Daily Mail 11/2/2023
US border sees influx of 24,000 Chinese migrants crossing from Mexico in the past 12 months - up more than 10 times from the year before
• CBP encounters with Chinese nationals at southern border are at record highs
• Agency reported 24,048 border arrests in the 12 months through September
• That's up from 1,970 over the same period in 2022, and just 323 in 2021
The US border is being inundated with Chinese nationals as migrant caravans from Latin American increasingly attract asylum seekers from around the world.
Over the 2023 fiscal year, which ended in September, US Customs and Border Protection reported 24,048 Chinese citizens were apprehended at the Mexico border.
That's up more than 10 times from the 1,970 arrests recorded during the 2022 fiscal 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 nations in the Eastern Hemisphere represent a significant and growing minority of migration using the southern land route.
Border Patrol arrested 41,719 Indian migrants crossing from Mexico in fiscal year 2023, up 129 percent on the previous year. Some 7,390 Russians were captured, up by 42 percent, while 15,429 Turks were detained, roughly flat from the prior year.
Among nations not categorized by CBP, because they are traditionally not a significant source of illegal immigration, a total of 148,471 migrant were arrested 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, Border Patrol apprehended 2,045,838 migrants at illegal crossing points on the southern border in the 12 months through September, and another 429,831 were expelled at ports of entry, for the highest annual total on record.
The surge in migrants attempting to enter the US underscores the scale of the humanitarian crisis at the border, and the political challenge it presents for President Joe Biden as he seeks 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 shattered confidence in the ruling Communist Party.
Chinese asylum-seekers who spoke to the Associated Press in a recent article say they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.
Deng Guangsen, 28, spent the last two months traveling to San Diego from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, through seven countries on plane, bus and foot, including traversing Panama's dangerous Darién Gap jungle.
More:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12699675/US-border-China-migrants-caravan.html
