Chinese nationals are arriving at the southern border in unprecedented numbers, according to federal statistics, after Beijing lifted COVID travel restrictions.
Already this year some 4293 Chinese migrants have been apprehended at the border.
That is more than double the 2022 total of 1987, according to data published by the Customs and Border Protection agency of the Department of Homeland Security.
And it shows that the total number this year will far surpass the record of 2439 in 2016.
Overall, it adds to examples of people from thousands of miles away are arriving at the southern border in the hope of entering the U.S.
Chinese nationals are arriving at the southern border in unprecedented numbers, according to federal statistics, after Beijing lifted COVID travel restrictions
Anni Ren, a two-year-old migrant girl from China, stands near her mother as dozens of Chinese nationals are registered by border patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico, in Fronton, Texas, last week
And, in the case of China, it suggests a backlash to President Xi Jinping’s domestic policies.
Republicans said it showed that the U.S. was seen as a soft touch
‘So the word is out, right?,’ Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, told Axios, which was first to report the surge.
‘If you can get to our southern border, you have a pretty good shot at getting in, and it has changed the demographics.’
Republicans accuse the Biden administration of operating an open borders policy, and point to a surge in people arriving at the southern border since Joe Biden took office.
His first year saw 1.7 million migrant encounters rising to 2.3 million in 2022.
This year is expected to exceed last year’s figure. The first three months of the year brought 900,000 apprehensions at the border.
But after two years of attacks, White House messaging in recent weeks has made clear that officials see a way to turn the tide on two years of attacks.
A migrant man from China assists a border patrol agent with translation during registration of dozens of Chinese asylum seeking nationals after they crossed the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico, in Fronton, Texas, last week
Migrant encounters in January were at their lowest level since February 2021 after five months of increases in apprehensions. Ortiz said, however, that there have already been 385,000 so-called ‘got-aways’ during Fiscal Year 2023 so far
Officials have homed in on Republican demands to cut budget spending, which they say would inevitably reduce the number of border patrol agents, if the GOP is intent on maintaining 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,’ said White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt in a memo earlier this month.
‘It would mean less agents and less technology to combat fentanyl trafficking, disrupt criminal organizations, and stop illegal border crossings.’
Meanwhile, there was a fresh crisis on the border Thursday. Some thousand migrants in northern Mexico surrendered to U.S. authorities, saying they were shaken by a fire at a nearby migrant detention center that killed dozens this week.
A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson told the Associated Press the agency was processing over a thousand migrants who turned themselves in on Wednesday in El Paso, Texas, reachable on foot from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
In a statement late Wednesday, CBP said it was expelling migrants under a COVID-era order known as Title 42, and beginning removal proceedings for other migrants who cannot be returned under the measure and lack legal status.
Migrants said a new U.S. government app meant to streamline the process of securing asylum appointments from outside the United States has left them feeling fed up and helpless.
Carrying children and belongings, groups of migrants moved briskly Wednesday afternoon toward a gate at a section of the U.S. border wall on the frontier, which has become a destination for asylum seekers and smugglers trafficking them.
‘Now, with God’s favor, we’ll make it there,’ Carlos Garcia, pulling his young daughter at a jog as he tried to get his name on a list supposedly granting access to the United States.
