Inside the shadowy industries profiting off Chinese asylum seekers in the US | 101 East Documentary

Tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants have been taking a dangerous route through Latin America to the United States, where they plan to seek

asylum

, risking everything in their search for a better life. In the second half of our two-part investigation, 101 East finds out what happens to the Once the immigrants have made it, we meet a secretive pastor and discover his plan for the newcomers, we learn why despite the risks, Many more Chinese are willing to undertake the same dangerous journey and we ask if the American dream is really worth the sacrifice they have made. The Chinese migrant and his wife Jong Yuen arrived in the United States in July 2023.

They now live with relatives in the small town of Hemet in California. The couple are among 31,000 Chinese immigrants who entered the United States through a risky journey through Latin America in 2023. On social media, this EXP expedition is known as joen or the walking route. We met chongyang and yuchen in Colombia, near the beginning of their Latin American trip, they chose the walking route because they felt they had no future in China, but they didn't. They thought they could get visas for fellow American migrant G Hong Jun traveling with them. The group spent two days preparing for what would be the most difficult part of their trip.

Then, on a sweltering afternoon, the three buses took a ferry to a nearby town. Panama, the next night, human smugglers loaded them onto a smaller boat and smuggled them across the border. There were many more harrowing moments ahead. The weeks of expedition took the migrants through the dense Daran Gap forest and through multiple countries and checkpoints. This was the moment. Hong Jun crossed the US border, saying he wandered in the desert for hours tired and thirsty before being discovered by police after spending 2 days in immigration detention. He was released for now Hong Jun lives with his brother in Los Angeles and helps out at his family's bedside. and breakfast, he wants to find a regular full-time job, but under US law

asylum

seekers

have to wait 180 days to get a work permit, without one he can only do odd jobs because he says he is luckier than Many of the other Chinese immigrants he met at the Walking Roots to Save Money, a newcomer lives off the beaten path.

We've come to the California desert to meet him, or as he's better known, he says he gets by on the kindness of strangers, which could be because he's online. The now-famous Tiang decided to leave China after serving a 14-month sentence for social media posts deemed to have endangered the country. He had very little money when he left, but Tiar began livestreaming his trip and amassed tens of thousands of followers that he managed to crowdfund. His path to the US for now is a half-finished room at a resort he is helping to build. It's basic but it's also free.

TI says he's taking each day as he comes. He agrees that he came to the US after a physically and mentally grueling experience. He traveled through Latin America but the ordeal was not yet over a devout Christian Han says he left China because his church leaders were being detained and tortured there despite assurances from Beijing that it respects religious freedom Han says he lived with fear an immigration lawyer helped get him out of detention Han was able to find casual work a week after his release, but it's nothing like his old job. It is not easy to find stable work for other new Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles.

The search often begins in one of the many genes of employment agents. Serving newcomers like them, we have received information that some companies may be involved in questionable activities posing as newly arrived Chinese immigrants seeking work. The investigators have come to investigate. It's not long before one of them is offered a job at an illegal marijuana farm. The agent is Lee Highing and he is working for the Bethany agency which shares his name with a nearby church. It seems that a big part of Lee's job is persuading Chinese immigrants to go to Bethany Church. She says the church has a pastor and lawyers who can help with Asylum Claims for a fee.

Two days later Lee takes our investigator to the church. It is an imposing building located on a quiet street. Inside they meet Pastor Frank Chang of the church's Chinese congregation. It's not long before he gets to work. Oh, CH doesn't ask. If our investigator is a Christian or even interested in becoming one, he talks about the money sold at a later meeting an investigator asks Chang if the church could help some of his friends the pastor makes him this offer this incentive could explain why recruitment Agent Lee High Ping was so eager to take the Chinese immigrants to see Pastor Chang that we sent another investigator to visit her.

His replacement says his name is Leu or a search engine tells him that he just arrived from China and needs a job like his predecessor. She tells him that the pastor can help our investigator obtain religious asylum. Pastor Frank Chang and Bethany Church did not respond to 10 East's requests for comment. Li says he is a staunch Christian who is helping to spread the gospel. Activist and immigration attorney Chun Chang Chang warns that it is illegal to lie on an immigration application you fabricate the facts that is fraud US immigration law punishes immigration fraud clarifies that immigrants can obtain asylum based on activities in which they actually participate after arriving in the United States, the asylum application does not require that the applicant has been persecuted in their countries of origin, it only requires them to demonstrate that they are likely to be persecuted upon returning to their countries of origin on the day of concession of political opinion ethnicity religion social group and particular nationality it is China's national day and there is a protest in front of its consulate in Los Angeles for many here it is a new experience for many attendees.

I think this is the first time they have personally participated in a real protest against the Chinese government. Some of them finally enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of demonstration here. Jackson Wong's family crossed the southern border of the United States in May 2023. They wanted to live in a country where they could practice their Christian faith freely. Not everyone here wants to be photographed all afternoon. Masked men roam the margins of the protest, watching in silence activist Yang sha and her husband helped organize today's demonstration, she says. the masked men are just following orders yanga she has been hosting two relatives who managed to leave China despite supposedly being watched by the authorities there.

His younger brother, Shun Yu Hong, is only 15 years old. Gung Hong Jun, who we interviewed earlier, is her brother-in-law. Hello hello. She greets even more family members who are traveling through Latin America and are expected to join them in the coming days. She says her parents ran away when her government caregivers weren't paying attention. Jackson's in-laws are also in Latin America traveling overland to the United States. His wife Anna says they have been going through a difficult time. Anna's brother's leeway has been sending updates. It's been two months since the last time. We saw the tiang girl.

She left the desert. She found a new home and started a new job. She pays $500 a month for this. space in the shared house doesn't seem like much but ten says it's a start now he's a delivery driver that I have a lot of money. She's rich, but it's a different story. A week later, on social media, Tiang posts a series of videos in which she says she was the victim of a scam call and that her earnings from deliveries disappeared elsewhere. the city the mood is more optimistic Anna's parents and siblings the family is finally in the United States for Anna's sister-in-law Shah it is an emotional end to a long ordeal because it is a great day for yanga 5 years have passed since the last time they saw each other and 3 months since her parents fled China her friend already picked up her parents and is taking them halfway, you take it well, the meeting takes place in a parking lot next to a restaurant fast food, this is the first time little Frankie meets his grandmother in Yang Sha's parents are still traumatized by the events that expelled them from China.

Jaer says local police harassed them because of her daughter's activism in the United States that night. A party in honor of Yang Sha's parents. Everyone here knows firsthand what it means to drink. the hiking route or is related to someone who does it. Everyone has had their struggles and there may be more to come. er Chee, but for now this group is celebrating New Beginnings.