A startling number of Chinese migrants are entering the US through the southern border. In the past year, over 24,000 Chinese citizens have been caught crossing into the US from Mexico, despite the distance and difficulty. That exceeds the previous 10 years, according to government data.
In the past month, a group of individuals, many of them from China, have been walking along the wall after crossing from Mexico into the United States to claim asylum. (Source: AP News)
Chinese Migrants Crosses US Through South Border
They fly through Turkey to Ecuador, which doesn’t require a visa. Like hundreds of thousands of other Central and South American and other migrants, they pay smugglers to guide them through the hazardous jungle between Colombia and Panama to the US. Many surrender to border agents and request asylum. Most succeed, inspiring more tries. Chinese asylum seekers outperform others in immigration court. China rarely accepts them back, so they stay anyhow. A little-discussed issue in the polarizing immigration debate is that US officials cannot force countries to take back their residents. Usually not a problem. However, 12 countries are uncooperative, with China being the worst.
An administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal data said 100,000 of the 1.3 million Americans with final deportation orders are Chinese. Citizens upset with the coronavirus pandemic and Xi Jinping’s autocratic regime are migrating. “The political environment is the main reason for me,” Mark Xu, 35, a Chinese English teacher, stated in February while waiting to board a boat in Necoclí, Colombia, a northern beach town. Suffocating in China made it “difficult to breathe”, he said. He was among 100 Chinese individuals leaving that morning to cross the hazardous Darién Gap, the sole land route from South America to the US. Xu learned about the voyage from YouTube and Google searches for “how to get outside of China” and “how to escape”.
In the previous two years, the area has been one of the hardest sections of a harrowing journey for many refugees heading north. Panamanian officials said 481,000 migrants have crossed the forest this year, up from 248,000 last year. A majority of migrants are Venezuelans, Ecuadoreans, and Haitians fleeing economic and security challenges at home. However, more Chinese are traveling this year. Many Chinese have crossed, making them the fourth-largest jungle group. Most who arrived last year were middle-class individuals freed from incarceration and heading to New York. A popular destination for migrants is New York.“New York is a self-sufficient Chinese immigrant community,” stated the neighborhood’s faith-based Chinese Christian Herald Crusade executive director, Reverend Mike Chan. He stated that many newcomers know Mandarin or Cantonese, making it simpler to obtain work. That network connects people to immigration lawyers, housing, and other necessities. Historically, most Chinese asylum-seekers entered on a visa and applied to stay. Chinese migrants coming without permits by water last arrived in the 1990s.
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