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The statistics indicate a concrete upward trend in Chinese immigrants arriving from the southern border since COVID pandemic

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Thousands of Chinese migrants and asylum seekers have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months, and many more are heading north after passing through the treacherous Darién Gap jungle between Colombia and Panama.

Why it matters: It's another example of people from well beyond the Americas seeking refuge in the U.S. through the southwest border - and reflects the ongoing backlash to Chinese President Xi Jinping's harsh domestic policies.

"So the word is out, right?," Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Texas border Democrat, told Axios. "If you can get to our southern border, you have pretty good shot at getting in, and it has changed the demographics."

Zoom in: Axios spoke with a Chinese migrant in his 40s, who requested to be identified by the pseudonym Sam out of concern for his safety.

Sam crossed the U.S.-Mexico border last month with his 16-year-old son - a journey that took them through 11 countries, including Thailand, Turkey, Ecuador, Panama and Guatemala, he told Axios.

A rights activist from Henan province, Sam participated in many social movements in Guangzhou, a city in southern China. He left out of fear of the deepening authoritarianism of President Xi, as displayed through extreme zero-COVID policies. Sam's wife and younger son remain in China.

Like many other Chinese migrants, Sam and his son took advantage of Ecuador's visa-free travel, and then began their journey north to the U.S.

They crossed seven Latin America countries before entering the U.S. at Brownsville, Texas, where they were arrested by the Border Patrol and detained for five days. They now live in Albany, New York, and have a court date in October.

Axios is not able to independently verify Sam's account.

By the numbers: Many more migrants with stories similar to Sam's are likely to arrive. During the first two months of this year, nearly 2,200 Chinese nationals have crossed into Panama through the thick jungle of the Darién Gap, according to migration data from Panama's government.

That's more than the 2,000 Chinese migrants who made the trip in all of 2022 - which itself was a huge jump from the 77 counted in 2021.

"This exodus signifies Chinese people's resistance to President Xi's regressive policies and draconian lockdown measures," Sam told Axios. "It's like an animal stampede before an earthquake."

The big picture: There has long been Chinese migration at the southern border, going back to the 1980s.

But the numbers have ticked up in recent months because of a variety of factors, such as the reopening of China's borders and growing backlogs for legal immigration pathways to the U.S.

Chinese nationals also are granted asylum at a relatively high rate in the U.S. - 58%, according to recent government data. That's compared to an average of 10% for asylum seekers from the Northern Triangle, which includes Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Bob Fu, president of the Christian nonprofit ChinaAid, which advocates for human rights in China, has noticed the uptick in Chinese migrants at the southern border. He said his group now receives several assistance requests from these migrants every week.

He gave three reasons for this uptick: Further deterioration in human rights conditions and religious freedom in China; a rollback of more stringent U.S. border policies that were in place under President Trump, and social media posts about people crossing, which have triggered a bandwagon effect.

Between the lines: Liang Zai, professor of sociology at SUNY Albany who studies Chinese migration, told Axios that the surge at the border also is driven by the pandemic's profound impact on China's economy.

"The damage to the Chinese economy compared to four or five years ago is just so devastating for low-skilled workers," he said.

Liang also highlighted tighter visa screening and lingering effects of travel restrictions between China and the U.S. as reasons why some Chinese decide to illegally cross the southern border instead of flying into the U.S. directly.

What they're saying: Team Brownsville, a nonprofit focused on providing basic goods and resources to recently arrived migrants and asylum seekers in that Texas city, has been receiving dozens of Chinese nationals every day, compared to just a few when the group was founded in 2018.

The language barrier has been a challenge, the group's volunteer coordinator Andrea Rudnik said. Because of that, the group hasn't been able to learn much about these migrants. However, many seemed to be headed for Los Angeles, she said.

Zheng Cunzhu, a LA-based immigration expert and director of the nonprofit Voices of Immigrants, said his group recently started renting AirBnB rooms in California to accommodate Chinese migrants who had just crossed the southern border. The group plans to rent more in Arizona, he said.

"Zero-COVID policies severely harmed ordinary Chinese people," said Zheng, who said he has personally helped more than 100 such migrants. "Many people didn't care about politics before, but the pandemic awakened them. They realized there's really no freedom in China."

What to watch: The Biden administration announced a new policy last month that could disqualify most migrants from seeking asylum at the southern border.

In what critics called a "transit ban" set to take effect in May when the U.S. lifts COVID restrictions known as Title 42, migrants who pass through another country on their way to the U.S. but without requesting protection in that country will be ineligible to claim asylum in the U.S.

It's not clear how this policy will affect Chinese migrants at the border, but some U.S. civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, have vowed to sue the government over the new rules.

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Inside the boom in Chinese migrants at the southern border

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It's another example of people from well beyond the Americas seeking refuge in the U.S.

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Also Conservative media focus on "national security", but it does point to the unique phenomenon of middle-class immigration that never seen before

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Newly released figures released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that the number of Chinese migrants pouring across the southern border has surged since this time last year, raising national security concerns.

CBP sources tell Fox News Digital that more than 20,000 Chinese nationals have illegally crossed since the new fiscal year began on Oct. 1 - and more than 90% of them crossed into the San Diego sector in places like Jacumba, a small town about 60 miles east of the city.

That's where Border Patrol has seen record-breaking figures, with a more than 500% increase in Chinese migrants from this time last year, making them the fastest-growing demographic entering the country illegally.

INFLUX OF ILLEGAL CHINESE MIGRANTS THREATENS US TERRITORY, ISLAND MUST SHOW 'STRENGTH OF THE NATION'
For context, there were only 450 total Chinese encounters in all of fiscal year 2021 and the San Diego sector has eclipsed that in just the past 48 hours.

Border sources say 269 Chinese migrants were apprehended by CBP officials in a single day this week.

A lot of the illegal crossings in Jacumba occur where there is a small gap in the wall, allowing illegal immigrants to slip through on a daily basis.

Fox News crews have witnessed suspected human smugglers pulling up to the border wall in SUVs and offloading migrants, who then walk through the gap.

The influx of Chinese migrants has raised concerns that some may have links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

MAYORS WANT WORK PERMITS EXTENDED TO KEEP MIGRANTS EMPLOYED, RECEIVE NEW ASYLUM SEEKERS
"It's just as important to focus on what's in the flow as opposed to how large the flow is from a national security perspective," says a senior CBP official who asked not to be identified.

Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents all rank-and-file Border Patrol agents nationwide, told Fox News that the majority of the Chinese border crossers are single adult males of military age.

"That is a very scary prospect, we know that China does not like us, we know that we are in the crosshairs of China," Judd said.

"And they are exporting so many people to our country, and you have to really fear about that."

According to a segment on "60 Minutes," some Chinese migrants have purportedly been using videos on the China-owned social media platform TikTok to learn "step-by-step instructions" for how to find gaps in the border wall and hire smugglers.

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The huge influx in California comes as encounters along the Texas border have slowed dramatically, after the Lone Star State beefed up security along its border and clashed with the Biden administration in court.

January migrant encounters along the southern border totaled 176,205, showing a significant decrease from December's record 300,000.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of the porous border.

Meanwhile, CBP says it has seized 7,000 pounds of fentanyl to date in FY 2024 through January. The agency says it has stopped more fentanyl in the last two years than in the previous five years combined.

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Chinese migrants pouring across southern border spark national security concerns

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Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says the number of Chinese migrants pouring across the southern border has surged since this time last year, raising national security concerns.

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Conservative media focus on "national security", anti-immigrant narrative found its way on Chinese ethnics

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Topped with razor wire that glints menacingly in the desert sun, a 30ft steel fence runs along part of the vast U.S.-Mexican border, providing an imposing bulwark in America's war against illegal immigration.

But at a certain point, where the fence runs up against a rocky outcrop, there is a 4ft gap, loosely blocked with more razor wire.

Predictably, it fails to discourage a steady stream of migrants, who simply step around the wire and enter the promised land.

The gap is so well-known to the undocumented asylum seekers crossing from Mexico into a remote corner of southern California, 60 miles east of San Diego, that it has been christened the 'San Judas Break' after a nearby Mexican town.

One local aid worker claims to have witnessed 150 migrants pass through the break in less than a minute and thousands are said to use it every week.

U.S. border agents are often on hand but they watch impassively as the migrants take the last few steps of their journey to a new life before waiting patiently to be taken into custody, processed and swiftly released - free to stay in America, probably for years, until their asylum case comes up.

This may sound like an all-too familiar scenario. But there's one crucial difference: many of those coming in at the San Judas Break have not been Latin American - but Chinese.

And given that most of the thousands of Chinese pouring into America are 'adult males of military age', this strange phenomenon is deeply worrying politicians, officials and security experts in Washington.

They fear this may not be so much a migratory trend as an exercise in infiltration by Chinese citizens acting on direct orders from America's greatest international adversary, the Chinese Communist Party.

An adversary that has recently been accused of all manner of underhand operations in the U.S.: using spy balloons to target sensitive military bases and making suspicious purchases of nearby land, running a network of covert police stations across the U.S. and even intentionally flooding America with lethal drugs and malign social media.

More than 37,000 Chinese citizens were arrested for illegally crossing the southern border of the U.S. in 2023, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

That number is nearly ten times the total in 2022 - and 50 times more than in 2021.

Some Chinese are apparently making the long journey from China to America via Asia and Africa, but many more are flying directly to Ecuador, exploiting the fact it doesn't require them to have a visa, and then making their way overland to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Under the Biden administration, whose reversal of Trump's tough immigration policies has been blamed for a huge surge in illegal migration, the number of U.S. Border Patrol encounters with Chinese illegal immigrants asylum seekers continues to grow.

Since the beginning of the U.S. government's fiscal year in October, the U.S. Border Patrol has already apprehended more than 21,000 Chinese migrants. In the key border sector south of San Diego, more Chinese are crossing than Mexicans. Many of these arrivals insist they are no different from any other asylum seekers - fleeing joblessness and economic decline, and seeking political and religious freedoms.

U.S. politicians and officials accept that this may well be the driving force for at least some of the migrants. However, they also fear Beijing is attempting to exploit the chaos on the border by sneaking in Chinese who will do its ruthless bidding once they have been allowed to settle in the U.S. by a hopelessly flawed immigration system.

Given that both Democrat and Republican politicians have already expressed severe alarm about devious behaviour by Beijing in the U.S., many are unwilling to give the newcomers the benefit of the doubt. 'I'm not saying China is going to invade the United States but, if we were to defend Taiwan, you have to think this is part of some plan or strategy - you'd be foolish not to,' said Mark Green, Republican chairman of the House committee on Homeland Security, in Congress.

His colleagues in the Senate warned last September that the influx posed a 'significant threat' to national security and claimed not one of the Chinese asylum seekers had been detained 'for any length of time', despite some of them having links with the Chinese Communist Party and People's Liberation Army.

Donald Trump has said he believes Beijing has directed men of military age to infiltrate the U.S, while tough-talking Florida governor Ron DeSantis has described rocketing Chinese migrant numbers as 'not normal', adding: 'Our country is being invaded.'

Even Nikki Haley, the rather more restrained former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who this week bowed out of the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, has expressed disquiet. 'China knows the easiest way into America is through our southern border,' she has said. 'Close the border. Protect our homeland.'

