Mexican authorities warn of increase in Chinese migrants on the border with California

Mexican authorities warn of an increase in migrants of China who seek to cross USA on the California border, where they pay up to US$41,000 to ‘coyotes’ or traffickers, after detecting almost 9,000 in the last four months.

Although for three years the arrival of Chinese migrants seeking asylum in the United States has been a constant, in recent months the increase is considerable, according to what Enrique Lucero Vázquez, municipal director of Migrant Assistance of the city, told EFE this Monday. Tijuana border.

In the current fiscal year, which started last October, 8,964 Chinese have entered through the Mexican state of Baja California towards California, the official cited based on data from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office. .

Lucero Vázquez recalled that Chinese migration is not new in this region, where there has been a community established in Baja California for many years, but recently their irregular arrival has proliferated due to the deterioration of conditions in their country.

“They had an economic boom in 2010, but in recent years there has been an exodus of migrants for equally economic reasons, they do not earn very well, the economy of their country is very good, but they are under a repressive system”he detailed.

An exponential growth in migration

The Mexican Government reported 10 times more irregular migrants from China in 2023 than the previous year, detecting 14,057, according to the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior.

Meanwhile, CBP apprehended more than 24,000 Chinese migrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2023, making it the fastest-growing demographic group detected in the area.

The phenomenon has already aroused the indignation of American politicians from the Republican Party, such as the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, who this weekend denounced that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, is close to committing the crime of “treason” by allow the entry of so many Chinese.

“Treason is a difficult word to define and I am not suggesting that the president is accused of treason at this point, but God, you are very close to the line (Biden) when you say that we are going to allow thousands, 24,000 or 30,000 Chinese men to military age are going to cross our border,” he said in an interview on Fox News.

An irregular migration

The Mexican authorities at the Baja California border detailed that migrants arrive from China to Mexico with a tourist visa or travel to Ecuador, where they are not asked for a visa, to begin their journey.

The Chinese cross the Darién jungle and enter irregularly through Mexico until they reach the border with the United States, through the American sector of San Diego, which includes the Mexican municipalities of Tijuana, Mexicali and Tecate, according to Lucero Vázquez.

“In this last municipality, mainly in the Ejido Jacumé area, in the fiscal year of 2022-2023, in Baja California, 10,700 Chinese were registered irregularly, this is a 44% of the general total (detected by the United States)”, noticed.

The Mexican official revealed that, for the entire journey, Chinese migrants pay up to US$41,000 to traffickers.

Furthermore, he highlighted that unlike other migrants who arrive in Tijuana, their stay is “silent” because they do not reach the shelters.

“They come with guides or pay a pollero (human trafficker) who takes them to a hotel, and generally the next day takes them to the Jacumé area, where they are taken in trucks, they get off and go inside to surrender to the police. Border Patrol“, he explained.