[Patrickov]

Twice as many Chinese illegal immigrants have crossed the U.S. border in 2023 after just THREE MONTHS as in all of 2022, according to official data

Chinese nationals are arriving at the southern border (of the U.S.) 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.

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.

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.'

(Patrickov: the rest of the article snipped because it's not related to Chinese)

More in the Guardian: Growing numbers of Chinese citizens set their sights on the US – via the deadly Darién Gap

On the first day of 2023, Xu was in no mood to celebrate the new year. He had just arrived in the Colombian beach town of Necoclí along with dozens of other Chinese citizens, weary from a two-day bus trip from Ecuador. Their goal was the US via the Darién Gap, a roadless, lawless and extremely dangerous stretch of rainforest connecting South and Central America. He wanted to leave China far behind him.

“After I leave the country [China], I have no plans to go back alive,” says Xu later, speaking to the Guardian in a Necoclí hotel room. “I feel like this country has been deceiving us, persecuting us. I have to do something.”

Necoclí is a tourist spot known among locals for its Caribbean music festivals but it is also a major starting point for migrants heading north to Panama through the jungle. It is the only overland path from south to north America. From Panama they continue through several Central American countries to the Mexico-US border.

It is a route riddled with dangers – from the perils of the jungle’s fast-running rivers and deadly wildlife, to gangs and criminals operating in the region, but Xu is desperate.

As some compatriots eat a local pastry dedito de queso, the 31-year-old construction worker, who asked to only use a surname, joins others to chant “knock CCP down!”.

[Patrickov]

3 months already twice as last year. The whole year can be, thus, 8-fold or even more.

Neither side would like to address the root of the problem.

As seen in Daily Mail, some blamed the Republicans for reducing border budgets.

The other side, like Fox, blamed the Democrats for "loosening border control".


Why can't they just accept that they just have to intercede?

[JohnRawls]

Twice as many Chinese illegal immigrants have crossed the U.S. border in 2023 after just THREE MONTHS as in all of 2022, according to official data




More in the Guardian: Growing numbers of Chinese citizens set their sights on the US – via the deadly Darién Gap

Better question is why?

[Tainari88]

@Patrickov the Chinese are going to have to deal with Mexican immigration if they have a hope in hell of crossing. So, they will have to be ready to cope with that.

The USA is going to see them as potential spies.

[Fasces]

And, in the case of China, it suggests a backlash to President Xi Jinping's domestic policies.

Better question is why?

1. Moratarium on new issues of passports from 2020-2022. Many people in China that have applied for new passports or travel documents are just getting their passports now.

2. USA has basically frozen visa issuance, even tourist visas, to Chinese since 2020. Even spouses or parents of American citizens aren't getting in, from what I'm hearing, even in 2023.

These 4,000 individuals are people who want to get into the US - perhaps they have work or family there predating the freeze - and don't have a legal path to do so, while being desperate enough to try to enter illegally.

In 2015, the USA issued, to Chinese nationals:

- 38,171 immigration visas
- 2,446,917 non-immigration visas

In 2019:

- 27,036 immigration visas
- 1,157,656 non-immigration visas

In 2022:

- 21,132 immigration visas
- 83,919 non-immigration visas

Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel ... stics.html

From several million visas per year to less than 85,000. In the past, some individuals would have gone to the USA on a visa, overstayed, and illegally immigrated. Now that the USA has basically halted issuing visas to Chinese nationals, some 4,000 enterprising individuals have decided to go another way. Since Canada has also basically frozen issuing visas to Chinese, that leaves Central America.

Growing numbers of Chinese citizens set their sights on the US – via the deadly Darién Gap

Chinese visa free or visa on arrival countries in the Americas 2023:



They're going to surrounding countries to try to enter Panama, from where entry into the US is relatively easy.

None of this should be read as indicative of anything except of US immigration policy in China and toward Chinese nationals. Always be skeptical of news reports concerning China.

[senor boogie woogie]

I have a Chinese wife in China (myself living in China) and she was refused a visitor visa to come to the USA with me in 2003. We have not tried since. I happened to be in the embassy in Shanghai getting a renewal of passport when I met an American guy who tried and failed to get a visa for his wife around 2012.

My father told me somewhat snarkly to just send my wife to Juarez and then walk the border. Needless to say I wanted to strangle my father for saying this.

Other foreigners with Chinese spouses have little issue getting their wives back to their home countries. But for me it seems a near impossible task.

But my wife’s sister has a daughter who went to university and graduate school in the United States. The parents went to see their daughter graduate. She got a Masters from Columbia and then came back home, married a local man and lives in China. China isn’t bad if you have money and a good career. It is her home and her people. China isn’t awful or evil or repressive for regular people. I could live in China the rest of my life if I had the resources to live here. The government I find odious.

But I would like to bring my wife home if I could. But I have a misdemeanor criminal record back home. Plus would my wife be happy in America? There are Chinese everywhere all over the World and would link her to her people back home. I am from Memphis, Tennessee and have met people running a shop from her province. So people are able to come to America. But it might be me, do I want to come back to America? For me, I want to retire in Cambodia, even have a town on the coast picked out where I can live a simple, free life. But I don’t know if she would be happy there.

[senor boogie woogie]

Believe it or not, there is illegal immigration in China. Usually it is Africans who overstay their visa, never renewing it and just staying. This happens even though being an illegal in China means that one can never travel on overland public transport or plane because this requires a visa. So unless one can somehow sneak out of China on a boat, the person will eventually be caught. This is a great obstacle with North Koreans going through China to make it to Thailand to escape to South Korea.

I am an American citizen with a Chinese wife and now firsthand the difficulty for her to get an American visa. The bastards are afraid if they give her the visa, that she will stay and not go back to China. It should be after we have been married for multiple years, this shouldn’t be an issue. But China being an “enemy” nation causes problems. But my sister in law and her husband’s daughter graduated college and graduate school in America. My wife’s nephew after who knows how many years will reunite with his wife and son in Hawaii. So it’s possible. Shouldn’t be impossible. A marriage of a year or two should be enough. This is one reason I hate America. I shouldn’t have to have a reason to send my wife home. This evil Communist China has allowed me to stay for twenty one years. I have even broken the law here and have been allowed to stay another year, and they won’t extend my wife the same courtesy?

I couldn’t imagine my wife in Mexico with all those dirty people making the trek north to the river to be probably caught by ICE or having to deal with a human smuggler. And even if the smuggler is legitimate and I get my wife have to almost hide her so immigration won’t get her. Because they will, her; not the neck tattooed MS13 or similar thugs. Or simians shooting at each other in inner Chicago, Philadelphia or other cities. It would be my wife because she came here from a Communist nation and would vote Conservative/Republican if she could. The cross dresser, sodomite, drag Queen to children story hour couldn’t allow that.

Truth is what it is.