Chinese nationals are arriving at the southern border in unprecedented numbers, according to federal statistics, after Beijing lifted travel restrictions for COVID.
This year, 4,293 Chinese migrants have already been detained at the border.
That’s more than double the 2022 total from 1987, according to data published by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection service.
And it shows that the total number this year will far surpass the record of 2439 set in 2016.
Overall, it adds to examples of people from thousands of miles away arriving at the southern border hoping to enter the US
Chinese nationals arrive at southern border in unprecedented numbers, according to federal statistics, after Beijing lifted travel restrictions for COVID
Anni Ren, a two-year-old migrant girl from China, stands beside her mother as dozens of Chinese nationals are registered by border guards after crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico into the United States in Fronton, Texas, last week.
And in China’s case, it suggests a backlash against President Xi Jinping’s domestic policies.
Republicans said it showed the US was seen as a soft touch
“So the word is out, right?” Representative Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, told Axios, who was the first to report the increase.
“If you can get to our southern border, you have a good chance of getting in, and it’s changed the demographics.”
Republicans accuse the Biden administration of pursuing an open-border policy and point to an increase in the number of people arriving at the southern border since Joe Biden took office.
In its first year, there were 1.7 million encounters with migrants, rising to 2.3 million in 2022.
This year is expected to surpass last year’s figure. The first three months of the year saw 900,000 detentions at the border.
But after two years of attacks, reports from the White House have made it clear in recent weeks that officials see a way to turn the tide after two years of attacks.
A migrant man from China helps a Border Patrol agent with translations during the registration of dozens of Chinese asylum seekers after they crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico to the United States in Fronton, Texas, last week
The number of encounters with migrants in January was at its lowest level since February 2021, after five months of increasing detentions. However, Ortiz said there have been 385,000 so-called ‘breakaways’ so far during fiscal year 2023
Officials have heeded Republican demands to cut budget spending, which they say would inevitably reduce the number of border guards if the GOP plans to keep money for defense and Social Security programs.
“The MAGA plan would deny the men and women of Customs and Border Protection the resources they need to secure our borders,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt said in a memo earlier this month.
“It would mean fewer agents and less technology to fight the fentanyl trade, disrupt criminal organizations and stop illegal border crossings.”
Meanwhile, there was a new crisis at the border on Thursday. About a thousand migrants in northern Mexico surrendered to US authorities, saying they were shocked by a fire at a nearby migrant detention center that killed dozens this week.
A spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told the Associated Press the agency was processing more than 1,000 migrants who turned themselves in Wednesday in El Paso, Texas, accessible on foot from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
In a statement late Wednesday, CBP said it was deporting migrants under a COVID-era order known as Title 42, and was launching a removal procedure for other migrants who cannot be returned under the measure and have no legal status.
Migrants said a new app from the US government designed to streamline the process of obtaining asylum appointments from outside the United States has left them fed up and helpless.
Carrying children and belongings, groups of migrants rushed Wednesday afternoon to a gate near part of the US border wall at the border, which has become a destination for asylum seekers and smugglers who traffic them.
“Now, with God’s favor, we’ll get there,” Carlos Garcia, jogging along with his young daughter as he tried to get his name on a list supposedly granting entry into the United States.