The line of well-dressed Chinese migrants with suitcases who have crossed illegally to the California border shows how the type of people seeking asylum in the US is changing.
The man stood out from the exhausted and hungry migrants who had traveled thousands of miles from South and Central America to the border, according to a video from NewsNation.
“There are families who have experienced political oppression at the hands of the Chinese government and many have become political dissidents,” immigration lawyer Erika Pinheiro told The Post.
“These immigrants tend to have more resources. We have this understanding of asylum seekers as poor and [that] they only came to America for economic opportunities, but the people I met [at the San Diego, Calif.] borders tend to be at least middle class, if not upper middle class, from their country.”
The migrants, mostly single Chinese men, have been living in makeshift tents in Jacumba Hot Springs— a small town in San Diego County that has become the latest hotbed for illegal crossings.
Chinese immigrants, many said to be middle class, look like tourists as they flood the California border in search of asylum. NewsNation Asylum seekers mostly from China and Columbia wait to be transported by US Border Patrol agents after crossing the border into the US from Mexico in Jacumba Hotsprings, California on November 7, 2023. New York Post
NewsNation video footage also shows men in a single line wearing clean clothes and standing next to their luggage.
Police sources told the station that they pay smugglers up to $35,000 to cross from Mexico into the US.
Pinheiro does not represent immigrants in the NewsNation video.
Immigrants from China keep warm as they wait to be transported by US Border Patrol agents after crossing the border from Mexico in California on November 6, 2023. New York Post
Pinheiro, who is the executive director of migrant services at the legal aid company Al Otro, told The Post that he has spoken with Chinese migrants who have passed through several Central American countries, but many are able to fly to Mexico and have entered the US from there.
“Some of them I have spoken to get them [travel] visas like they will go on vacation in Mexico and maybe spend a week at a resort because they have the money,” Pinheiro said.
“There is often a misconception that most asylum seekers come to this country to take public benefits, but many are highly educated, already have family here and are genuinely seeking political asylum.”
Asylum seekers from China wait to be transported by US Border Patrol agents after crossing the border into the US from Mexico in Jacumba Hotsprings, California on November 7, 2023. New York Post
The lawyer said, from what he saw, some of the migrants were victims of human trafficking and forced labor.
“Almost everyone I spoke to had faced some kind of violence in Mexico or extortion from the authorities, so the idea of waiting in line for months worried them,” Pinheiro said. “Many of them are political opponents. I worked with a family where the woman was forcibly sterilized by the government. They come to this country for various reasons.”
The Chinese are the fourth most common nationalities of immigrants entering the US, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, with many making their journey through the dangerous Darién Gorge, according to the Associated Press.
The Chinese are the fourth highest immigrant nationality entering the US. Many are professionals in their home countries and obtain travel visas in hopes of crossing the Mexico-US border. NewsNation
More than 4,000 Chinese nationals were apprehended by the Border Patrol in October—a huge increase from the 329 apprehended at the same time last year.
More than 230,000 people have been arrested crossing the US-Mexico border in the San Diego Sector – which stretches 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean to around the town of Jacumba Hot Springs – marking a 20-year high for the area, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
At the San Diego border, the Chinese were joined by other asylum seekers from as far away as Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Jamaica and Yemen, sources told The Post.
Asylum seekers from China try to walk around the border wall to cross into the US from Mexico as seen from Jacumba Hot Springs, California on November 8, 2023. New York Post Dr. Theresa Cheng with Border Kindness treats an injured asylum seeker from China at a temporary camp on November 30, 2023 in Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Getty Images
The United Nations projects China will lose 310,000 people to emigration this year alone as the country’s economy struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and rising youth unemployment, according to the Associated Press.
Chinese immigrants use social media applications such as WeChat to post step-by-step videos that provide tips including what to pack for the jungle and how much money to bring to bribe police and officials in different countries.
Some Chinese men also flew to Ecuador because the country does not require a travel visa.
Asylum seekers from China walk on the US side of the border wall after crossing into the US from Mexico in Jacumba Hot Springs, California on November 8, 2023. New York Post
San Diego County officials voted Tuesday on whether to add an additional $3 million to the budget for services to help with the exploding immigrant crisis.
Pinheiro, however, said that most middle-class immigrants already have family members in the US.
With Postal wires
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
