A line of well-dressed Chinese migrants with suitcases who have illegally crossed into the California border show how the type of people seeking asylum in the US is changing.
The men stand out from the exhausted and starved migrants who have traveled thousands of miles from South and Central America to the border, according to video from NewsNation.
“There are families who have experienced political oppression at the hands of the Chinese government and many are political dissidents,” immigration attorney Erika Pinheiro told The Post.
“These migrants tend to have more resources. We have this nderstanding of asylum seekers as poor and [that] they are only coming to America for economic opportunities, but the people that I’m meeting [at the San Diego, Calif.] border tend to be at least middle class, if not upper-middle class, from their countries.”
The migrants, who were mostly single Chinese men, have been living in makeshift tents in Jacumba Hot Springs— a tiny town in San Diego County that has become the latest hotbed for illegal crossing.
The NewsNation video footage also showed the men in a single-file line wearing clean clothes and standing next to their luggage. Police sources told the station they pay smugglers up to $35,000 to get them across from Mexico into the US.
Pinheiro does not represent the migrants in the NewsNation video.
Pinheiro, who is the executive director of migrant services at legal aid company Al Otro, told The Post she has spoken to Chinese migrants who have walked through multiple Central American countries, but many who could afford it flew into Mexico and have walked into the US from there .
“Some of them I have spoken to got their [travel] visa like they were going to vacation in Mexico and might’ve spent a week in a resort because they have the money,” Pinheiro said.
“There is often a misconception that most asylum seekers are coming into the country to take public benefits, but many are well-educated, already have family out here and are really looking for political asylum.”
The attorney said that from what she has seen, some of the migrants are victims of human trafficking and forced labor.
“Almost every single person I have talked to has faced some kind of violence in Mexico or extortion from authorities, so the idea of waiting in line for several months is worrisome for them,” Pinheiro said. “Many of them are political dissidents. I was working with a family where the woman was forcibly sterilized by the government. They are coming into this country for a variety of reasons.”
Chinese people are the fourth most common nationality of migrants entering the US, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, with many making their trek through the treacherous Darién gap, according to the Associated Press.
More than 4,000 Chinese nationals were apprehended by Border Patrol in October— a huge uptick from the 329 who were captured the same time last year.
More than 230,000 people were apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border in the San Diego Sector — which stretches 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean to around the town of Jacumba Hot Springs — marking a 20-year high for the area, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers.
At the San Diego border, the Chinese are joined by other asylum seekers from as far afield as Turkey, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Jamaica and Yemen, sources told The Post.
The United Nations projected China will lose 310,000 people from emigration this year alone as the country’s economy struggled to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic and rising youth unemployment, according to the Associated Press.
The Chinese migrants utilize social media apps like WeChat to send step-by-step videos which provide tips including what to pack to get through a jungle and how much money to bring in order to bribe police and officials in different countries.
Some of the Chinese men also flew to Ecuador because the country doesn’t require a travel visa.
San Diego County officials are voting on Tuesday on whether to add an additional $3 million budget toward services to help with the exploding migrant crisis.
Pinheiro, however, said many of the more middle class migrants already have family members in the US.
With Post wires