Concern is undoubtedly growing and was recently fuelled by Bret Weinstein, a controversial writer and evolutionary biologist, who reported encountering deeply suspicious signs of Chinese government involvement during a visit to the Darien Gap region on the Panama-Colombia border.

Plagued by poisonous snakes, raging rivers and armed robbers, this notoriously dangerous jungle has become a bottleneck for migrants heading north.

The Panamanian government has set up transit camps for them, including at least one specifically for Chinese citizens, said Weinstein. While he and his companions were permitted to enter other camps and film the occupants, they were denied entry to the Chinese one.

Its inmates were mainly young men and, when Weinstein approached some as they ventured out to buy provisions, he found them wary and hostile. 'It's not a friendly migration,' concluded Weinstein.

He believes the Chinese may even be preparing for war: 'I have to wonder if this might not be a military force waiting for orders that is being deployed covertly in the midst of a migration that makes it hard for us to recognise it.'

Weinstein added: 'I think we have to stop punishing ourselves for considering things that once seemed crazy.'

And politicians aren't the only people taking the issue very seriously: some national security experts are, too.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents rank-and-file Border Patrol agents, confirms that the majority of the Chinese border crossers are single adult males of military age.

'That is a very scary prospect,' he said. 'We know that China does not like us, we know that we are in the crosshairs of China.

'At best, they're just coming here for a better life or for a better job. At worst, they're coming here [as] part of the Chinese government.'

Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst in Washington DC, told the Mail she considers the Chinese migrant numbers 'truly shocking', although she said it wasn't unusual for them to be disproportionately young men - particularly given the rigours of the long journey they had undertaken from their homeland.

Rather than engineering the migration wave itself, she believes it is more likely that Beijing is trying to slip its agents in among ordinary Chinese asylum seekers.

'It's got to be very tempting for any Chinese spymaster to see this flow [of migrants] and just join in,' she said. 'Even if 95 per cent of these Chinese migrants are "no worries", you've still got a real potential for a few to be up to no good.'

She added: 'We know that [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is sparing no effort to spy on, degrade and challenge the U.S. in every way. In espionage it's always about getting your assets in - why wouldn't they take advantage of this?'

What they could be 'taking advantage of', say experts, is the chaos of the U.S. immigration processing system and the difficulty the FBI has in checking the identity of undocumented migrants, who routinely destroy their passports so they can't be deported.

And if they are hostile foreign agents, what could they do in the U.S.?

Experts cite various covert activities, including espionage, coercion, counter-intelligence, cyber hacking and surveillance.

If the two countries were to get involved in a war - most likely if China invades independent Taiwan - this list could be extended to include sabotage.

'What we know already is that the Chinese are seeking vulnerabilities in our infrastructure, whether that 's power grid, cyber, you name it,' said a national security analyst.

'We know they want to do things like watch take-offs and landings at military bases, we know they are seeking ways to infiltrate in cyberspace . . . so [the migrants] can very easily flow into any ongoing operations that China is already running in the U.S.'

While there's endless coverage nowadays of the damage that can be done by internet hackers, much of America's infrastructure, such as dams and power grids, remains offline. 'So some of this still requires boots on the ground,' the analyst added.

Those boots may even end up being army boots. A new bill introduced in Congress last month - and obviously fuelling the unease - would allow undocumented migrants to serve in the U.S. military and so get U.S. citizenship in as little as 180 days.

The most memorable recent example of Chinese penetration of U.S. territory was the giant high-altitude balloon that flew across North American airspace in early 2023.

China insisted it was only a weather balloon blown off course but, after the U.S. shot it down as it 'drifted' near a highly sensitive air force base in Montana, they discovered it was packed with spying equipment.

Other intrusions have been more insidious. Chinese ownership of American farmland has soared 20-fold in a decade from £63 million in 2010 to £1.4 billion in 2020.

Several Chinese firms have in recent years bought, or tried to buy, large plots of land near U.S. military bases.

In one of the most notorious cases, the city of Grand Forks in sparsely populated North Dakota announced in 2021 that Chinese company Fufeng Group wanted to build a giant corn mill there on a vast muddy stretch of land.

It was welcomed locally as a major economic development - until sceptics pointed out the 370-acre plot happened to be only 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base, home to some of America's key intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

After more than a year of heated discussions, during which Fufeng vehemently denied claims its mill would be used for spying or sabotage operations, the U.S. Air Force announced the project 'presents a significant threat to national security' and it was ended.

Washington's bipartisan suspicion of Chinese companies - which under Chinese law are required to bow to the demands of the Beijing regime - also extends to the online world.

Half of all U.S. states have banned Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok from government devices. The app is used by more than two-thirds of U.S. teenagers.

Critics also note that TikTok provides Chinese migrants with detailed instructions on where best to breach America's southern border, including at the San Judas Break, even listing where to find food and the location of lavatories.

Brendan Carr, a senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told the Mail that TikTok was a 'very significant threat' to the U.S. on various fronts.

First, he said it posed a serious national security threat as, contrary to TikTok's assurances, all the data collected on the platform is sent back to China and allegedly analysed by Communist Party operatives.

Further, Mr Carr said TikTok allowed the Beijing regime's propaganda arm to covertly criticise U.S. politicians ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections and is a crucial tool in improving China's artificial intelligence capabilities.

Meanwhile, Beijing is determined to get its hooks not only into Chinese companies but also into Chinese citizens living abroad.

In 2022, the existence of a U.S.-wide network of covert Chinese police stations was revealed by the FBI.

These very unofficial outposts - including one hidden above a restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown - have allegedly been collecting intelligence, investigating 'crimes' against the Chinese state and intimidating expats.

Beijing, say observers, is tightening its grip on nationals who have left the country, especially those with family in China.

The U.S. prides itself on being a nation of immigrants. But as more and more Chinese nationals flood through its southern border, it's not hard to see why these latest arrivals are finding America in a distinctly unwelcoming mood.

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Are Chinese 'migrants' flooding into the U.S really a 'sleeper army'?

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Topped with razor wire that glints menacingly in the desert sun, a 30ft steel fence runs along part of the vast U.S.-Mexican border

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Liberal media narratives about immigrants seeking a better life and freedom abroad

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From China to New York, by Way of the Southern Border

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Thousands of Chinese migrants have made their way to Queens, Brooklyn and Chinatown after first passing through Central and South America.

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Documents of Chinese individuals, their stories and why they chose to leave China

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Chinese asylum seekers are risking it all for the American dream

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Chinese asylum seekers are entering the US via a dangerous route through Latin America. 101 East investigates.

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The Violence of Asylum: The Case of Undocumented Chinese Migration to the US

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History of undocumented Chinese immigrants and its relationship to asylum, which created problems in this ethnic community

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Individual stories detailing the entire process

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SAN DIEGO (AP) - The young Chinese man looked lost and exhausted when Border Patrol agents left him at a transit station. Deng Guangsen, 28, had spent the last two months traveling to San Diego from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, through seven countries on plane, bus and foot, including traversing Panama's dangerous Darién Gap jungle.

"I feel nothing," Deng said in the San Diego parking lot, insisting on using the broken English he learned from "Harry Potter" movies. "I have no brother, no sister. I have nobody."

Deng is part of a major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route that has become increasingly popular with the help of social media. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year, according to Panamanian immigration authorities.

Chinese asylum-seekers who spoke to The Associated Press, as well as observers, say they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.

They also reflect a broader presence of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border - Asians, South Americans and Africans - who made September the second-highest month of illegal crossings and the U.S. government's 2023 budget year the second-highest on record.

The pandemic and China's COVID-19 policies, which included tight border controls, temporarily stemmed the exodus that rose dramatically in 2018 when President Xi Jinping amended the constitution to scrap the presidential term limit. Now emigration has resumed, with China's economy struggling to rebound and youth unemployment high. The United Nations has projected China will lose 310,000 people through emigration this year, compared with 120,000 in 2012.

It has become known as "runxue," or the study of running away. The term started as a way to get around censorship, using a Chinese character whose pronunciation spells like the English word "run" but means "moistening." Now it's an internet meme.

"This wave of emigration reflects despair toward China," Cai Xia, editor-in-chief of the online commentary site of Yibao and a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.

"They've lost hope for the future of the country," said Cai, who now lives in the U.S. "You see among them the educated and the uneducated, white-collar workers, as well as small business owners, and those from well-off families."

Those who can't get a visa are finding other ways to flee the world's most populous nation. Many are showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum. The Border Patrol made 22,187 arrests of Chinese for crossing the border illegally from Mexico from January through September, nearly 13 times the same period in 2022.

Arrests of Chinese people peaked at 4,010 in September, up 70% from August to become the ninth-highest nationality at the U.S. border and the highest outside of Mexico, Central and South America. The vast majority were single adults.

The popular route to the U.S. is through Ecuador, which has no visa requirements for Chinese nationals. Migrants from China join Latin Americans there to trek north through the once-impenetrable Darién and across several Central American countries before reaching the U.S. border. The journey is well-known enough it has its own name in Chinese: walk the line, or "zouxian."

The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing the Darién has been rising gradually, from 913 in January to 2,588 in September. For the first nine months of this year, Panamanian immigration authorities registered 15,567 Chinese citizens crossing the Darién. By comparison, 2,005 Chinese people trekked through the rainforest in 2022, and just 376 in total from 2010 to 2021.

Short video platforms and messaging apps provide not only on-the-ground video clips but also step-by-step guides from China to the U.S., including tips on what to pack, where to find guides, how to survive the jungle, which hotels to stay at, how much to bribe police in different countries and what to do when encountering U.S. immigration officers.

Translation apps allow migrants to navigate through Central America on their own, even if they don't speak Spanish or English. The journey can cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, paid for with family savings or even online loans.

It's markedly different from the days when Chinese nationals paid smugglers, known as snakeheads, and traveled in groups.

With more financial resources, Xi Yan, 46, and her daughter Song Siming, 24, didn't trek the Ecuador-Mexico route, but instead flew into Mexico via Europe. With help from a local guide, the two women crossed the border at Mexicali into the U.S. in April.

"The unemployment rate is very high. People cannot find work," said Xi Yan, a Chinese writer. "For small business owners, they cannot sustain their businesses."

Xi Yan said she decided to leave China in March, when she traveled to the southern city of Foshan to see her mother but had to leave the next day when state security agents and police officers harassed her brother and told him that his sister was not allowed in the city. She realized she was still on the state blacklist, six years after being detained for gathering at a seaside spot to remember Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel peace laureate who died in a Chinese prison. In 2015, she was locked up for 25 days over an online post remembering the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

Her daughter, Song, agreed to leave with her. A college graduate, the daughter struggled to find work in China and became depressed, the mother said.

Despite the challenges to survive in the U.S., Xi Yan said it was worth it.

"We have freedom," she said. "I used to get nervous whenever there was a police car. Now, I don't have to worry about it anymore."

Migrants hoping to enter the U.S. at San Diego wait for agents to pick them up in an area between two border walls or in remote mountains east of the city covered with shrubs and large boulders.

