Chinese migrants are fastest growing group crossing into U.S. from Mexico | 60 Minutes

The number of im

migrants

arriving at the southern border is unprecedented. Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded 2.5 million cases of detention or rejection of people trying to cross into the United States from Mexico, so what is the

fastest

growing

group

among They, the Chinese im

migrants

? Yes, you heard the Chinese, we saw large

group

s, including many middle class, pass through a 4T gap at the end of a border fence 60 miles east of San Diego, illegal entry is a new route for those hoping to live in the United States. Joined. The history. To be continued at a time just after dawn, we saw the first group of migrants arrive from Mexico through a gap between the 30-foot steel border fence and the rocks.

We crouched under a piece of barbed wire and, towards the United States, we were surprised to see the number of people coming from China almost 7,000 M away, look closely at our cameras and at one point this armed border patrol agent standing 25 feet away didn't deter them, so how old are they? I'm 20 years old, this man, a college graduate, told us. He hoped to find work in Los Angeles. He said his journey from China took 40 days. What countries did you travel through? Thailand Morocco agador aad Columbia Panama Costa Rica uh naraga jeez 30

minutes

later, a smuggler's van raced along the border fence and dropped another group.

In the same place and 30

minutes

later, another group for 4 days we witnessed how almost 600 immigrants, adults and children, passed through this hole and arrived on our soil without control, we saw people from India, Vietnam and Afghanistan, many of them Chinese immigrants who arrived will end. Even asking for political asylum, did you travel alone or with family or friends? Hey, no, just me, just you, yes, Gap is a global destination full of travel documents from all over the world. With the help of a translator, we learned a little about Chinese immigrants. Coming from teaching you're a teacher yeah yeah oh my gosh we also met a banker and small business owners.

Some of the migrants made a grueling journey through Central America with dusty backpacks, but we noticed middle-class migrants from China arriving with wheeled bags, we were told. They took flights to Mexico, some flew from China to Ecuador because no visa is required for Chinese citizens, then they took flights to Tiana, Mexico, the migrants told us they connected with smugglers or what they call snakeheads in Tijana and each one paid . them about $400 for the one hour trip that ended here in Gap why did you decide to come to the United States eh oh it's hard to live there how to find a job H what did you do?

Did you work in China? You work in the factory but now it is difficult to work in the factory, was this an expensive trip? You said it was and that she sold her house to cover the $14,000 cost of her trip to the US last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that 37,000 Chinese nationals were caught

crossing

illegally from Mexico into the U.S., 50 times more than two years earlier, many of the migrants told us they made the trip to escape China's increasingly repressive political climate and sluggish economy. The 37-year-old said China's lockdown destroyed her childcare business. she left her two young children with her family at home and why did you decide to come to the United States many reasons to work are not quite right what are the reasons freedom freedom we wonder how all these immigrants knew about this particular entrance to California the answer was in his hands about oh Tik Tok IT oh you learned on Tik Tok yes, Tik Tok talk is a social media platform created in China, the post we found had step by step instructions for hiring smugglers and detailed instructions to get to that hole we visited, we were surprised how Orderly and routine, everything seemed like the immigrants walked about half a mile down a dirt road and waited in line for the US border patrol to arrive so they could hand over how much property they have here, The land they're waiting for is owned by 75-year-old Jerry Schuster, a retiree, the whole world seems to know there's a way in and it's on your property.

Everyone is doing this. Everyone doing this. When they come here, they come with suitcases. They come to prepare themselves with the computers. They got off yesterday on a Norwegian cruise ship. Shuster owns 17 acres just north of the border fence and a quarter mile outside of Yakuma Hot Springs. California population 540. Your name is an immigrant. Yes. Where do you come from? I come from Yugoslavia and I left Yugoslavia. I went to Austria I stayed there eight months and I knocked on this door I didn't break down the door to come here You came in through the front door I got to the front door And what do you think of this?

They don't care, they, they, they come through everything like they came to their own country here and nobody does anything about it. Shuster says it all started in May. He went to investigate some smoke coming from his property and found a migrant burning trees to stay warm today. his property looks like a messy moonscape filled with trash and uptight immigrants left behind. Have you ever yelled get out of here? Well, they say, uh, I, uh, about four months ago, there were eight guys that started hitting my tree and started burning my my trees on the other side so I said please don't do that please don't start surrounding me I went home and I took my gun and I shot in the air they arrested me they arrested you yes, they arrested me on your property on my property, yes, just because I asked them not to burn the trees so as not to tear down the fences and they arrested me, they put me a police card and they simply protected my own land.

Shuster was in charge, but his gun was confiscated if I had to guess how many immigrants you think you've seen pass through here, maybe 3,000 a week. 3,000 per week. I would say yes, because this is an ongoing agreement. About 2 hours after these immigrants arrived, we saw the border patrol pull up transmitting recorded instructions. In Mandarin, the immigrants were taken to a detention center near San Diego, where background checks were conducted. Some are interviewed, usually within 72 hours, released into the United States and can begin the process of filing an asylum application. Jacqueline Ariano has volunteered at the border. she for eight years offering humanitarian aid to migrants, so I am a native Spanish speaker.

I have been able to rely on being bilingual in doing this job for as long as I have been doing it and in the last year I mean, there have been times when I have come to sites and I have not spoken to any Spanish speakers. She relies on translation apps to communicate with Chinese immigrants. These people want the border patrol to pick them up. Why doesn't this happen at a port of entry which would definitely be the ideal situation and people would prefer to do it, it would definitely be much safer and more efficient. Unfortunately, there are barriers to people seeking asylum at a port of entry.

One barrier is the phone app called cbp1 that asylum seekers are supposed to use. the app to make an appointment to enter the US through a legal border

crossing

, as we saw last spring in the Mexican War, the system is flawed, oh yeah, and it gets stuck at the right time. 9:00 there are no more volunteers working with migrants, we were told there is still a 3 to four month wait to secure an appointment at a border crossing, so is this a shortcut? It's really like the only one they have. I don't even know if they'll consider it a shortcut for years.

Millions of Chinese entered the U.S. with a visa that allowed them to visit for work or study, but in recent years those visas have become increasingly difficult to obtain as tensions between the two countries have risen. In 2016, the US granted 2.2 million temporary visas to Chinese citizens in 2022, it was only about 160,000, so it is possible that many of these people came. Tammy Lynn is an immigration attorney who has worked with clients from China for nearly two decades. If someone is not granted asylum here, China will say, "Okay, yes, we will take them back." I've seen it actually happen, I think even in 2008, many of the Chinese nationals who had failed in their asylum cases were unable to get passports, uh, to be put on the plane to be sent back, so we can't send them back. based on our review of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, there are at least 36,000 Chinese who have been ordered to leave the country by U.S. courts, but China is known for not accepting back its citizens and The United States can't force China to accept them, so what?

What happens if they have a failed claim but can't return to China, that's a question - they are stuck in this limbo according to the Department of Justice last year, 55% of Chinese immigrants were granted asylum compared to 14% for everyone else. nationality with the odds in their favor and a telephone to guide them there is little to deter more Chinese immigrants from passing through the Gap near Jerry Schuster's Place. Have you told anyone? Hey, there's a giant hole they're coming out of. How about they repair it? I know that thing is there and we've been telling them that when this stops here, you have to call Washington DC, that's what they say, so we did it.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told us its agents do not have detention authority. people who go through gaps like this and can only arrest them after they have entered illegally. As for closing that gap, they said it's on their priority list, but it would require money from Congress. What do some immigrants do after being released by border patrol? call an Uber and they leave in 60 Minutes overtime.com