Shocking new border statistics have revealed the surprising countries driving an influx of immigrants to the United States.
While Chinese immigrants continue to dominate the list, thousands of people are also arriving from India, Vietnam, Turkey, Uzebakistan and the West African nation of Mauritania.
About 62% of all Chinese immigrants arriving at U.S. borders enter the country through San Diego, according to U.S. Border Patrol statistics.
At least 48,501 Chinese immigrants have crossed into the United States illegally, mostly surrendering to Border Patrol in hopes of seeking asylum, from Oct. 1 through April.
Chinese migrants wait to be processed after crossing the border into Mexico on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, near Jacumba Hot Springs, California. San Diego became the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in April, according to US government data.
“It is an increase of 8,600% over the entire fiscal year 2021, when only 342 Chinese citizens crossed illegally, across the entire southern border,” Fox News correspondent. Bill Melugin tweeted.
Of those, 27,135 entered the country either in San Diego or in the area east of the city, which the Border Patrol considers the San Diego sector.
On Saturday alone, at least 118 Chinese nationals crossed illegally into the region, Fox News reported.
While most of the border receives most of its immigrants from countries like Mexico and Venezuela, the area near San Diego attracts immigrants from all over the world.
Since the start of the fiscal year, more than 8,900 immigrants from India have arrived there.
Another 7,800 from Türkiye, 5,600 from 5,600+ Guinea and 4,400 from Mauritania have also entered the country there.
“There is now an orchestrated and well-organized Chinese smuggling operation by a cartel into Southern California,” Melugin said.
As DailyMail.com first reported, Chinese migrants are being smuggled into the United States with the help of Chinese gangs known as ‘snakeheads’ who operate in sync with Mexican cartels.
Asian criminal organizations have been working in Mexico for many years in drug trafficking and money laundering, but have recently turned to the human trafficking business as Chinese immigrants began showing up at the border, the Cartel expert Robert Almonte told DailyMail.com.
‘The Chinese (smugglers) just can’t go there and eliminate the Mexican cartels; that just doesn’t happen. “They have to be paying the Mexican cartel some type of percentage, quota or tax,” he stated.
Global arrivals to Southern California helped propel the San Diego sector as the busiest in the country.
At least 37,370 migrants entered the U.S. through the San Diego sector, which includes all of Southern California except El Centro at the Arizona state line, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
A Chinese migrant camp near Jacumba, California, has signs showing Chinese asylum seekers where to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents.
In April, the San Diego region surpassed Tucson, which had been the busiest in the country, and fell to second place with 31,219 border encounters.
The El Paso sector, which includes the West Texas city and all of New Mexico, rose to third place with 30,393.
San Diego was expected to become the main trouble spot on the border, as the area had been bombarded with between 6,000 and 8,000 people crossing the border per week in recent months.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me,” San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond told DailyMail.com last month.
‘Texas is clamping down and other areas are clamping down. Here in California they are allowed to enter without obstacles. “They are going to follow the path of least resistance, and the least resistance is in California.”
Border experts have described a $13 billion human trafficking business from Mexico to the United States as a runaway business, with one area exploding while others calm down.
Immigrants who are arrested in the San Diego sector and examined by the United States Border Patrol are being released onto the streets.
The county’s migrant shelter closed a few months ago, after local leaders decided they didn’t want the $18 million a year to continue running it.
However, Biden has promised the county $20 million to open a shelter in the coming weeks.
‘At that time, being their travel agent cost us around $1.5 million a month. The Border Patrol was his Uber, taking them to those drop-off areas, and then we were his travel agent,” Desmond joked.
Without local shelter, the feds turn migrants loose at a transit station or at the airport.
Immigrants have been known to spend up to five days crashing at the airport while waiting for a flight out of the city, Desmond added.
Like other border communities across the country, the San Diego airport is not adding additional flights simply because there is an increase in migrant crossings.
Many times, there are no seats available to fly or migrants, with limited means, wait a day or two until ticket prices drop and they can afford to travel to their final destination.