CBS News’ 60 Minutes recently aired an episode highlighting an illegal California border crossing location that has recently seen a significant number of individuals enter the United States, many of whom are from China.
Over the course of just a few days, CBS captured videos of hundreds of migrants entering the U.S. through a fence gap. According to CBS, Chinese migrants are the fastest-growing demographic of illegal border crossings.
Some of the migrants made the journey through Central America, with one migrant telling Alfonsi that his journey took 40 days and involved travel through Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. However, many middle-class migrants can be seen with suitcases and told CBS that they took flights to Mexico.
A video shows Chinese migrants telling CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi that they learned how to enter the U.S. illegally through TikTok videos. TikTok is a social media platform founded in China. Videos posted to TikTok are providing these migrants with instructions on how to hire a smuggler and enter through a gap in the fence on the southern border.
Videos on TikTok are providing migrants with step-by-step instructions for hiring a smuggler and illegally entering America through a small gap in the southern border fence. https://t.co/WbQBF6SSUE pic.twitter.com/mIGhEjBYox
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 5, 2024
Thousands of these migrants are then camping on private land owned by 75-year-old Jerry Shuster, a legal immigrant from Yugoslavia. Schuster says he first discovered the migrants on his property in May, when he went to investigate smoke and found migrants burning trees to keep warm.
As seen in the video, his property has been left covered in trash and tents left behind by migrants. He told Alfonsi that he’s seen around 3,000 migrants a week come through the area.
“When they come over here, they come with the suitcases. They come prepared with the computers just like they got off on a Norwegian cruise ship yesterday.”
“They come with the suitcases. They come prepared with the computers just like they got off on a Norwegian cruise ship yesterday,” says Jerry Shuster. He’s seen thousands of migrants crossing the U.S. border and then camping on his property. https://t.co/ktCgkk9RL7 pic.twitter.com/1TnUb4J6LT
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 5, 2024
A few months ago, Shuster asked the migrants to stop burning his trees: “…there was eight guys start– knocking my trees and start burning my– my– my trees on the other side. So I told ’em, ‘Please, don’t do that. Please don’t do–’ and they start surrounding me. I went home, and I got my gun, and I shoot in the air. They arrest me.”
Shuster was arrested by the police on his own property. He was not charged, but his gun was confiscated. He says that authorities have not done anything to help.
Many of the migrants told Alfonsi that they made the journey to escape China’s repressive policies and sluggish economy.
The journey is expensive, with one of the migrants saying she sold her house to cover the $14,000 cost of the trip. Other migrants noted that the hour-long drive to the border cost them $400.
Fox News reports over one million migrant encounters since October 1, 2023, which is 100,000 higher than the same period last night.
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) encountered 37,000 Chinese migrants last year, but have already encountered 20,000 since October 2023.
STUNNING NUMBERS: MORE THAN 1 MILLION MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS SINCE OCT 1, 2023 PER CBP SOURCES. The number is roughly 100,000 encounters higher than the same period last year, when the U.S. saw 908,000 encounters. This is the earliest the U.S. has ever reached the 1 million encounter… pic.twitter.com/gzQaOIX14L
— America's Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) February 7, 2024