Many migrants are released with court dates in cities nearest their final destination in a bottlenecked system that takes years to decide cases. Chinese migrants had an asylum grant rate of 33% in the 2022 budget year, compared with 46% for all nationalities, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Catholic Charities of San Diego uses hotels to provide shelters for migrants, including 1,223 from China in September. The average shelter stay is a day and a half among all nationalities. For Chinese visitors, it's less than a day.

"They get dropped off in the morning. By afternoon they are looking to reunite with their families. They're going to New York, they're going to Chicago, they're going to all kinds of places," said Vino Pajanor, the group's chief executive. "They don't want to be in a shelter."

In September, 98% of U.S. border arrests of Chinese people occurred in the San Diego area. At the transit stop, migrants charge phones, snack, browse piles of free clothing and get travel advice.

Signs at portable bathrooms and information booths and a volunteer's loudspeaker announcements about free airport shuttles are translated to multiple languages, including Mandarin. Taxi drivers offer rides to Los Angeles.

Many migrants who spoke to the AP did not give their full names out of fear of drawing attention to their cases. Some said they came for economic reasons and paid 300,000 to 400,000 yuan ($41,000 to $56,000 for the trip).

In recent weeks, Chinese migrants have filled makeshift encampments in the California desert as they wait to turn themselves in to U.S. authorities to make asylum claims.

Near the small town of Jacumba, hundreds huddled in the shadow of a section of border wall and under crude tarps. Others tried to sleep on large boulders or under the few trees there. Small campfires keep them warm overnight. Without food or running water, the migrants rely on volunteers who distribute bottled water, hot oatmeal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Chen Yixiao said he endured a hard journey to come to the U.S. He said life had become difficult back home, with some migrants experiencing issues with the government and others failing in business.

"I'm very happy to be in the U.S. now. This is my dream country," said Chen, who planned to join his relatives in New York and find work there.

At San Diego's transit station, Deng planned to head to Monterey Park, a Los Angeles suburb that became known as "Little Taipei" in the 1980s. Deng said he worked a job in Guangdong requiring him to ride motorcycles, which he considered unsafe. As he lingered at the transit station, sitting on a curb with his small backpack, several Africans approached to ask questions. He told them he arrived in the U.S. with $880 in his pockets.

When he didn't provide the Border Patrol with a U.S. address, an agent scheduled an initial immigration court appearance for him in New York in February. Deng tapped his meager savings for a one-way flight to New York. He ended up with thousands of other migrants at a tent shelter on the city's Randall's Island, unsure of his next move.

___

Tang reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Christopher Sherman in Mexico City and Eugene Garcia in San Diego contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP's global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

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As economy falters, more Chinese migrants take a perilous journey to the US border to seek asylum

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A major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route through Panama's Darién Gap jungle has become increasingly popular thanks to social media.

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Concerns of the use of social media in encouraging the situation

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Filed: April 28, 2023, 10 a.m. GMT

Lihua Wu's journey to the United States started when she scrolled past the words "The Route," one of several common hashtags on Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, advising migrants on the irregular overland trek across Latin America to the United States, also known online as "the Big Beautiful."

By the time the single mother and her five-year-old daughter were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol on a dirt road near the U.S.-Mexico border just before midnight on April 2, Wu said she had relied on social media for detailed instructions for her trip, including footwear (Crocs as well as hiking boots) and how to find and pay for a reliable local guide.

The difficulty of obtaining U.S. visas and the economic after-shocks of China's COVID lockdowns have led to a sharp increase in Chinese nationals presenting at the U.S.-Mexico border - and some of those arrivals, like Wu, learned about how to come online, migrants, immigration experts, attorneys, and current and former U.S. officials, told Reuters.

Over the course of three weeks photographing and reporting from a remote border stretch in southeastern Texas, Reuters witnessed hundreds of Chinese migrants crossing into the United States and interviewed more than two dozen in Mandarin.

All of those interviewed said they got the idea to take the land route to the United States on social media and drew on influencers, private groups and comments to plan their trips.

About half said they had been small business owners in China: running online stores, a sheep farm, a movie production company.

Some wore crosses and carried Chinese-language bibles, saying they were Christians who felt they could not freely practice their religion at home. China's constitution guarantees religious freedom, but in recent years critics including the U.S. government say Beijing has tightened restrictions on religions seen as a challenge to the authority of the ruling Communist party.

Chinese migrants trek overland to the United States

An increasing number of Chinese nationals are making the 2,300 mile (3,700 km) irregular journey overland to the U.S.- Mexico border after flying to Ecuador, where they can enter without a visa.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said in an email that the government opposes illegal migration, which "is an international issue that requires cooperation between countries." It did not respond to a request for comment on the issue of religious freedom.

Short video app Douyin, owned by TikTok owner ByteDance, is one of the main sources of the Chinese tech giant's revenue overall, Reuters previously reported. ByteDance, which also owns Xigua Video, did not respond to requests for comments.

Apprehensions of Chinese nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border reached more than 6,500 in the six months since October 2022, the highest on record and a more than 15-fold increase over the same period a year ago, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

While just a sliver of the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving at the southwest border, Chinese people were the fastest growing demographic in those six months, CBP data show.

In a March 16 tweet, CBP Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez in the Rio Grande Valley sector that includes Fronton said the increase was "creating a strain on our workforce due to the complexities of the language barrier & lengthens the processing."

CBP said in a statement that it works with inter-agency task forces to track increasing migration and target "transnational criminal organizations who are smuggling Chinese migrants, specifically." The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CBP, has said that social media and other online platforms have increased smugglers' access to potential migrants, creating an environment ripe for manipulation , which the agency has tried to combat with social media campaigns.

Even before her business collapsed, Wu said she had considered emigration as an escape from the discrimination she said she experienced as an unmarried single mother. Her decision to leave China solidified during a COVID-related lockdown in October, November and December, which devastated the online makeup wholesaler she ran from the eastern city of Yiwu.

When COVID controls curbed package deliveries in China, Wu said her sales slumped from around six million yuan ($871,000) to one million yuan ($145,000).

Wu initially thought about getting a U.S. tourist visa and overstaying, but a travel agent advised she was unlikely to get a visa as a single mother.

Refusal rates among Chinese nationals for the most common U.S. visitor visas reached 80% in fiscal year 2021 and more than 30% in 2022, the two highest years on record, according to State Department data. While U.S. visa issuance globally has mostly recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the number of U.S. visas issued from China last year remained 90% below 2019's pre-pandemic levels.

Visa holders and border crossers can request U.S. asylum on arrival if they fear persecution at home. Asylum seekers from China won in U.S. immigration court 58% of the time, according to U.S. Justice Department data.

The State Department in an emailed statement said 2021 and 2022 "were not standard years." It said visa issuances were expected to increase as China "catches up on its passport backlog and air travel resumes after the end of the zero-COVID policy."

Other Chinese nationals, like Wu, didn't wait.

Scrolling through her social media feeds, Wu came across "Baozai," an internet personality who gained tens of thousands of followers on Douyin, Xigua Video, YouTube and Twitter by posting videos about his migration to the United States.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm Baozai's identity and in messages to Reuters, he denied being an influencer and said he was just a migrant.

Baozai's original account "Baozai adventure the world alone" is shown as "blocked" on Douyin for violating "community self-discipline regulations."

He is now posting under a new account with the same name on Douyin, sticking to content about his life in the United States.

Douyin did not respond to a request for comment on Baozai.

Wu said she sold her secondhand BMW and borrowed about 10,000 yuan ($1,450) from family and friends. She and her daughter flew to Ecuador - where Chinese nationals can enter visa free - and, acting on advice she found on Douyin, sought out a vaccination for yellow fever.

It was a good idea before heading into the treacherous jungle region on the border of Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap, she had learned.

At the clinic in Quito Wu found a group of Chinese migrants who had contacted a local Colombian guide known only by his first name, "Carlos."

"He is an internet celebrity in China," Wu said.

Wu and several other migrants said Carlos and his associates charged around $1,230 per adult and $700 per child to arrange travel and hotels from Ecuador to Panama including a guided trek through the Darien.

Jungle tents and horses were also available for part of the trip for an extra fee, Wu and the other migrants said.

A Reuters reporter contacted a Colombian man through a number shared on Douyin who answered when addressed as Carlos. Carlos, who declined to give his full name and said he did not illegally smuggle anyone across borders or take money from migrants. But he said he did help some Chinese people looking for bus and ferry tickets.

"Last year I did a favor for a Chinese man who was lost. I helped him find a ride, and then through that, my number was shared." He said he refers callers to a friend in Ecuador who is a bus driver, whom he did not identify. "I don't accompany anyone, I don't want any problems with my country or with the law," he said. Reuters was unable to independently confirm his account.

Reuters found other social media accounts giving advice in Mandarin on crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

An April 7 Twitter post from an account called Lee Gaga said smugglers mark the location of U.S. Border Patrol agents on maps and advise migrants on how to surrender to them. In posts and in messages exchanged with Reuters, the Twitter user identified as Lee Gaga said he was now in the New York City area after a 37-day journey.

"Of course you can try and run, but that's not recommended," the post said. Twitter is blocked in China, but users may be able to access the platform through VPNs, or virtual private networks, that allow internet users to access overseas sites barred by authorities.

The Twitter poster went on: "I was released only after three days and three nights. I got lucky because the border policy has been good lately."

The Wider Image
Photography and photo editing: Reuters Staff

Reporting: Echo Wang and Mica Rosenberg

Additional reporting: Michael Martina and Ted Hesson in Washington, David Kirton in Shenzhen and Brenda Goh in Shanghai, China, Sheila Dang in Dallas, Alexandra Valencia in Quito and Elida Moreno in Panama City

Text editing: Suzanne Goldenberg

Design: Eve Watling

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Migrants use Chinese version of TikTok for tips on long trek to U.S.

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The difficulty of obtaining U.S. visas and the economic after-shocks of China's COVID lockdowns have led to a sharp increase in Chinese nationals presenting at the U.S.-Mexico border - and some of those arrivals learned about how to come online, migrants, immigration experts, attorneys, and current and former U.S.

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Statistics comparing with the past Chinese immigrant trend, pointing out how it is different

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Growing Numbers of Chinese Migrants Are Crossing the Southern Border

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More than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been apprehended crossing into the United States from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the preceding 10 years combined.

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People live broadcast their experiences of crossing borders on Tiktok. The number of people who have similar experiences to him is shocking.

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百万大军已经集结完毕 随时准备 进入美利坚#美国#偷渡#走线#国外#国人在海外 #中国人 #老外#海外 

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@skydagege0
百万大军已经集结完毕 随时准备 进入美利坚#美国#偷渡#走线#国外#国人在海外 #中国人 #老外#海外
♬ 你的爱会留下深刻的印记 - 哈妮克孜

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How social media played a central role in helping these immigrants reaching the broader

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The chain of interests behind helping Chinese immigrants cross the border, how different groups benefited from it

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China-US migration: How an underground industry is helping people illegally cross the border | CNN

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They come with backpacks carrying a few spare changes of clothes and whatever money and phones they weren't robbed of by criminals or cartels along the way, arriving at the United States-Mexico border exhausted from the stress of the journey north.

