Despite the distances
involved and the difficulties of the
journey,more than 24,000 Chinese
citizens have been apprehended crossing
into the United States from Mexico in
the past year. That is more than in the
preceding 10 years combined, according
to government data.
They typically fly into
Ecuador, where they do not need a visa.
Then, like hundreds of thousands of
other migrants from Central and South
America and more distant locations, they
pay smugglers to guide their travel
through the dangerous jungle between
Colombia and Panama en route to the
United States. Once there, they turn
themselves in to border officials and
many seek asylum.
And most succeed, in turn
fueling further attempts. Chinese
citizens are more successful than people
from other countries with their asylum
claims in immigration court. And those
who are not end up staying anyway
because China usually will not take them
back.
In the polarizing debate
over immigration, it is a
little-discussed wrinkle in the U.S.
system: American officials cannot force
countries to take back their own
citizens. For the most part, this is not
an issue. But about a dozen countries
are not terribly cooperative, and China
is the worst offender.
Of the 1.3 million people
in the United States with final orders
to be deported, about 100,000 are
Chinese, according to an administration
official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to discuss the internal data.
The migrants are part of
an exodus of citizens who have grown
frustrated with harsh restrictions
related to the coronavirus pandemic and
the direction of Xi Jinping’s
authoritarian government. The trend has
been coined the “run philosophy,” with
citizens escaping to Japan, Europe and
the United States.
“The largest reason for
me is the political environment,” Mark
Xu, 35, a Chinese elementary and middle
school English teacher, said in
February, as he waited to board a boat
in Necoclí, Colombia, a beach town in
the north. China was so stifling, he
added, it had become “difficult to
breathe.”
He was among about 100
Chinese migrants setting off that
morning to start the journey through the
treacherous Darién Gap, the only land
route to the United States from South
America. Mr. Xu said he learned about
the trek from YouTube and through Google
searches, including “how to get outside
of China” and “how to escape.”
In the last two years,
the area has been one of the most
difficult portions of a desperate
journey for large numbers of migrants
seeking to go north. So far, 481,000
people have crossed through the jungle
this year, compared with 248,000 last
year, according to Panamanian officials.
Most of the migrants have
been Venezuelans, Ecuadoreans and
Haitians fleeing crises at home,
including economic and security
problems. But this year, more and more
Chinese have embarked on the journey.
So many have crossed that
Chinese citizens are now the
fourth-largest group traversing the
jungle.
Many fly to Turkey before
heading to Ecuador and making their way
to the United States.
More than 24,000 came to
the United States during the 2023 fiscal
year, according to government data. Over
the previous 10 years, fewer than 15,000
Chinese migrants were caught crossing
the southern border illegally.