Thread: In Arizona desert, illegal immigration's mysterious spike

In Arizona desert, illegal immigration's mysterious spike

Authorities work to decipher meaning of an influx of Chinese

Sebastian Rotella

Washington Bureau

October 3, 2009

NOGALES, ARIZ.

Amid an overall drop in arrests of illegal crossers at the U.S- Mexico border, an intriguing anomaly has cast new light on the global underworld of immigrant smuggling.

Authorities report an almost ten-fold spike in arrests of clandestine migrants from China in the southern Arizona desert, the busiest smuggling corridor on the international line.

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector has caught at least 261 Chinese crossers this year, compared toan average of 32 during the past four years, officials say.

"They are the main [non-Mexicans] we catch," said Agent Juventino Pacheco of the Patrol's international liason unit here. "Lately we have been catching more Chinese than Central Americans in Nogales."

As agents find groups of exhausted Chinese migrants hiding in gulches and huddled in smuggling vehicles, the Border Patrol scrambles for the services of professional interpreters. The sector's only Mandarin-speaking agent, a former Mormon missionary in China, has kept very busy.

The increase remains but a fraction of the overall activity at the Nogales station, which is the biggest in the entire Patrol and guards 31 action-packed miles abutting Nogales, Mexico.

This year, the Tucson sector that encompasses the Nogales station recorded a total of 226,000 apprehensions -- a 24% decline that reflects the impact of the U.S. economic crisis and tougher enforcement, officials say. The great majority of those arrested were Mexicans.

In the lexicon of the Border Patrol, Chinese immigrants belong to a rarefied category known as OTMs: Other than Mexicans. Although just a small percentage of border-crossers, OTMs are big business for smuggling gangs that overlap increasingly with Mexico's violent drug mafias.

Compared to Mexicans who pay about $1,500, smuggler fees for Central Americans and South Americans reach $6,000 for the trek across a sun-seared landscape, as dangerous as it is majestic. A group of bewildered Haitians intercepted in Tucson after three nights hiking in circles in a canyon had coughed up $10,000, with another $10,000 due on arrival in the Chicago area.

Chinese pay the most of all. They often work off fees between $30,000 and $70,000 over the course of several years as indentured servants in the sweat shops and kitchens of New York and other cities.

Sophisticated Asian mafias organize long, intricate journeys. A typical route leads from Beijing to Rome to Caracas, Venezuela to Mexico City to the border, according to Matthew Allen, the chief agent of the Phoenix office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"It's much more elaborate" than smuggling Latin Americans, Allen said. "Waiting in hotel rooms, calls on cell phones, code words…The trend [in increased arrests] stands out as apprehensions are going down overall."

What explains the increase here? Does it reflect a major influx of Chinese illegals into the U.S.?

Enforcement officials say it's not clear. At the border, facts are elusive. Statistical barometers are imperfect. Differing interpretations, political spin and the mysteries of the criminal underworld complicate the picture. High-priced smugglers are better at dodging defenses, so it's hard to assess the correlation between arrests, crossing rates and the number of illegal immigrants who succeed.

Chinese smuggling made headlines at its chaotic peak in the early 1990s. Fetid smuggling flotillas swarmed the coasts of Southern California, Mexico and Central America. Seven people died in June, 1993 when the ship Golden Venture ran aground in New York carrying 286 migrants, more than the total captured this year at the Arizona border. A crackdown at sea and tighter political asylum rules reduced the flow.

Asian smuggling kingpins are known as snakeheads; like killer snakes, they react with stealth and agility. Thus, changing border-crossing patterns reflect reconfigured tactics abroad as the flow persists.

Today, mafias favor air routes and exploit favorable visa policies for Chinese travelers in countries including Ecuador, Honduras and Venezuela, which are hubs for their travel to Mexico, officials say. Many migrants report also stops in Cuba, officials say.

U.S. investigators have gathered intelligence about thousands of Chinese who have settled temporarily in Ecuador with the intention of being smuggled into the United States, according to a high-ranking federal official.

"The smugglers are attuned to nuances in South American visa policies, and will adapt," Allen said. Apprehensions of Chinese along the southwest boundary oscillate. Border-wide arrests hit 2,060 in the 2006 fiscal year, dipped to near 700 during the next two years, and then rose to 1,221 as of August, according to Border Patrol statistics.

The Patrol's McAllen sector in South Texas, a high-volume corridor for non-Mexicans because of its relative proximity to Central America, led all sectors with at least 667 arrests of Chinese by August, officials say. But the Tucson area experienced the most dramatic proportionate surge.

The convergence of drugs and illegal immigrants in the Sonora-Arizona area helps explain that, officials say. The dominant drug mafia in the region, the Sinaloa cartel, "saw an opportunity to get into Chinese smuggling," said Mario Escalante, a Border Patrol spokesman.