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Economical factors played in the current Chinese immigration wave

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International relations

Their encounters with American authorities jumped 10-fold in 2023

MASAHIRO OKOSHI, Nikkei Washington bureau chief

JACUMBA, California -- The number of Chinese migrants detained while attempting to enter the U.S. via Mexico has multiplied, with the desperate economic situation back home a major driver, interviews at a holding encampment in southern California show.

"We spent two and a half days walking through a rainforest -- two and a half days," said a 10-year-old boy who proudly recounted his family's life-or-death journey before crossing into the U.S. at dawn on Feb. 4.

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Chinese migrants flock to U.S.-Mexico border on economic pressures

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JACUMBA, California -- The number of Chinese migrants detained while attempting to enter the U.S. via Mexico has multiplied, with the desperate econom

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The complex attitude of the Chinese government intertwines legal and international relationships.

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The diversity within the Chinese American community and the different attitudes towards immigration between asylum seekers and others who have legally obtained immigration status

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Hongling Zhou came to Maryland for a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and then waited 14 years to become a U.S. citizen.

"It was not easy, but we did it with dignity," she told a Maryland state Senate committee last month. Zhou, a statistician for a federal agency and the mother of two Howard County schoolchildren, said that's the way immigrants should come to the United States.

"Everybody should follow the law of the land," Zhou said. "Nobody should be above the law."

As state and local lawmakers in Maryland consider proposals to protect undocumented immigrants by limiting cooperation with federal authorities, some of the most persistent and passionate voices in opposition have been Chinese American.

Organized under the banners of groups such as the Maryland Chinese American Network and the Asian American GOP Coalition, they have testified by the dozens against the Maryland Trust Act, which would bar the use of state and local funds to aid federal immigration enforcement. It would also prohibit police from asking about immigration status during traffic stops or other activities.

Of the 32 speakers opposed to the bill at last month's state House Judiciary Committee hearing, 27 were Chinese Americans. They turned out in similar numbers at a marathon Rockville City Council session on March 6, speaking against a bill that would codify existing policies barring police from enforcing federal immigration law. The same groups organized to fight a similar measure that narrowly passed the Howard County Council in February before it was vetoed by County Executive Allan H. Kittleman (R).

It is an unusual burst of activism from a community of mostly first-generation immigrants, concentrated in Montgomery and Howard counties, who otherwise have largely avoided engagement with local issues. And it is activism that places them at odds with the stance of more traditional Asian American advocacy groups.

Leaders of the movement say President Trump's aggressive immigration agenda has resonated with at least a segment of the roughly 60,000 Chinese Americans in the Maryland suburbs. They depict undocumented immigrants as a source of increased crime - a claim not supported by local or national data - and a financial drain on schools. The prospect of enhanced protection for those here illegally seems to offend this particular group of immigrants at a core level.

Hong Chen told Rockville council members that he traveled to Canada rather than remain in the country illegally when his visa expired in 1996. He was able to return when his wife received an H-1B visa, designed for foreign workers with specialized skills.

"Local government should not pick and choose which laws to enforce," said Chen, 55, who lives in Potomac and manages a dental office.

The advocates' outspoken stance has placed them at odds with the mainstream of Asian American civil rights groups and elected leaders, who generally support "sanctuary" communities and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

They say the Asian American groups in Maryland have been blinded to the struggles of others by their comfortable existence in two of the country's wealthiest counties, supported by advanced degrees and business success.

"Right now, sitting in the luxury of our own homes, it's easy to frame this in the context of 'us' (the Asian American community) and 'them' (predominantly the Latino community, but others as well)," state Del. Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard), one of 78 House co-sponsors of the Trust Act, wrote in an open letter to constituents last month. "This is easy to do because most of the undocumented people we see locally in Maryland are Latinos."

Lam, a physician and son of Chinese immigrants, said the national data should actually be a wake-up call: Asian Americans are the fastest-growing part of the undocumented population, totaling 1.5 million of the estimated 11 million who have entered the country illegally.

"While 'they' are not 'us' right now, we could soon be 'them,' " Lam wrote. "The outpouring of animosity and anger that we're seeing now . . . could continue to turn toward us."

State Sen. Susan C. Lee (D-Montgomery), a second-generation Chinese immigrant and Trust Act co-sponsor, confronted the activists in Annapolis on Feb. 21, shortly before a hearing on the bill, which as of Monday was advancing through the House.

"You are Chinese immigrants? You are against this bill? Where is your heart?" Lee said, according to Zhou and Cheng Tu, advocacy director for the Maryland Chinese American Network, both of whom attended the hearing.

The discussion grew so heated that the Chinese American delegation was asked to leave the hearing room, Zhou and Tu said. They were allowed back later to testify.

"I am totally fine that she feels strongly about this," said Tu, who came to Maryland from Hangzhou in 1995 to study engineering. "I am not fine that she tried to discourage people in the community who have different opinions."

Lee said that there was no attempt to discourage their testimony and that she only expressed surprise at their presence. "I thought we left as friends," she said. "I was glad and proud that they came."

Janelle Wong, director of the Asian American Studies Program and professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, said the Montgomery-Howard group is a "a small, vocal opposition to immigrant rights" that does not represent the entire community.

"Part of the problem is that Asian Americans are not mobilized around many issues by political parties or candidates. So they're highly visible when they do get involved," said Wong, who conducted a survey with two University of California at Los Angeles political scientists after the 2016 election that showed 16 percent of Asian Americans think undocumented immigrants should be immediately deported.

Age and life experience may be drivers of the debate, some experts said. Many of the activists came to the United States 20 to 30 years ago and may be less familiar with the long history of laws that virtually banned all Chinese immigration - and naturalization of those already here - from the 1880s through the 1940s.

"They have had a harder time understanding some of the experiences of undocumented immigrants within a larger civil rights context," said Kham Moua, senior manager of policy and communications for OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates.

The Chinese American advocates said they first mobilized politically on issues involving schools. In early 2016, parents gathered signatures to name a new Clarksburg-Damascus middle school after Alan Cheung, the first Asian American elected to the Montgomery County Board of Education. The board ultimately named the school for Clarksburg philanthropist Hallie Wells.

Last summer, a Montgomery Chinese parents' group challenged a school system report that included recommendations for increased diversity in gifted and talented programs by changing admissions policies. Asian American students are overrepresented in the programs compared with their share of the district's enrollment (14 percent). The school system has not yet acted on the portion of the report covering diversity issues.

Tu said his group intends to stay in the local arena and is considering formation of a political action committee for the 2018 election cycle.

"I want to be a full American," he said.

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These first-generation Chinese Americans are vigorously opposing sanctuary laws

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Hongling Zhou came to Maryland for a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and then waited 14 years to become a U.S. citizen. "It was not easy, but we did it with dignity," she told a Maryland state Senate committee last month.

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The industrial chain that helps immigrants cross borders and apply for asylum has, to a certain extent, given rise to the current immigration wave

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Inside the shadowy industries profiting off Chinese asylum seekers in the US | 101 East Documentary

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A rising trend...

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Types of concerning...

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In the midst of a culture war...

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Social media given new role...

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American Dream is sanctified for many due to misinformation and disillusionment of China

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#环球旅行 #美国 #美签 #走线 中国人刚进入美国直接给美国下跪了？

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@spencer8962zhao
#环球旅行 #美国 #美签 #走线 中国人刚进入美国直接给美国下跪了？
♬ original sound - 赵哥在纽约

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A denied sanctuary...

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Navigating the immigration maze

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A "choose your own adventure" showing the plight of Chinese migrants once they reached the US

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Turn data collection into an experience with Typeform. Create beautiful online forms, surveys, quizzes, and so much more. Try it for FREE.

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The labor rights of undocumented immigrants and what rights they do not have, nothing how the idea of knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants can lead to legal dilemmas

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Download this page as a PDF

What legal rights do I have as an undocumented worker?

With a few exceptions, undocumented workers enjoy all of the legal rights and remedies provided by both Federal and California law. (The exceptions to this general rule, mainly in the areas of unemployment insurance and union organizing, are discussed below.)

I am undocumented and have lost my job or suffered other hardship because of COVID-19. Are there any government benefits available to me in California?

Starting on May 18, 2020, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) will provide one-time $500 grants to persons 19 and older who can show that they: (1) are undocumented; (2) are not eligible for federal COVID-19 related assistance; and (3) have experienced hardship because of COVID-19. A maximum of two persons per household can receive funding under this program, which is known as the "Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants Project" (DRAI). No one's personal information will be shared with any government agency.

The CDSS has selected twelve non-profit organizations across the state to help individuals apply for and receive these disaster relief funds. (Legal Aid at Work is not one of the designated non-profits.)

Individuals can apply for DRAI funds starting on May 18, 2020. To do so, they should contact the nonprofit organ

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Employment Rights of Undocumented Workers

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With a few exceptions, undocumented workers enjoy all of the legal rights and remedies provided by both Federal and California law (with some exceptions).

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Immigrant groups that are not in the eyes of mainstream media have their own difficulties to face.

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Credit... Talia Herman for The New York Times

President Trump has focused on blocking unauthorized crossings on the Southern border. But nearly half of those who are in the country unlawfully actually entered with permission.

Credit... Talia Herman for The New York Times

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Eddie Oh, an industrial engineer, lost his job during the financial crisis that gripped South Korea in 1998. With no prospects, he scrounged together his savings to pay his family's airfare to California. They were going on vacation, he told the United States embassy, which issued six-month visitor visas for the family.

The Ohs headed to Sunnyvale, a middle-class community in California's Silicon Valley where a relative already had rented a small apartment. The Ohs moved in, nine people crammed into two rooms. Mr. Oh got to work painting houses. His wife found a job as a waitress. And their children, Eli, 11, and Sue, 9, started school.

"We were constantly in debt. We struggled to pay the rent," said Eli Oh, who grew up to be a critical-care response nurse at Stanford University. "Nobody ever thought we were illegally here because we didn't fit the stereotype."

They are hardly alone. Though President Trump has staked much of his presidency on halting the movement of undocumented immigrants across the southern border, the Oh family's roundabout route to residence in the United States is part of one of America's least widely known immigration stories.

Some 350,000 travelers arrive by air in the United States each day. From Asia, South America and Africa, they come mostly with visas allowing them to tour, study, do business or attend a conference for an authorized period of time. But when they stay beyond when their visas expire, some of them fall into the same illegal status often associated with migrants showing up at the border.

Nearly half of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the country did not trek through the desert or wade across the Rio Grande to enter the country; they flew in with a visa, passed inspection at the airport - and stayed.

Of the roughly 3.5 million undocumented immigrants who entered the country between 2010 and 2017, 65 percent arrived with full permission stamped into their passports, according to new figures compiled by the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank. During that period, more overstayers arrived from India than from any other country.

"A big overlooked immigration story is that twice as many people came in with a visa than came across the border illegally in recent years," said Robert Warren, the demographer who calculated overstay estimates by using the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey and shared those figures with The New York Times.

As Mr. Trump has called for hiring thousands of new Border Patrol agents and erecting miles of new fencing, federal immigration authorities have devoted relatively few resources toward the much larger numbers of undocumented immigrants who have overstayed their visas.

