CRACKDOWN: Mexican Cops Detain 40 Chinese Migrants Heading to U.S. Border

Mexican authorities detained 40 Chinese migrants who were traveling by bus in southern Mexico on their way north with the goal of reaching the U.S. border. The detention came on the same day that authorities also detained 180 migrants from Central and South America in another location in an apparent crackdown on migrants trying to reach its northern border.

The detention took place earlier this week in the state of Oaxaca, where agents with Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) stopped a bus in the town of Tlacolula and found 40 migrants, including a family of 6 who were all from China.

@INAMI_mx en coordinación federal y estatal, ubicó en Tlacolula, #Oaxaca, a 40 personas migrantes de origen chino; 34 adultos fueron canalizados a instalaciones del INM y un núcleo familiar de 6 personas quedó bajo resguardo de la Oficina Administrativa de NNA en el estado. pic.twitter.com/ofjIQe4FHq

— INM (@INAMI_mx) January 9, 2024

Authorities did not specify if the group had travel permits or how they entered the country but claimed that they took the Chinese migrants into custody at their INM offices.

The detention of the 40 Chinese migrants came on the same day that INM agents and federal authorities detained 182 migrants from Guatemala and Ecuador that had been stuffed into a bus. That incident occurred in the state of Veracruz, along one of the highways connecting with the state of Puebla. There, authorities checked one bus and found 182 migrants, which included unaccompanied children, family units, and single adult men and women.

#Comunicado | Auxilia @INAMI_mx en #Veracruz a 182 personas migrantes originarias de Guatemala y Ecuador, que viajaban de manera hacinada en un autobús. https://t.co/vNKeaJWEjY pic.twitter.com/zYHEYtLds3

— INM (@INAMI_mx) January 9, 2024

Authorities took the migrants to an INM station and turned the bus driver to federal authorities.

The crackdown comes at a time when tensions run high along the U.S.-Mexico border over the record-setting number of migrants crossing the border illegally and then requesting asylum or other protective measures. U.S. politicians have harshly criticized Mexican officials for helping fuel the ongoing migrant crisis by issuing travel permits to migrants headed north and allowing caravans to move through their country.

Breitbart Texas reported that during the first three and one-half months, Border Patrol agents apprehended a record-shattering 16,000 Chinese migrants who illegally entered the U.S. between ports of entry.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “Williams Cortez” from Baja California. 

Apprehension numbers for December and January reported above come from unofficial Border Patrol reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas. The numbers are subject to change in official reports when they are released. The December Southwest Land Border Encounters report is due to be released by mid-January.