The evolving alliance between traffickers of drugs and immigrants, once separate specialties, is complex. Investigators say that drug lords use their firepower to control turf and tax migrant smugglers for use of border corridors, known in Spanish as "plazas," charging from $50,000 to $100,000 a week, officials say.

"The drug trafficking organizations in the plazas control who smuggles, what they smuggle, where they smuggle," said Allen, the ICE chief in Phoenix.

At times, when drug mafias are at war or when moving drug loads is difficult, muscling in on the human smuggling racket brings easy profit and less risk, Pacheco said. Unlike cocaine loads, smugglers do not invest money in moving high-priced migrants. Violent retaliation among traffickers, common after a major drug bust, is less likely if migrants get caught, he said.

"Losing Chinese, you lose money but not an investment up front," Pacheco said. "They don't buy the Chinese, they charge them."

Nonetheless, the partnerships have limits.

"The drug and alien smuggling groups are still separate entities," Allen said. "Once human smugglers make it into the US with their loads, there is not coordination. They do not have a relationship here with the drug traffickers."

In Arizona, expert Mexican smuggling guides head for Phoenix to stage for trips west or east. Chinese clients are less likely to die in the desert during clandestine forced marches that have killed hundreds. Border Patrol agents have found at least 191 corpses in southern Arizona this year; most are believed to have been illegal immigrants.

As in the past, the Chinese come almost exclusively from the province of Fujian. Another fixture of the trade: corruption speeds the passage of precious human cargo. In the 1990s, Mexican investigators broke up Chinese smuggling rings assisted by Mexican authorities.

And in May, two Mexican immigration police officers based at the Mexico City airport were arrested. Alerted in advance by smugglers, the two allegedly met Chinese travelers arriving on international flights. The officers allegedly gave the migrants fraudulent documents and sent them north to the border where the crossing continues, desperate but quiet.


www.chicagotribune.com

Well, you think maybe they believe they are welcome, or America will soon be theirs, after all we have flown their flag at the capitol, celebrate communism, just what more could we do to make them feel welcome...wonder how many are getting deported! or are we feeling sorry for them to and they also are allowed to break our laws!

$30,000-$70,000 to pay a smuggler, when it takes a lot less to get a visa. What is wrong with these people?

This is going on in my neck of the woods and no local media here ever talks about it. Southern ARIZONANS don't have a clue about how many OTM's are out there.

The more Obamanation declares there will be amnesty the more the diversity the illegals .
The coyotes know the big money is not with the Mexicans .
Hell the Latino's just stroll casually across as they please anyway .
This administration is all but sending out invitations to illegal aliens from everywhere , including terrorists , drug smugglers , and gang members .

They Know An Amnesty is coming so they are going to flood us until the Comprehensive shamnesty is passed...

They keep giving incentives and more keep flooding the borders..Rotten traitors...

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4559--0-0.html

And why is our government betraying the citizens of the United States. AMNESTY IS TREASON!!!

Sharp rise in Chinese arrests at U.S. border
At least 261 have been arrested this year trying to cross near Tucson. Illegal Chinese immigrants can be big money for smugglers.

By Sebastian Rotella

October 5, 2009

Reporting from Nogales, Ariz.

Amid an overall drop in arrests of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S-Mexico border, an intriguing anomaly has cast a new light on human smuggling: Authorities report an almost ten-fold spike in the number of Chinese people caught in the southern Arizona desert, the busiest smuggling corridor on the international line.

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector has arrested at least 261 Chinese border-crossers this year, compared to an annual average of 32 during the past four years, officials said.

"They are the main [non-Mexicans] we catch," said field operations supervisor Juventino Pacheco of the patrol's international liaison unit in Nogales. "Lately we have been catching more Chinese than Central Americans."

When agents find groups of exhausted Chinese migrants hiding in gulches and huddled in smugglers' vehicles, they often request help from Dean Delap, the sector's only Mandarin-speaking agent. The two-year Border Patrol veteran did not expect that his experience in China, where he spent time teaching and studying, would prove valuable in Nogales.

"Some are cooperative," Delap said. "Some are scared. They've just been arrested, they are in a new place. I put them at ease. I explain how I learned Chinese, what's going on."

Illegal Chinese immigrants remain a small fraction of the overall number processed at the Nogales station -- which guards 31 miles abutting Nogales, Mexico.

This year, the Tucson sector (where the Nogales station is located) recorded about 226,000 apprehensions. That is a 24% decline from the last fiscal year,reflecting the impact both of the U.S. economic crisis and tougher border enforcement, officials said.

The great majority of those arrested were Mexicans. In the lexicon of the Border Patrol, Chinese immigrants belong to a category known as OTMs: other than Mexicans. And they are big business for smuggling gangs that increasingly have overlapped with Mexico's violent drug mafias.