The Department of Homeland Security said it has succeeded in bringing the number of visa overstayers down slightly over the past two years, but enforcement is difficult because authorities are only beginning to gain access to better data on who has and has not flown out of the country.

"Once they are in the country, they are home free because there is so little interior enforcement," said Jessica Vaughan, a former federal visa officer who is now policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies for restricting immigration.

Overstayers represent about 46 percent of the 10.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to the migration center's data. This is not necessarily because of a huge jump in the number of people overstaying their visas; rather, their proportion of the undocumented population has soared amid a huge decline in border crossings since 2000.

The largest number of overstayers - about 1 million - hail from Mexico, a neighboring country with a long history of commercial and family ties and substantial flows of people across the border. But the picture is changing. Between 2010 and 2017, 330,000 Indians overstayed their visas, more than from any other country. Large numbers of people from China, Venezuela, the Philippines, Brazil and Colombia also overstayed.

Many undocumented Asians - including a large number from India - have settled like the Ohs in and around Sunnyvale, about 50 miles southeast of San Francisco, according to the Center for Migration Studies analysis.

Apple, LinkedIn and other tech titans in the area employ many whom the companies have sponsored for legal work visas or permanent residency in the United States.

Some of them stay on as independent programming contractors after their visas have expired or after leaving a company that sponsored them for a visa.

But they are only part of the story. Many undocumented Indians here in Sunnyvale have low-skilled service jobs, catering to their well-heeled brethren who frequent the Indian supermarkets, eateries and clothing shops that line El Camino Real, the main commercial corridor.

Image

Sarika Johari shopped for jewelry at Sagar Exclusive, a store specializing in Indian clothing and jewelry, in Sunnyvale, Calif. Credit... Talia Herman for The New York Times

They are people like S. Singh, 24, who works at a diner where the Indian lunch crowd on a recent afternoon dined on spicy lentils and spinach with flatbread and sipped masala chai. Mr. Singh, who like most others interviewed for this story declined to share his full name, said that he had arrived as a tourist two years ago.

At Indian grocery stores nearby, Indian workers arranged shelves stocked with Taj Mahal tea, basmati rice and canned Kesar mangoes. They hesitated to answer questions, beyond saying that they had entered as tourists. One of them said that he had come on a student visa that had expired.

Inside a closed restaurant on a recent afternoon, two Indian men and two Indian women workers slept before dinner service, their bodies draped over a long bench where patrons would later be seated. Ankit, an Indian engineer on a work visa who had hoped to grab a bite, only to realize it was too early, surmised that they were undocumented - just like the Indian Uber driver who had brought him there.

"There are no legal pathways for people working in restaurants and grocery stores," he said. "These workers are coming for a better life."

The government reported that nearly 670,000 travelers who arrived by air or sea and were supposed to depart in the 2018 fiscal year had not left by Sept. 30, 2018. That number had dropped to nearly 415,700 by March 2019, because many people overstay by just a few months.

But developing policies to curb overstays requires accurate data, experts say, and Homeland Security officials still lack a reliable system to track them.

Most travelers are photographed and fingerprinted at American consulates abroad when they receive a visa and then again on arrival in the United States. But Customs and Border Protection still depends overwhelmingly on biographical information from the manifests of departing travelers, provided by airlines, to tally who did not leave in time, or at all.

In 2016, federal officials began working with airlines and airport authorities to install a biometric facial-comparison system at departure gates. A digital picture taken of those boarding a plane to leave the country is compared to the one taken on their arrival.

Thus far, the program covers 4 to 5 percent of those departing by air each day, said John F. Wagner, a deputy assistant executive commissioner for Customs and Border Protection. He said in an interview that his agency hopes to cover 90 percent of departing travelers within three years.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which enforces immigration rules in the interior of the country, said that it puts a priority on identifying those who pose potential national security or public-safety threats. In fiscal 2018, its Homeland Security Investigations unit made 1,808 arrests in connection with visa-violation leads.

Many of those who overstay their visas do not intend to stay illegally, said Kalpana Peddibhotla, an immigration lawyer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"They entered with a specific purpose and fell out of status for a variety of reasons, only to realize there is no easy mechanism to correct their status violations," she said.

Graduates of American universities, allowed to remain in the United States for a period of time to work, run afoul of deadlines or commit errors on immigration forms which automatically render them deportable. Sometimes employers transfer foreign workers to a new site and fail to amend their paperwork, as required, which also cancels their legal status.

"They stay because they built their lives here, bought homes here, had children here," said Ms. Peddibhotla, who became familiar with Indian overstay cases while on the board of the South Asian Bar Association of North America.

Among Asians, in particular, being undocumented brings shame to the family. Like several others, the senior Mr. Oh, his wife and daughter, declined to be interviewed for this article even though the daughter has sponsored her parents for green cards since marrying an American.

"My parents are not proud of breaking the law," said Mr. Oh, who also now has a green card. "To this day, most of their church friends do not know they were undocumented."

In places like Sunnyvale, it is not hard for people to disguise their immigration status.

"Especially if they're not from Mexico or Latin America, no one suspects them of being undocumented," said Kathy Gin, executive director of Immigrants Rising, a San Francisco-based advocacy organization that works with undocumented youth.

"Their parents encourage them to keep their heads low, not share their stories, not speak out about immigration issues," said Ms. Gin.

Marilyn Omatang left Manila in 2004 with her eldest child, Dean, then 12, to join her husband, who had arrived in California two years earlier. "She told me we are going to Disneyland," recalled Dean, which they did.

But they had to remain in the United States to earn the money to provide for a special-needs child who required pricey medical care and for the schooling of three others, all living in the Philippines with relatives.

"With just a job at a 7-11, I could pay for the medical treatment and their education," said Ms. Omatang, 56, who rose to the position of manager, only to be let go after a co-worker reported to their boss that she was undocumented.

For more than a decade since then, she has been a caretaker to wealthy seniors in Silicon Valley, never revealing her status.

One of her employers, Ms. Omatang said, is a Trump supporter who favors a tough approach to undocumented immigration.

"I heard her say, 'just send all those illegal people back home,'" she said. "And I thought, 'Oh, oh. If you only knew.'"

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Who Are America's Undocumented Immigrants? You Might Not Recognize Them.

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President Trump has focused on blocking unauthorized crossings on the Southern border. But nearly half of those who are in the country unlawfully actually entered with permission. Credit... Talia Herman for The New York Times SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Eddie Oh, an industrial engineer, lost his job during the financial crisis that gripped South Korea in 1998.

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Some legal rights undocumented immigrants have, image what channel might needed to access these rights

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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) protects the rights of employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), regardless of immigration status.

Because immigration status is not relevant as to whether there has been a violation of the NLRA:

We will NOT ask you about your immigration status.

You DO NOT need to share any information with us about your immigration status.

You DO NOT need to share information about the status of your current/former coworkers.

If there is an ongoing NLRB investigation or enforcement action at a worksite, and you or your representative tells us that immigration relief is necessary at that worksite to protect workers who are, or may be willing to cooperate with the NLRB's investigation or enforcement action, but who may fear retaliation for doing so, you may make a request that the NLRB issue a Statement of Interest, which employees can use in requesting deferred action from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The NLRB will also consider completing U visa and T visa certifications, in appropriate cases.
Requests for Statement of Interest in Support of Deferred Action
Requests to the NLRB for a Statement of Interest for a particular worksite should be directed to any/all of the following: the Board Agent assigned to the case, the Immigration Coordinator in the Region, the Regional Director, and the Immigration Team ( Immigration.Team@nlrb.gov) in Washington, DC.

Requests should include the NLRB case number, the location of the worksite(s) involved in the NLRB action, and the employer's name(s) as it appears on paystubs or other documents.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your request (or accompanying information) within three business days, please call 202-273-2900 and ask to speak to a member of the Immigration Team.

Requesters should follow the same process for a request to the NLRB for an updated Statement of Interest, which is required if a worker wants to seek a renewal of their deferred action and employment authorization document from DHS. Please note that DHS says that workers should submit any subsequent request for deferred action to DHS, including the updated Statement of Interest from the labor agency, 120 days prior to the expiration of the original period of deferred action but no more than 180 days prior to the expiration of the original period of deferred action. More information can be found on the DHS Frequently Asked Questions website.
Requests for U and T visa certification
Requests for U and T visa certification should be directed to the any/all of the following: the Board Agent assigned to the case, the Immigration Coordinator in the Region, the Regional Director, and the Immigration Team ( Immigration.Team@nlrb.gov) in Washington, DC.

Requests should establish reasonable grounds for concluding that qualifying criminal activity has been committed, which has a nexus with an NLRB case investigated or litigated by an NLRB Regional Office. Specifically, the request should identify the underlying substantive elements of the qualifying criminal activity or activities and identify the evidence in support of those elements.
Other Resources
The NLRB has guidance and resources for immigrant workers:

Call 1-844-762-NLRB and ask to speak to a Regional Immigration Coordinators and/or email the Immigration Team in Washington DC ( Immigration.Team@nlrb.gov) with questions.

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Immigrant Worker Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) protects the rights of employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), regardless of immigration status. Because immigration status is not relevant as to whether there has been a violation of the NLRA:

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The widespread exploitation of undocumented labor in America and the legislative motivations behind it, the challenges in enforcing laws to combat it.

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Why Can’t We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works.

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Our broken immigration system is still the best option for many migrants — and U.S. employers.

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Some methods used to help undocumented immigrants fight labor exploitation, often from community organizing, unofficial

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Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $4.5 million on free legal services for undocumented workers involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations. The lawyers can help with their immigration cases.

California will begin paying for free legal help with immigration for undocumented farmworkers who are involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations, Gov. Gavin Newsom's office announced this week.

The $4.5 million pilot program will provide qualifying farmworkers with referrals for legal help with their immigration status.

Roughly half of California's farmworker population is believed to be undocumented.Fear of deportation and difficulties finding jobs can discourage workers from filing labor complaints or serving as witnesses in cases alleging unsafe work temperatures, wage theft, or employer retaliation for unionizing, officials said.

"Farmworkers are the backbone of our economy, and we won't stand by as bad actors use the threat of deportation as a form of exploitation," Newsom said in a press release. "In the absence of Congress modernizing our broken, outdated immigration system, California continues our efforts to support immigrant families."

State labor investigations into wage theft and other violations often take years to resolve, a CalMatters investigation revealed last year. Sometimes workers give up the battle.

Respecting immigrant rights

Farmworkers in labor investigations who qualify for the new state program will receive a direct referral to legal services organizations that already offer immigration services, such as the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County or the United Farm Workers Foundation, which spoke in support of the program.

The free legal services workers could receive include case review, legal advice and representation by an attorney, according to Newsom's office.

"The time is now for us to ensure that immigrant labor rights are upheld and respected," said Maria Elena De La Garza, executive director of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County. "We commend the state for supporting this pilot, which will help ensure that legal services are available and accessible through partnerships with trusted community-based organizations across California."

State officials did not answer questions about when the program would begin this year, which community organizations it would partner with, or how many cases the pilot program is expected to process.

Funding for the pilot program will come from the $45 million the state annually allocates for immigration services from the California Department of Social Services, said Erin Hickey, spokesperson for the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency. The state is still completing contracts with selected immigration service providers, she said.

