers' expense, has made no secret of its efforts to help migrants reach the American border.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and the National Red Cross Societies of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which claim to neither encourage nor discourage migration, have for years provided illegal aliens with a "self-care" kit replete with tips on how best to "mitigate the risks that might be faced by those who choose to migrate," as well as information on train routes, water crossings, and where to find food and shelter.

WKYC-TV confirmed last year that as part of this kit, the American Red Cross, the Mexican Red Cross, and other Red Cross agencies were distributing a map that shows optimal ways through Mexico to the U.S. border.

In the footage published by the Oversight Project, a MedGlobal staffer can be seen providing the undercover reporter with jungle survival gear for his trip through the human smuggling corridor. In addition to food, fluids, soap, and sunscreen, the staffer provides the faux migrant with anti-bacterial pills to keep water on his journey potable.

"It is clear that the intent of both groups was to assist our undercover reporter in illegally heading north to the United States," said Muckraker's Anthony Rubin.

Highlighting the millions of taxpayer dollars the U.S. government has recently injected into these groups' work in Colombia, Rubin stated, "It is time to restore fiscal responsibility and rein in this weaponization and abuse of taxpayer money being used to support illegal immigration."

Rubin said in a statement to Blaze News:

We can confirm that this is an organizational effort. Red Cross organizations are key players in "migration" aid work around the world and work closely with U.N. agencies like the [International Organization for Migration] and [U.N. Refugee Agency] to coordinate services for "migrants" and refugees along known smuggling corridors. Red Cross organizations have explicitly adopted a “principle of independence” with respect to migration aid work, which means that Red Cross operations provide aid to "migrants" irrespective of national policy and security concerns tied to irregular and illegal "migration." (See the article Practice versus perception: A discussion of the humanitarian principle of independence in the context of migration [2024], published by the International Review of the Red Cross.) This is consistent with the permissive “hands off” response of the Red Cross psychologist shown in the footage. The footage seen is indicative of broader policies of Red Cross organizations.

"This is clearly an organizational effort, as is the entirety of the border industrial complex that the United States has heavily funded," Howell told Blaze News.

Howell told Blaze News that he will refer the matter to border czar Tom Homan during their in-person meeting on Thursday.

Last week, Howell alerted the Trump administration to the apparent efforts of the taxpayer-funded Chinese-American Planning Council to undermine the efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce federal law and remove illegal aliens from the United States.

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