Highest fees

Mexicans typically must pay smugglers about $1,500 for help in making the trek across a sun-seared landscape that is as dangerous as it is majestic. The fees for Central Americans and South Americans often reach $6,000. A group of bewildered Haitians, intercepted a few years ago in Tucson after three nights spent hiking in circles in a canyon, had coughed up $10,000; another $10,000 was to have been paid upon arrival in the Chicago area.

The Chinese, who come almost exclusively from Fujian province, pay the most. They often have to work off fees of between $30,000 and $70,000 over the course of several years as indentured servants in the sweat shops and kitchens of New York and other cities.

Sophisticated Asian mafias organize intricate journeys to the U.S. A typical route leads from Beijing to Rome to Caracas, Venezuela, to Mexico City to the border, according to Matthew Allen, chief agent of the Phoenix office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"It's much more elaborate" than smuggling Latin Americans, Allen said. "Waiting in hotel rooms, calls on cellphones, code words. . . . The trend [in increased arrests] stands out as apprehensions are going down overall."

But the uptick in arrests of Chinese migrants does not necessarily reflect a major influx from that country, officials said. Facts at the border are elusive. Statistical barometers are imperfect. High-priced smugglers are better at dodging defenses, so it's hard to assess the correlation between arrests, crossing rates and the number of illegal immigrants who succeed.

Nothing new

Chinese smuggling made headlines at its peak in the early 1990s, when flotillas carrying migrants swarmed the coasts of Southern California, Mexico and Central America. Ten people died in June 1993 when the ship Golden Venture ran aground in New York carrying 286 migrants, more than the total captured this year at the Arizona border. A crackdown at sea and tighter political asylum rules reduced the flow.

Today, Asian smugglers favor air routes, exploiting favorable visa policies for Chinese travelers in countries including Ecuador, Honduras and Venezuela, which are hubs for their travel to Mexico, officials said.

U.S. investigators have gathered intelligence about thousands of Chinese who have settled temporarily in Ecuador with the intention of being smuggled into the United States, according to a high-ranking federal official who requested anonymity when discussing the international surveillance.

"The smugglers are attuned to nuances in South American visa policies, and will adapt," Allen said.

A varying number of Chinese are apprehended along the Southwest boundary. Border-wide arrests hit 2,060 in the 2006 fiscal year, dipped to near 700 during the next two years, and then rose to 1,221 as of August, according to Border Patrol statistics.

The patrol's McAllen sector in south Texas, a high-volume corridor for non-Mexicans because of its relative proximity to Central America, led all sectors with at least 667 arrests of Chinese by August, officials say.

But the Tucson area experienced the most dramatic proportionate surge.

One reason for that, officials said: the convergence of drugs and illegal immigrants in the Sonora-Arizona areasaid. The dominant drug mafia in the region, the Sinaloa cartel, "saw an opportunity to get into Chinese smuggling," said Mario Escalante, a Border Patrol spokesman.

The evolving alliance between traffickers of drugs and immigrants, once separate specialties, is complex. According to investigators, drug lords use their firepower to control turf and tax migrant smugglers for the use of border corridors, known in Spanish as plazas, charging from $50,000 to $100,000 a week.

"The drug trafficking organizations in the plazas control who smuggles, what they smuggle, where they smuggle," Allen said.

Overlapping fields

At times, when drug mafias are at war or when moving drug loads is difficult, muscling in on the human smuggling racket brings easy profit and less risk, Pacheco said. And violent retaliation among traffickers, common after a major drug bust, is less likely if migrants get caught.

"Losing Chinese, you lose money but not an investment up front," Pacheco said. "They don't buy the Chinese, they charge them."

Nonetheless, Allen said, "the drug and alien smuggling groups are still separate entities. Once human smugglers make it into the U.S. with their loads, there is not coordination."

According to officials, Chinese immigrants are less likely than others to die in the desert during their clandestine marches. Border Patrol agents have found at least 191 corpses in southern Arizona this year; most are believed to have been illegal immigrants.

By the time the migrants are intercepted by the Border Patrol, they have often spent months on the road.

"Some speak a few words of Spanish," Delap, 31, said. "Most of them communicate with hand gestures and body language."

Delap, who majored in political science and minored in Chinese at Brigham Young University, taught English in Yunnan and Xinjiang provinces eight years ago. He sees the chance to use his knowledge of Chinese language and culture as just one humanitarian aspect of the Border Patrol, which frequently rescues migrants from the dangers of the desert.

Although his conversations with Chinese migrants focus on basic information, it is clear that his presence is reassuring.

"A lot of times at the end of the shift when I have to go, they realize that and a lot of questions come flooding out: Where are they going, when will they be leaving the detention facility, what will happen," he said. "I explain the best I can."

www.latimes.com