Deferred deportation

State officials said the pilot program aligns with a new Biden administration policy that makes it easier for undocumented workers who are victims of labor rights violations to request deferred action from deportation. Because the federal Department of Homeland Security can't respond to all immigration violations, it exercises "prosecutorial discretion" to decide who to try to deport.

State officials said they won't ask for workers' immigration status, but noncitizens granted this deferred action may be eligible for work authorization.

"The time is now for us to ensure that immigrant labor rights are upheld and respected."
Maria Elena De La Garza, the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County

This year, California labor department officials began supporting undocumented workers' requests for prosecutorial discretion or deferred action from federal immigration officials, including when employers threaten workers with immigration enforcement to prevent workers from cooperating with state investigators.

"The Department of Industrial Relations' Labor Commissioner's Office ... was the first state agency to request deferred action from DHS for employees in an active investigation, and that request was successful," Hickey said. "This is an important process for undocumented workers to be aware of."

A point person assigned to the pilot program will help connect farmworkers with legal service providers. Other state labor agencies already have staffers working with federal immigration officials on prosecutorial discretion cases.

Assemblymember Esmerelda Soria, a Merced Democrat and new chairperson of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, said this is a welcome way to ensure farmworkers among her Central Valley constituents won't be exploited. Although other organizations serving farmworkers provide similar types of legal aid, she said, funding rarely matches the need.

"I think that in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, California acknowledges that we have a broken system," Soria told CalMatters. "Especially in the region that I represent, farmworkers are really the backbone of one of the largest agricultural economies in the country."

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this story

more on immigrant workers

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California's farmworkers in labor investigations will get free legal help with immigration

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New program will help farmworkers who complain of labor violations get legal assistance for their immigration case.

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A comprehensive investigation into why immigrants are exploited for labor in Chinese restaurants, and how they are exploited, pt1

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Editor's note: This is the first article in a two-part series by the author about agencies that profit from exploiting the labor of undocumented immigrants. Read the second part of this investigative report here.
The employment agency is nestled on the third floor above a shop in New York City. No sign outside suggests its existence. Inside, there is an undecorated, white-walled office where a dozen middle-aged Chinese immigrants sit and wait in nervous silence. The owner of the agency is a heavyset woman. She snacks on walnuts from a foam cup as she considers people's job requests.

"I have a job as a cook at a Vietnamese restaurant," she tells a man in his 50s.

"A Vietnamese restaurant?" he asks. "But I've never had Vietnamese food."

"It's just noodles," she says. "They use a different sauce than we do. That's all. Give them a call and try it out for a day."

He pays $60 for the job offer. I catch the tail end of this conversation. It is not clear where the restaurant is located.

"Were you smuggled in?" the agency owner asks me.

"No," I say.

I was born and raised in Maryland. My Mandarin has an American accent. I later realize it was a mistake to admit my legal status. The woman asks me a few questions about what type of restaurant jobs I want. She says she'll call me if anything comes up.

She doesn't call. Other employment agencies I contact also do not return my calls after hearing my Mandarin.

Some Chinese restaurants hire undocumented Chinese and Latino workers, pay them well below minimum wage and make them work 12-hour shifts six days a week but offer free housing and food. These workers often are packed at night into roach-infested apartments and houses. Sometimes they are forced to sleep on cardboard in the basements of restaurants. They make $800 to $2,000 a month-regardless of how many hours they work.

Much of their pay goes to fees charged by traffickers and smugglers-known in Chinese as "snakeheads"-and to private employment agencies that charge clients for finding them a job. The smugglers, like the agencies, do not advertise. Snakeheads charge $60,000 to $80,000 to smuggle someone into the United States. They have networks of enforcers, which means that, if you do not pay, you or your family members in China will be subject, until the money is paid, to beatings or even death.

Restaurant jobs in big cities fill up fast. There are more immigrants looking for work in cities, where wealthier customers tip generously. Most employment agencies in the area where I applied specialize in sending immigrants to jobs in remote towns where Chinese restaurants are often short of staff. Once offered a job, an immigrant often has to be on a bus within hours and can soon find him- or herself halfway across the country.

My legal status and my American-accented Mandarin are impediments. Labor trafficking, which can take place before the immigrant is smuggled into the country, is dependent on the powerlessness of the worker. Snakeheads routinely lie about jobs, wages and employment conditions, knowing that once workers are in the United States they are unable to appeal to law enforcement. It is also common for snakeheads and employers to confiscate passports and identity documents in order to hold workers hostage.

These snakeheads do not only traffic in Chinese workers. They routinely "buy" undocumented Latino workers who have crossed into the United States from Mexico and drive them to Chinese restaurants around the country where they, too, are held in bondage. Those who traffic human beings also often traffic drugs, carrying narcotics along with their human cargo across state lines.

"Employment agencies buy Mexicans at the border from smugglers and sell them to Chinese employers," said a former snakehead I'll call Edward, whom I interviewed in Atlanta. For one year, an employment agency paid Edward $2 per mile to pick up undocumented Latino immigrants from Fort Myers, Fla., and drive them to the agency in Georgia. The employment agency owner would pack the Latino migrants into crowded rooms in a nearby apartment complex while he waited for Chinese restaurant owners to purchase the immigrants like indentured servants.

"Chinese restaurant owners don't pay Mexicans for the first two months of work. They pay the smugglers instead," Edward told me. "They pay $1,000 per person, maybe $1,200 per person, to the smuggler."

After two months, restaurant owners typically begin to pay new Latino workers $800 a month. They tend to work in the kitchen, so they don't receive tips. In busy restaurants, experienced kitchen workers might eventually make up to $2,000 a month.

The employment agencies, restaurants and human smugglers have informal ties to one another, which makes it efficient to supply cheap labor but difficult for authorities to prosecute. Most of these labor agencies are never charged with trafficking.

I change my tactics when I enter a second employment agency in New York City. The office is not much larger than a walk-in closet.

"Hello, little sister," a woman greets me in Mandarin from behind the counter. The small space behind her counter is stuffed with notebooks, instant-noodle packs and an electric kettle.

I speak haltingly. I give vague answers about my ability to speak English. She doesn't ask about my immigration status.

I tell her I'm looking for a busgirl job. I decide on busgirl because I have limited Chinese writing skills and would struggle to write orders down in Chinese.

"The closest job is four hours away," she says.

"That's fine," I say.

She begins calling restaurant employers across North America and mumbles a few words to them before handing me the receiver. I get on the phone with a Chinese restaurant owner in Indiana."We'll pay $2,000 a month. Food and housing is on us," he says. "Everyone sleeps at my house. It's very nice. You can sleep upstairs with the girls. Or, if you want, you can sleep downstairs with me and the boys."

I wince.

Sexual harassment is commonplace for female immigrants working in Chinese restaurants. The hint was stated clearly. I knew from speaking with other women that if I arrived and did not have sex with the employer, I would probably be fired. These women say that in the group houses, the male employees openly watch pornography, pressure the women to have sex and masturbate in front of them.

Without legal status or documents, unable to speak English, dependent on employers for every necessity of life, including the ride to and from work, without the ability to send money home to families or make trips to the drugstore or the bank, these women are virtually enslaved. They know that should they resist the sexual desires of the boss they will be instantly penniless, homeless and subject to deportation. Being trapped in one of these houses where the men demand sexual service is my greatest fear.

The lewd restaurant owner decides not to hire me because I don't have enough experience.

The woman at the agency puts me on the phone with Chinese restaurant owners in Canada, Maryland and Alabama. They all say I don't have enough experience, or that I'm not from their region in China. The woman gives up and starts to interview other applicants clustered around her.

A Chinese man in his early 20s, wearing earphones, walks in. He asks if there are takeout delivery jobs. She says the closest job is four hours away. He walks out.

She offers agricultural jobs to an elderly couple. They say they are not physically able to do farm work.

Depending on one's age, legal status and English proficiency, these underground employment agencies offer jobs that range from farmer to dental assistant. Restaurant jobs, especially kitchen jobs, require the least amount of English and training. The most vulnerable immigrants are sent there.

I wait three more hours. The woman periodically calls other restaurants. I read the New York City Consumer Affairs Agency license and New York employment law posters plastered on the wall.

The posters include information about minimum wage. They explain that there is a maximum fee that employment agencies can charge for placing someone in a job. The fee cannot exceed 30 percent of a worker's first full-month salary. The agency is legally required to provide a refund if the job doesn't work out. These posters are in English and Spanish-but not in Chinese. I suspect I am the only person looking for work here who understands them.

Suddenly, the woman hands me the telephone and tells me to "sound confident." I speak with a Chinese buffet owner in Georgia. She tells me she's looking for someone from northern China because her current busboy is from there.

I'm hired. She tells me to get on the 8 p.m. bus that night and to bring black clothing. She abruptly hangs up.

I'm charged a $35 fee for this match. I'm supposed to pay the rest of the fees after I begin working. It is unclear how much I owe the agency in total.

The woman hands me a piece of paper with the phone numbers of the bus driver and the restaurant owner. Nothing is on it about employment terms. The wages, fees, deposit and balance are left blank. She tells me nothing about my employment rights.

I ask if I have free housing and food, since the owner in Georgia did not address the issue.

"Of course these restaurants give you free housing and food," she said with annoyance. "You'll have to work more than 10 hours a day. How can they not?"

"You don't even speak English very well," she tells me. "You have no experience. This is a very good deal for you. You should be grateful, little sister."
Amelia Pang is an award-winning journalist formerly with the Epoch Times.

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Who's in the Kitchen at Chinese Restaurants?: An Investigative Report, Part 1 - Truthdig

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In this installment, the author applies for a job at an exploitative employment agency-one of many of its kind-that colludes with human traffickers and capitalizes on powerless immigrants.

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A comprehensive investigation into why immigrants are exploited for labor in Chinese restaurants, and how they are exploited, pt2

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The Secret Cost of Chinese Buffets: An Investigative Report, Part 2 - Truthdig

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Passing as an undocumented worker seeking employment through covert channels, the author is bused to Georgia, where she experiences the long hours and scant pay thousands of others endure around the country.

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What had Chinese community in the past to counter this situation and how it worked

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On June 24, 1982, 20,000 garment workers-predominantly Chinese immigrant women-flooded the streets of New York City's Chinatown to demand fair wages, benefits, and worker conditions from their employers. When the workers reached Columbus Park, city councilmen and organizers delivered passionate speeches on the podium, urging employers to sign the newly revised International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) contract. One by one, Chinese employers rushed to sign, and by early afternoon every manufacturer agreed, marking a major win for Chinatown's garment workers.

Nearly two decades later, the strike is still known as one of the largest protests in the history of Chinatown. The success of the strike, however, remains overlooked, or, at best, forgotten by the popular imagination, says May Chen, one of the core ILGWU organizers of the strike. There was little media coverage on Asian Americans at the time, rendering Asian American-led movements and activism "invisible up to the millennium."

