6,400 Miles, Vast Pacific Ocean Doesn’t Deter Chinese Illegal Immigrants
Published on June 14th, 2016
OTM, border patrol agents’ code for “Other Than Mexican,” has for decades loosely translated to Central Americans, and in the last few years also Middle Easterners. But now, according to a Migration Policy Institute study, Chinese represent the fastest growing group of OTMs.
The number of Chinese trying to enter the U.S. illegally is up. Seven Chinese aliens are apprehended by San Diego Border Patrol in this photo. |
Border Patrol Representative Wendi Lee, quoted in a Los Angeles Times story, said that prior to 2014 Chinese nationals caught at the U.S.-Mexico border were few. Little wonder since Beijing is about 6,400 miles and an ocean away from San Diego. But thanks to social media and word of President Obama’s willingness to ignore immigration violations and let illegal aliens skate, no distance is too far to travel. The Chinese have gotten the word, and they’re on the way despite the $50,000 to $70,000 fee smugglers charge.
The border patrol arrested approximately 663 Chinese nationals between October 2015 and May 2016, nearly 14 times the 48 apprehended in fiscal 2015. But that total may eventually only scratch the surface.
The Pew Research Center predicted that by 2065, Asians will represent 38 percent of the immigrant population, up dramatically from today’s 26 percent. Each immigrant that arrives legally represents a pull factor for more immigration, legal or illegal.
Consider the F student visa that enabled more than 300,000 Chinese to enroll in U.S. universities during academic year 2014-2015; the 10,000 EB-5 visas issued annually and used extensively by Chinese executives to allegedly invest in American businesses; the B tourist visa that facilitates the fraudulent arrival of thousands of pregnant Chinese to give birth to their anchor baby children who get instant citizenship, and multiple entry visas valid for ten years to “enhance mutual understanding” between the U.S. and China.
By any measure, immigration has spiraled out of control with little enforcement either at the border or in the interior, and dozens of visas for every conceivable category. As Congress looks the other way at unsustainable immigration – 3.1 million immigrants in 2014 to 2015 alone – prudent people wonder where everyone will live once the U.S. population hits 458 million in 2050 (give or take 10 million or so, depending on which estimates one looks at), an urgent question that deserves an answer.