Chinese migrants are the fastest-growing group illegally crossing from Mexico into U.S.

Chinese migrants illegally crossing into the US through a hole on the Mexican border

The number of migrants arriving at the southern US border is unprecedented. Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded two-and-a-half million instances of detaining or turning away people attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico, according to Sunday report on CBS’s Sixty Minutes.

Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reported that the fastest growing group entering the U.S. through the southern border are the Chinese migrants. Alfonsi spoke with the migrants about following instructions posted on TikTok that guided them on their 7,000-mile journey to the California desert where Chinese asylum seekers cross the border from Mexico through a 4-foot gap in the border fence.

A growing number of Chinese nationals, trying to escape repressive politics and a bleak economy, are headed to the U.S. They’re turning to a gap at the southern border with Mexico as a way to get in according to a report by 60 Minutes

We were surprised to see the number of people coming through from China…nearly 7,000 miles away.” She said

“Our cameras, and at one point this armed Border Patrol agent standing 25 feet away…. did not deter them. ” She added

“This man, a college graduate, told us he hoped to find work in Los Angeles. He said his trip from China took 40 days.”

Alfonsi asked him: What countries did you go through?

He said: “Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador … Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica …Nicaragua.”

“Over four days, we witnessed nearly 600 migrants – adults and children- pass through this hole and onto U.S. soil…unchecked. We saw people from India, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Many of the Chinese migrants who came through will end up asking for political asylum.” she said

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, from January through September 2023, more than 24,000 Chinese migrants crossed the border without authorization, about 13 times the number recorded during the same period in 2022.

“They see a lack of opportunity. They see the Chinese economy stagnating. There’s also been a lot of frustration with how controlling the Chinese government is, how many restrictions there are on their lives, and people have been researching how to get to the United States,” said Madeline Y. Hsu, a history professor at the University of Maryland.

Chinese asylum-seekers who spoke to The Associated Press, as well as observers, say they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.

Exclusion Act

The U.S. marked the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act on Dec 23, 2023. Ever since thousands more Chinese immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, mostly for the same reasons as their countrymen did more than a century ago, according to a report by VOA

The Chinese Exclusion Act, which passed in 1882, was the only law in U.S. history that singled out a specific ethnic group. President Franklin D. Roosevelt officially ended the act on Dec. 17, 1943, and granted Chinese Americans equal citizenship rights for the first time. 

Renata Castro, a Florida-based immigration lawyer, says today’s Chinese migrants, if they are unable to come to the U.S. with an existing visa, are finding other ways to flee the world’s second-most populous nation, including showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum.

“Mainly because these are individuals that are escaping the oppressions of the Chinese government. … But most importantly, they are fleeing the lack of economic expectations they have in China right now,” she said.

When people come to the U.S. seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or are afraid that they will suffer persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular group, they are permitted to file for asylum regardless of their immigration status.

But to apply for asylum, a person must be present in the U.S.

According to October data from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Chinese migrants were granted asylum nearly 67% of the time in immigration courts over the past two decades — one of the highest rates by nationality. The reasons, per the Christian nonprofit ChinaAid, is the continuing decline in human rights conditions, higher accessibility to information on social media about crossing the U.S. Mexico border, and restrictions on religious freedom.

Out of 108,273 Chinese migrant applications, 77,711 were granted asylum. Asylum was denied to 29,635 and 927 applications received another type of immigration relief.

Are some of the Chinese Migrants spies?

The United States has often accused the government of China of attempting to unlawfully acquire U.S. military technology and classified information as well as trade secrets of U.S. companies in order to support China’s long-term military and commercial development. Chinese government agencies and affiliated personnel have been accused of using a number of methods to obtain U.S. technology (using U.S. law to avoid prosecution), including espionage, exploitation of commercial entities, and a network of scientific, academic, and business contacts. Prominent espionage cases include Larry Wu-tai Chin, Katrina Leung, Gwo-Bao Min, Chi Mak, and Peter Lee. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) maintains a bureau dedicated to espionage against the United States, the United States Bureau, according to Wikipedia

In addition to traditional espionage, China partners civilian-in-name Chinese companies with American businesses to acquire technology and economic data and uses cyber spying to penetrate the computer networks of U.S. businesses and government agencies, such as the 2009 Operation Aurora and the 2015 Office of Personnel Management data breach. U.S. law enforcement officials have identified China as the most active foreign power involved in the illegal acquisition of American technology.

Ya Libnan/ News Agencies