With the recent surge of attacks against Asians Americans-the byproduct of decades' worth of systemic racism and more recently, the racialization of COVID-19 as the "China Virus,"-a new wave of Asian American activism has emerged. While President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, more than 85 Asian American and LGBTQ+ groups criticized the legislation's focus on law enforcement-which has a dubious record when it comes to the protecting Asian American communities to begin with-for failing to address any of the root causes of anti-Asian violence, including economic inequality. In in an op-ed for The Seattle Times, professor Linh Thủy Nguyễn wrote: "We can name physical attacks and deaths as racist violence, why can't we name the system of racial capitalism that produces the economic precarity of living paycheck to paycheck an issue of violence, as well?"

Racial capitalism and economic precarity were at the heart of the 1982 ILGWU strike, which stands as a stark rebuke to the common misperception that Asian Americans are politically unengaged and largely unconcerned with issues like workers' rights. It's a story of how Asian American alliances and activism transformed the economic conditions of an industry that exploits marginalized immigrant women with lessons for activists to follow nearly 30 years later. And crucially, it's an example that illuminates how racial violence manifests in more subtle ways beyond hate crimes and violence.

Economic independence through the garment industry

In 1963, Chinatown's garment industry spanned 50 garment factories and employed a total of 2,000 workers. But after the Immigration and Naturalization Act eliminated the racial quota system that gave preference to western European immigrants and "skilled" workers in 1965, a new wave of Chinese immigration doubled the Chinese American population within a decade. Twenty years later, garment manufacturers sold between $150 and $200 million in annual merchandise-ranging from zippers and waistbands for sportswear to patterned dresses-with $100 million dollars on the payroll. Chinatown's garment industry boomed to include 500 garment manufacturers employing up to 25,000 workers, 80% of whom were Chinese women. The garment industry was an avenue to economic independence for these non-English speaking immigrants and a means to supplement their husbands' income.

However, wages were low, hours were long, injury was common, and crowded, unhygienic, poorly ventilated facilities led to the spread of viral and gastrointestinal disease among garment workers. Jay Mazur, former manager of the Local 23-25 chapter of the ILGWU, called the demands of the workplace " preposterous, unrealistic, and totally unacceptable," inspiring a new contract that called for higher pay, additional paid time off (holiday, sick leave, jury duty, etc.) and more robust health care and retirement benefits. Industries negotiated a contract with the union but Chinese manufacturers rejected it, fearing that their businesses would go bankrupt. ILGWU organizers like Chen decided to take matters to the streets, which culminated in the 1982 garment strike.

"Many employers thought they could prey on the ethnic sympathies of the workers and just say 'Look, we're all Chinese. You don't need the union, you can function without it,'" Chen said. "Thankfully, the workers and the union realized they would have a lot to lose if they gave it up."

Workers secured a more robust union contract and the strike galvanized Chinatown community members to be more politically active-Chen co-founded the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the first and only union for AAPI workers. The most significant impact of the strike, according to Chen, was how it transformed the cultural perception around Asian American women. Chinese women were once perceived as quiet, docile, and submissive; now they were seen speaking out against injustices in the workforce, actively participating in their union, and becoming leaders at local community organizations. Some women were even empowered to walk away from domestic violence.

"Chinatown, especially when I was working in the union in the 80s and 90s, was still really male dominated and chauvinistic," Chen said. "But the women of this community became much more outspoken ... that was pretty amazing to me."

New time and location, same working conditions

While the strike improved workplace conditions for Chinatown's garment workers, the garment industry took a severe hit during the globalization wave in the early '90s. U.S.-based Chinese manufacturers moved their production overseas for cheaper labor, and new media companies gentrified remaining factories out of the neighborhood, shuttering up to 50 shops each year between 1998 and 2001. The 9/11 attacks were the final blow-the aftermath blocked off Chinatown and disrupted major commercial activity for weeks. Unable to financially recover, the last standing manufacturers closed shop, leaving 8,000 workers out of jobs over the next two years. Those with speciality skills (i.e., pattern making) found jobs at high-end American fashion stores; the rest transitioned out of the industry and turned to alternative jobs: elderly home care, food service (some women wrapped dumplings at Chinese restaurants), and other low-wage, service-oriented work.

Nearly two decades later, California is now the epicenter of U.S. garment industry, employing over 45,000 garment workers, many of whom are undocumented Asian and Latino immigrants. And while the location of the industry has shifted, its working conditions remain unchanged.

In 2016, the U.S. the Department of Labor detected violations such as wage theft and unsanitary conditions in 85% of the California factories they visited. Furthermore, workers are paid through the piece-rate system, making as little as $0.03 per garment, or up to $300 dollars for a 75-hour week. The economic precarity of the industry was compounded by the recent pandemic-global supply chains were disrupted and consumer demand for clothing lowered so significantly that commercial western brands cancelled $1.44 billion in orders. To make up for lost revenue, garment manufacturers switched to producing masks, hospital gowns, and other forms of personal protective equipment (PPE) at high volumes. But even though garment workers in the U.S. were classified as essential workers, they continued to toil in factories where bathroom breaks were limited and social distancing and face coverings inadequately enforced. One of Los Angeles' largest coronavirus outbreaks took place in an LA Apparel garment factory last summer, where 375 workers tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in four deaths. While more than 234,000 Californian residents are getting vaccinated every day, undocumented workers remain hesitant, fearful of revealing their immigration status while getting vaccinated.

Although Chen acknowledges the disparity between what essential workers are called and how they're actually treated, she appreciates how the labor of garment workers is finally being recognized.

"It's very bittersweet," Chen says. "I think it's good that there's finally a catchphrase that shows even the most minimal appreciation to workers who used to be completely invisible ... And for Asians especially-we've been invisible for so long."

Labor lessons worth remembering

While Chinatown's garment industry is nearly nonexistent now, the lessons learned from the 1982 strike are still salient. Like the organizers who led the 1982 strike, garment workers in California are continuing to organize for fair wages and safe conditions in the workplace. At the end of last year, California state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo introduced the Garment Workers Protection Act (GWPA or SB-62) to replace the piece-rate system with a minimum hourly wage and hold brands accountable for workplace abuse. With support from the Garment Worker Center, the Western Center On Law & Poverty, and Bet Tzedek Justice For All, the GWPA passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in April, inching its way closer towards improving the lives of thousands of workers.

What made the 1982 strike so successful, Chen says, boils down to two key factors: collective action under common goals, and the willingness for immigrants, especially women, to be unapologetically vocal about their concerns.

"Garment workers recognized that Chinese workers, if they join together, can be an important force," said Margaret Fung, the co-founder and executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in the documentary . "They can exert some control over their lives, their working conditions, and their wages, but only if they work together and have a union."

For Asian Americans in particular, Chen is hopeful that transformative social change, whether that's an end to unjust labor practices or the numerous cultural mythologies that render Asian American communities susceptible to all forms of violence, is possible.

"Like the case of Vincent Chin, there have always been waves of anti-Asian violence," Chen said. "But what's good now is that more people are speaking up."

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How the Asian American-led 1982 garment strike shaped three decades of labor activism

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he garment strike teaches us lessons about racism, alliances, and Asian American activism for economic justice that are still useful today.

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The legal quandary faced by undocumented immigrant workers, the barriers preventing them from accessing their legal rights, and the lack of incentive for them to do so.

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Editor's Note:

Inmates in prisons are subject to labor exploitation, minors working as child laborers are abused, and human trafficking remains rampant: Today, more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery in the US, the above-mentioned problems still exist in the country. Some American politicians have racked their brains to fabricate the "sad narrative" of "forced labor" in China's Xinjiang region, but a lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie. It is the US, a self-proclaimed "human rights defender" or a "beacon of freedom," that stands accused of using forced labor, which plainly demonstrates the US' real disregard for basic human rights and its brutal exploitation of the country's workforce.

The Global Times is publishing a series of articles that will uncover the four "crimes" of the US, a real "contemporary slavery empire." The following is the third installment of this series - The longest exploitation: How the US, the empire of "modern slavery," exploits minority groups and immigrant workers.

Hundreds of delivery workers, many of them immigrants, participate in a protest and march down Broadway to City Hall on April 21, 2021 in New York City. Photo: AFP

While the US likes to claim itself as a defender of "human rights," forced labor - an ugly legacy of slavery - is still deeply rooted in the contemporary US society. The only difference is that the victims have changed their status from black slaves to minority groups and immigrant workers, but they are still suffering the same brutal, inhumane treatment, including long working hours, little or no pay, and various abuses including confinement and sexual harassment among many others.

It's been estimated that currently at least 500,000 people are living under modern slavery and forced labor conditions in the US, according to the University of Denver website. Forced labor is prevalent in 23 industries, including domestic service, agriculture, catering, medical care, and beauty. Human trafficking is also found in these sectors. Up to 100,000 people are trafficked into the US for forced labor annually.

In June, 53 people were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in southern Texas, one of the deadliest human trafficking tragedies along the US-Mexico border in recent history.

For those being trafficked, many are bound for forced labor. In the Typology of Modern Slavery, Polaris - an NGO founded in 2002 dedicated to helping victims held in slavery in the US - analyzed more than 32,000 cases of human trafficking between December 2007 and December 2016. This is the largest data set on human trafficking in the US ever compiled and publicly analyzed, according to Polaris. The research found such people are exploited in different ways from sex trafficking within escort services to the trafficking of farm laborers. In total, it identified 25 types of brutal human trafficking in the US in its Typology of Modern Slavery report.

Between December 7, 2007, and December 31, 2016, the hotlines that Polaris operated received 10,085 calls of potential cases of labor exploitation. Among those cases, Polaris found that workers "endure a wide range of abuses that put them at high risk for labor trafficking. These abuses include wage and hour violations, contract violations, sexual harassment, discrimination, child labor violations, and unsafe working conditions."

"Polaris strongly believes that labor trafficking cases in the US are chronically underreported due to a lack of awareness about the issue and a lack of recognition of the significant vulnerability of workers in many US labor sectors," read the report.

Analysts said that instead of mud-slinging, the US should reflect on why the "beacon of human rights" fails to shine a light on this form of modern-day slavery in the country and respond to the international community's concerns over its serious forced labor issue.
Modern types of slavery
Statistics showed that between 1525 and 1866, over 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World for forced labor. Numerous black slaves were forced to work at the bottom of society and forced to endure grueling working conditions, heavy labor, and the brutal whippings by slave owners.

Circa 1935, African Americans pick cotton in Pulaski County, Arkansas. Photo: VCG

It wasn't until the 1930s that the US formally ratified the Forced Labor Convention. In many ways, the US' fortune began with blood, sweat, tears, and ultimate sacrifice of slaves.

However, when it comes to the 21st century, the situation in the US seems to be no better.

According to Polaris, labor trafficking victims end up in forced labor in many industries ranging from domestic work to agricultural and animal husbandry industries.

In the domestic work industry, the victims commonly work 12-18 hours a day for little to no pay. They may experience extreme isolation and confinement from the outside world, sexual harassment, high levels of monitoring, debt bondage, and extreme wage theft among many other abuses, according to the Polaris report.

Besides, traffickers exploit workers in the agriculture and the animal husbandry industry, from corn fields to orange orchards, to dairy farms. "Some crops such as tobacco require much more intensive labor to harvest, making them more susceptible to forced labor or exploitation. Tobacco is the crop cited most often on Polaris-operated hotlines, accounting for 10 percent of all agricultural labor trafficking cases. Others frequently mentioned are cattle/dairy, oranges, tomatoes, and strawberries. Often agricultural contracts promise an hourly rate but then pay on a piece-rate basis, which severely limits earning potential and further entraps the victims," said Polaris.

