Illegal immigration from Asia and Africa TRIPLES since 2022, 214,000 arrests made: CBP

As the crisis at the Southern border of the United States gets worse the number of people who are coming from areas other than Central and South America has more than tripled in the last year. 

According to arrest data from the US Customs and Border Patrol (CPB), in fiscal year 2023, the number of illegal immigrants from China, India, and other countries around the world was 214,000 people, tripling from 70,000 in 2022 and up from 19,000 in 2021. 

Head of the migrant support unit of the Tijuana, Mexico, government, Enrique Lucero told the Wall Street Journal, "The increase in migration from Asia and Africa is remarkable.” He said, “These days, we are dealing with 120 nationalities and 60 different languages.” 

Human smugglers use social media to coordinate with the migrants and get them what is commonly referred to as a "donkey flight" to countries in Latin America that have little to no visa requirements to enter. Mexican authorities told the outlet that once on the ground, they are bussed north toward the US Southern border. 

Mohamed Aweineny told the outlet about his experience coming from West Africa through Turkey, to Colombia. "I followed the internet to learn how to get to America without a visa,” he said. 

One senior official in the Biden Administration said that the increase from other areas has strained its operations "because we just don’t have longstanding ties or agreements in place with many countries in order to facilitate quick removals." They added, "We are actively working on that." 

In October, the CPB released its annual border crossing data which showed they apprehended a record 2.4 million people crossing the border illegally. Of those apprehended, there were 172 non-citizens on the terrorist watch list attempting to come into the country. That was an increase from 2022's record of 98 people on the watchlist apprehended. 

The crisis at the border has caused sanctuary cities to become overwhelmed trying to house all the illegal immigrants looking for places to stay. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made it a top priority to ease the strain on taxpayers by fast-tracking the immigrant's work visas. The city also began distributing flyers at borders to tell illegals to go elsewhere for work saying, "NYC cannot help you obtain a work permit, and you will not be able to easily find work."