And those are just the ones that have been caught. India and China are now squarely among the top 10 countries of origin for people caught trying to sneak into the United States. Large numbers of immigrants from those two countries have long come to the United States legally and many have overstayed visas to remain here. Now some people are taking a different approach altogether by making their way to Mexico to try to sneak into the United States as visas are harder to come by.
The Homeland Security Department has made arresting, jailing and deporting recent border crossers a top priority for immigration agents. Most Mexican migrants caught at the border are sent home within just a few days. But for migrants from countries a continent away the process is often far longer and costlier for the U.S. government as the migrants wait in immigration jails for travel documents to return home or a judge to decide their fate.
The recent influx of overseas migrants may be a harbinger of things to come. More than 7,000 people who claimed to be from Africa have been arrested in Mexico between January and August, according to statistics maintained by Mexican federal immigration authorities. The number of such immigrants has been on the rise in recent years. In 2013 Mexican immigration authorities arrested fewer than 1,000 migrants from Asia and Africa, while the number rose to nearly 11,000 from January through August. The burden of this falls squarely on the shoulders of the American taxpayers. We need the wall, and as soon as possible. What do you think?
