The US border is being flooded with Chinese nationals, while migrant caravans from Latin America are increasingly attracting asylum seekers from around the world.
For fiscal year 2023, which ended in September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 24,048 Chinese citizens were arrested at the border with Mexico.
That’s more than ten times more than the 1,970 arrests recorded during the 2022 financial year, and just 323 the year before, when China was under strict pandemic travel bans and lockdowns.
Although Latin America remains by far the largest regional source of immigration, China and other Eastern Hemisphere countries represent a significant and growing minority of southern land route migration.
Border Patrol apprehended 41,719 Indian migrants crossing from Mexico in fiscal year 2023, a 129 percent increase from the previous year. About 7,390 Russians were captured, a 42 percent increase, while 15,429 Turks were detained, roughly the same as the previous year.
For fiscal year 2023, which ended in September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 24,048 apprehensions of Chinese migrants by Border Patrol agents at the southern border
A group of people, including many from China, walk along the wall after crossing the border with Mexico to seek asylum near Jacumba, California, on October 24
Among countries not categorized by CBP because they are not traditionally a significant source of illegal immigration, a total of 148,471 migrants were apprehended at the southern border last fiscal year, three times more than the year before. This includes many countries in the Middle East and Africa.
In total, the Border Patrol apprehended 2,045,838 migrants at illegal crossings on the southern border in the 12 months through September, and expelled another 429,831 at ports of entry, the highest annual total on record.
The surge of migrants attempting to enter the US underlines the scale of the humanitarian crisis at the border, and the political challenge it poses for President Joe Biden as he runs for re-election in 2024.
The influx of migrants from China follows years of draconian pandemic restrictions in that country, which threw the economy into disarray and destroyed confidence in the ruling Communist Party.
Chinese asylum seekers who spoke to the Associated Press in a recent article say they are trying to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.
Deng Guangsen, 28, has spent the past two months traveling from southern China’s Guangdong province to San Diego, passing through seven countries by plane, bus and on foot, including crossing the dangerous jungle of Panama’s Darién Gap.
“I don’t feel anything,” Deng said in the San Diego parking lot where Border Patrol agents dropped him off after processing. ‘I have no brother, no sister. I’ve got nobody.’
Chinese migrants often rely on a relatively new and dangerous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle, which has become increasingly popular with the help of social media, where posts and videos provide step-by-step guidance.
According to Panamanian immigration authorities, Chinese were the fourth highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, to cross the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year.
The pandemic and China’s COVID-19 policies, which included strict border controls, temporarily reflected an exodus from the country that increased dramatically in 2018 when President Xi Jinping amended the constitution to remove presidential term limits.
Now emigration has resumed, as the Chinese economy struggles to recover and youth unemployment soars.
The United Nations predicts that China will lose 310,000 people to emigration this year, compared to 120,000 in 2012.
Deng Guangsen shudders as he recounts his journey from his home country of China to crossing the United States border with Mexico while sitting in a transit center in San Diego last month
A group of people, including many from China, walk along the wall after crossing the border with Mexico to seek asylum, Oct. 24 near Jacumba, California
A migrant caravan passes through the south of the country on Monday to try to reach the border with the United States in Tapachula, Mexico
It has become known as ‘runxue’, or the study of running away. The term started as a way to circumvent censorship, using a Chinese character whose pronunciation is similar to the English word “run” but means “to moisten.” Now it’s an internet meme.
“This wave of emigration reflects the desperation toward China,” said Cai Xia, editor-in-chief of the Yibao online commentary site and a former professor at the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Party School in Beijing.
“They have lost hope for the country’s future,” said Cai, who now lives in the US. -of families.’
The Darien Gap route is viable for Chinese immigrants because they can fly to Ecuador without a visa.
From Quito, they travel with Latin Americans through the once impenetrable Darién Gap and through several Central American countries before reaching the American border.
The journey is well known enough and has its own name in Chinese: ‘walk the line’ or ‘zouxian’.
Short video platforms and messaging apps have popularized the route.
They offer on-the-spot video clips and step-by-step guides from China to the US, including tips on what to pack, where to find guides, how to survive the jungle, which hotels to stay in, how much to bribe police in different countries and what to do if you encounter U.S. immigration officials.
Translation apps allow migrants to navigate Central America independently, even if they don’t speak Spanish or English.
Short video app Douyin, owned by TikTok owner ByteDance, is one of the main sources of the Chinese tech giant’s overall revenue, Reuters previously reported.
A couple from China adjusts their masks as they wait to board a bus to the airport after crossing the border and being dropped off by Border Patrol agents at a transit center in San Diego
A man from China receives a bowl of oatmeal from a volunteer as he waits with others to be processed to claim asylum after crossing the U.S. border with Mexico
A large influx of Chinese migration to the United States via a relatively new and dangerous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle has become increasingly popular thanks to social media
A Chinese migrant told Reuters she came across “Baozai,” an internet personality who gained tens of thousands of followers on Douyin, Xigua Video, YouTube and Twitter by posting videos about his migration to the United States.
Baozai’s original report ‘Baozai Adventure the World Alone’ was blocked on Douyin for violating ‘community self-discipline rules’.
He now posts under a new account with the same name on Douyin, sticking to the content about his life in the United States.
Reuters found other social media accounts offering advice in Mandarin about crossing the US-Mexico border.
An April 7 Twitter post from an account named Lee Gaga said smugglers mark the locations of U.S. Border Patrol agents on maps and advise migrants on how to surrender to them. In messages and messages exchanged with Reuters, the Twitter user identified as Lee Gaga said he was now in the New York City area after a 37-day trip.
“Of course you can try to run away, but that is not recommended,” the post said. Twitter is blocked in China, but users may be able to access the platform through VPNs, or virtual private networks, that allow internet users to access foreign sites blocked by authorities.
The Twitter poster continued: “I was only released after three days and three nights. I’ve been lucky because the border policy has been good lately.”