A paradigm shift in illegal border crossings-those aren’t Latinos coming across
by Chivis Martinez
Borderland Beat
September 18, 2017
Illegal Chinese immigrants have taken the lead in border apprehension numbers.
At around 1 a.m on Saturday August 26, California Border Patrol agents made a surprising discovery; a crudely constructed tunnel that was being facilitated to smuggle illegal immigrants in to the United States.
And the overwhelming majority of the immigrant group were not Mexican, or even Latino, 23 of the group of 30 were Chinese. There were 21 Chinese males and 2 females. There exists a new human smuggling trend that is setting records, as it did in 2016, when the number of undocumented Chinese migrants, surpassed the number of Mexicans. The steep price tag that Chinese migrants must pay to be smuggled into the U.S. is 50 to 75 thousand USD, making it a very lucrative industry.
Far apart from the sophisticated drug tunnels of El Chapo, the newly discovered tunnel is a simplistic, rudimentary, system that utilized a ladder in place of an elevator, found in many Mexican Cartel tunnels.
Using tunnels to transport migrants into the U.S., is not new or unheard of, but it is atypical and the tunnels used are the throw away tunnels, tunnel projects abandoned for whatever reason. What is new is who they are finding using the tunnels.
Unfinished tunnel projects can present problems. An example is a few years ago when a migrant got stuck in a narrow passage, trapping himself and four others behind him. They were rescued by BP.
At around 1 a.m on Saturday August 26, California Border Patrol agents made a surprising discovery; a crudely constructed tunnel that was being facilitated to smuggle illegal immigrants in to the United States.
And the overwhelming majority of the immigrant group were not Mexican, or even Latino, 23 of the group of 30 were Chinese. There were 21 Chinese males and 2 females. There exists a new human smuggling trend that is setting records, as it did in 2016, when the number of undocumented Chinese migrants, surpassed the number of Mexicans. The steep price tag that Chinese migrants must pay to be smuggled into the U.S. is 50 to 75 thousand USD, making it a very lucrative industry.
Far apart from the sophisticated drug tunnels of El Chapo, the newly discovered tunnel is a simplistic, rudimentary, system that utilized a ladder in place of an elevator, found in many Mexican Cartel tunnels.
Using tunnels to transport migrants into the U.S., is not new or unheard of, but it is atypical and the tunnels used are the throw away tunnels, tunnel projects abandoned for whatever reason. What is new is who they are finding using the tunnels.
Unfinished tunnel projects can present problems. An example is a few years ago when a migrant got stuck in a narrow passage, trapping himself and four others behind him. They were rescued by BP.
In 2016, a total of 192,696 Mexicans were apprehended in illegal border crossings opposed to 222,847 non-Mexicans.
On the Mexican side of the southern border, some Chinese nationals are electing to stay in Mexico, resulting in a whole different set of issues, mostly social.
1 comment:
The dog population has dropped significantly in Mexico. That's a clue folks.
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