Hundreds of Asylum Seekers from Africa, Russia Arriving at U.S. Border

Visa Waiver
Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Hundreds of migrants from Haiti, Africa, Asia, Armenia, and Russia have been arriving at ports of entry in Arizona. It remains unclear how some of the individuals have been able to move without interference from Mexican authorities; however the case appears to be the latest development in an ongoing trend. 

For several days, groups of individuals have been walking to the port of entry in San Luis, Arizona, where they approach an officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and make a request for asylum. In San Luis Colorado, Sonora, Mexico’s Radio Formula has reported that more than 400 individuals from Haiti and Africa have been staying in the city at local hotels near the border, awaiting their turn to surrender to U.S. authorities.

The dramatic spike appears to follow a trend that has seen hundreds of asylum seekers appearing at various other ports of entry demanding refugee status or asylum. Breitbart Texas recently reported on hundreds of Africans immigrants who had been leveraging Mexico’s immigration system in order to get to the ports of entry in Calexico and San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas.

One of the concerns brought up by law enforcement officials dealing with the wave of migrants is that their criminal databases only show if an individual has committed an offense in the United States. If their country of origin does not have an active alert for that individual, they are simply processed and moved along the system, an American official told Breitbart Texas. The sharp increase in asylum seekers has pushed authorities to begin moving the individuals to Nogales, Arizona for processing since the manpower and facilities in San Luis has been overwhelmed.

A law enforcement official not authorized to speak to the media revealed to Breitbart Texas that some of the individuals from Haiti have disclosed to agents that they entered Mexico claiming to be from Congo in order to receive a special permit that allows them to travel through that country for 20 days. Breitbart Texas previously reported on the permit that is given to immigrants from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Mexico.

In August, the Associated Press reported on Mexico giving 424 migrants from Africa visas in a span of two days as they made their way to the U.S. border.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project and you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

Brandon Darby is the Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart Texas.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.