According to cases reported to Polaris-operated hotlines, victims of forced farm labor trafficking are disproportionately Latino male migrant workers, mostly from Mexico and Central America, on seasonal H-2A visas. South African men on H-2A visas rank a distant second. Latinas and unaccompanied foreign minors are also victimized.

Bingwen Yan, President of the Alliance of Minnesota Chinese Organizations, told the Global Times that for a long time, there has been a widespread oppression and exploitation of illegal immigrants, especially Mexican illegal immigrants and refugees coming from places of conflicts.

"Without citizenship and unable to immediately find a decent job in a brand new society, they are left at the bottom of the social totem pole of labor, exploited by capitalists who take advantage of their desperation to earn a living. They do the labor extensive work that Americans are unwilling to do," Yan said.

In 2014, Guatemalan smugglers were advertising that for only $15,000, their children could study, work, and live a good life in the US and they could pay it back when they have enough money in the US. However, soon after arriving in the developed country, these Guatemalan teenagers with the "American dream" had been sold to farms in Ohio and those duped into it were forced to work like slaves to pay off their debts, US media outlet PBS reported.
Hidden exploitation
Latin Americans and Africans are far from the only ones to suffer from this form of brutality. Asian Americans have suffered from unfair treatment in US workplace.

In history, many Chinese workers came to the US to seek a living but were in conditions of forced labor. Take the building of the Transcontinental Railway in the US as an example. Roughly 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese immigrants were involved in it. They toiled in frigid winters and blazing summers with hundreds died from explosions, landslides, diseases and accidents. But they have been ignored by history.

"Many Asians, especially first generation immigrants, choose to work in the US as domestic workers and masseurs. However, these are the hardest hit areas in labor exploitation. The lack of strong oversight bodies and legal protection has made it easier for employers to exploit workers. They often work day and night to earn low wages without adequate benefits and security," Tang Enyang, chairman of the Chinese Restaurant Association in Brooklyn Chinatown in New York, told the Global Times in a previous interview.

According to Tang, during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, some restaurants stayed open, disregarded the health and wellbeing of their employees, extending the working hours of temporary workers in an attempt to reduce losses, even ordering them not to wear personal protective equipment so as not to scare customers. Some retail employees were fired after calling for stores to be closed to prevent the risk of contracting the virus.

"In the post-epidemic era, minorities confront the fragility and divisiveness of the US in the workplace,"Yan said.

Yan noted that currently, Chinese Americans suffer from extensive but hidden labor exploitation in the American society. "In highly sophisticated scientific fields, Chinese American researchers face academic censorship and an increasing number of research areas that marginalize them."

Yan mentioned that hard-working, stoic Asian Americans are also bearing the burden of extreme workplace injury cases in the US, such as the recent mass shootings. More regrettably, it is only when they pay the price in blood that this marginalized group is thrust into the limelight of public opinion, he said.

On March 16, 2021, a shooting spree that occurred at three massage parlors in the metropolitan area of Atlanta claimed the lives of eight people, six of whom were Asian women. Following the massacre, demonstrations across the US propelled the Stop Asian Hate movement.

Unwilling to see that Chinese Americans face more and more injustices and dangers, the alliance Yan serves has organized lectures and seminars to raise awareness of legal rights in case of discrimination and abuse in the US, and to encourage minority groups to speak out.

Yan noted that the voice of minorities in the industry associations and labor unions is very weak, which has made them unable to defend their rights and interests that they are entitled to have.

"What's more, sometimes labor unions in the US also need to compromise with the government to reach a balance of interests. So, effective protection of workers' rights will be a long term task in American society." he said.

Given the harsh working environment in the US, analysts said that instead of playing the "Xinjiang card" to contain China, the US needs to take a look at the forced labor of minority groups and immigrants in the country and show some responsibility as a country claiming to care for the people.

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GT investigates: How US exploits minority workers and immigrants in agriculture and other labor-intensive industries

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​Editor's Note: Inmates in prisons are subject to labor exploitation, minors working as child laborers are abused, and human trafficking remains rampant: Today, more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery in the US, the above-mentioned problems still exist in the country.

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What is the role of sacrifice in sanctuary?

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I am interested in the largely unexplored factor of Christian faith in all of this. How do different Christian communities relate to Chinese migration and how do they relate to it through the lens of faith?

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Surveys and statistics on how undocumented workers are exploited on their labor force

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New York City hosts a vast amount of different types of restaurants and catering services. Many of which include that of the Chinese variant. As of 2011, there is roughly an amount of 6000 Chinese restaurants located in New York City. As the number grows, competition does as well. Often times this is a good thing. It forces restaurant owners to improve there businesses through either providing higher quality meals and/or giving a much larger variety of meals for customers to eat and savor. Of course, there are also times where it forces restaurant owners to conduct underhanded and even illegal activities. One of such activities can be the exploitation of employees that work within the restaurant.
There are of course, different ways that restaurant owners may exploit their own employees. Namely there are three main types of exploitation - Force, Fraud, and Coercion. Force includes using any certain type of restrictions on the worker's ability to leave the restaurant or housing; as well as intentionally imposing exhausting work hours, physical and/or sexual abuse, and constant surveillance. Fraud could include any of the following: misrepresentation of the work, working conditions, wages, and immigration benefits of the job; altered or bogus contracts; non-payment, underpayment or confiscation of wages; visa fraud e.g. allowing a legitimate visa to expire or failing to provide a promised visa, thereby increasing the worker's vulnerability to threats of deportation (in the case of illegal immigrants) and limiting his or her alternative job options. The third and last way is known as coercion; where the manager would exploit a foreign national restaurant worker's unfamiliarity with the language, laws and customs of the US labor laws, use security equipment to monitor workers' locations, use threats of deportation or other harm to the victim or the victim's family, use verbal and psychological abuse; confiscation of passports and visas, and even debt manipulation. Any usage of these three methods is illegal under United States Federal Labor Laws.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center explains how in highly populated states such as Texas, California, Ohio, Florida, and New York; restaurant exploitation is difficult to prove. The biggest reason is due to the nature of the restaurant business itself. Waiters and waitresses, for example, have to rely on the tips from subjective customers in order to gain any some sort of wage. However, it is much more than that. For instance, kitchen staff, dishwashers, and even cooks may work over 70 hours a week in the most extreme instances, and typically do not receive any sort of sick leave or paid vacation. Thus, the discrepancies and differences are very, very difficult to ascertain between legal and illegal working conditions within this industry. Exploiters thus take advantage of this system by demanding more work for less pay, as well denying any sort of paid vacation leave. What makes this even more difficult is the tendency of such managers hiring foreign workers, many of which are illegally residing in the country.

A survey conducted by the organization known as Restaurant Opportunities Center United (or ROC) even found more specific details of some of the deplorable nature within the restaurant industry. The research was compiled from more than 4000 surveys, 240 employer interviews, 240 worker interviews, as well as government data analysis. The findings were grim. From the sample size, the organization found out that roughly 87 % of restaurant workers do not get paid sick days while 46 % reported to have experienced at least some kind of overtime violation. Lastly, in 2009, the average yearly income for restaurant workers was roughly $15,000; compared to the average of around private sector workers being set to $45,000; three times the amount.
It becomes even more difficult to resolve these issues when many of the restaurant workers were born outside of the country. Even more significantly, many of these employees may be illegal immigrants that have been smuggled through into America to work in these heavily populated urban areas.
One such example has occurred in a Chinese Restaurant in New York City. The Resource Center omitted certain details to protect the confidentiality of the employee, however the details provided are more than enough to shed a disturbing light on the issue. According to the organization, they received information about "An employee at a Polish community center that learned about a potential labor trafficking situation at a Chinese restaurant from a woman who had recently left the situation." According to what the employee had learned, the woman had been recruited from Poland to come work in the U.S. She also stated that she along with her fellow employees had to work for roughly 12 - 14 hours for little pay in this particular Chinese restaurant. More disturbingly, were the details of the residence these employees lived in. The report stated that "They all lived together in a house near the restaurant that was monitored with security cameras, and the workers could only leave the house to go to work."
In 2008, another massive instance of restaurant exploitation in New York City involved a certain Saigon Grill Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant embroiled in a court case. This restaurant, which was located on the Upper West Side near Union Square, was forced to reward an eventual $4.6 million judgment to the restaurant employees that were exploited by the owners. 36 former employees of the Saigon Grill are all immigrants from China's Fuijian Province. Due to their recent immigrant status, these employees were still unaware of the certain rights and legalities that are granted to them under the United States Law. The restaurant owners certainly didn't meet the minimum wage; the employees were paid far bellow it and, in some instances, were paid only two dollars an hour for their services. Some had to contend with workweeks that exceeded well over eighty hours. Besides the meager pay and brutishly long work hours, which were clearly in violation of state and federal labor laws, the treatment of the restaurant workers themselves was found to be hugely deplorable. It was found that the managers of these employees fined them for very negligible actions. These actions included failing to log deliveries into the computer system or letting a door slam too loudly. The managers also forced their employees to kick back their wages due to failing to complete their non- delivery work promptly, such as filling sauce containers. There was a previous law suit attempted to be filed against the restaurant in 2007, 22 of these employees that had planned to due so were fired in retaliation by the restaurant.
The $4.6 million was rewarded to the 36 defendants in accordance to the violation of the wage and hour guidelines set by the United States and New York labor laws. Additional rewards were also being considered for the other illegal action, the "retaliation" conducted by Saigon Grill against the 22 employees that had originally planned an earlier lawsuit. As well as the managers of the restaurant, the court found liable three others, which included the restaurants' founder, Simon Nget; Michelle Nget - his wife, who directly managed all of the delivery operations and had an ownership interest in the business; as well as Sung Truong, who oversaw the operations of the delivery workers at the Union Square location.
The David Polk and Wardwell firm in conjunction with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund represented the group of employees in their successful trial.
Exploitation of restaurant workers is an unfortunate side effect to the expanding restaurant business in not only New York City, but around America. Competition between restaurants and employees themselves sometimes forces both parties to engage in illegal and abusive behavior. Chinese restaurants are very vulnerable to this development, since many of such restaurants are privately owned, thus are not held to a certain standard that a major restaurant chain may be held to. They also have access to a massive immigration group coming from Mainland China that is very unfamiliar to the legislation in America. Lastly, the sheer number of these small businesses make it much more easy for illegal immigrants to find a job almost immediately.

Sources Cited:

[1]" New National Survey Puts Just Two NYC Restaurants in Top 100.
[2]" Labor Trafficking in the Restaurant Industry"
[3]" Behind the Kitchen Door: A Multi-site Study of the Restaurant Industry" </>.
[4]" Saigon Grill Workers Get $4.6 Million Payday." Grub Street New York "

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Exploitation in Chinese Restaurants in New York City

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New York City hosts a vast amount of different types of restaurants and catering services. Many of which include that of the Chinese variant. As of 2011, there is roughly an amount of 6000 Chinese restaurants located in New York City. As the number grows, competition does as well.