Record number of illegal immigrants from India are crossing US border

An unprecedented number of Indian immigrants are entering the US via its southern border, new federal statistics have revealed - with 42,000 intercepted in the past year alone. The number, unveiled last month by US Customs and Border Protection, is more than double the amount from the same period the year prior - when crossings by Indians were already at a record high. What's more, an additional 1,600 have crossed from the northern border amid the rising phenomenon - four times the amount of the past three years combined.

Nearly all turn themselves in to Border Patrol - who then process them as asylum-seekers due to recent unrest surrounding India 's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Since 2007, the total number of annual illegal border crossings from India only exceeded 5,000 four times. A litany of other factors, political and socioeconomic included, has since spurred the sizable jump - which has also been bolstered by records from other demographics. CBP's total encounters along the border this past year were more than 2million, meaning migrants from India represented just under 2 percent of that sample set. The total, pertaining to the fiscal year starting last October, includes roughly 210,000 apprehensions this past month alone - the highest recorded in all of 2023. The record monthly figure brought the total number of migrant encounters for fiscal year - for the fist time ever in history - to 2.48 million, up from 2.38 million in 2022.

At the time, the 2.38millon had been a world record, but has since been bested as asylum-seekers like Sikh supporter Arshdeep Singh continue to enter the country. Singh, a 23-year-old from Punjab who spoke to The Wall Street Journal Sunday about his journey to the States, spent 40 days this summer migrating to the US. Rather than being arrested while evading capture, he turned himself in to ask for asylum - a request he was granted before arriving in SoCal's Fresno. He recalled to the paper how was threatened by men he believed were affiliated with India’s ruling, Hindu-centered party, before his father made arrangements for him to leave - adding onto the current humanitarian crisis at the border. But 'the path here turned out to be just as dangerous as it had been for me to stay in Punjab,' the young man said - before describing the roundabout way he made it into the country.

First, flying from New Delhi to Hungary - where he was kept in a small room for 10 days and fed only bread and water - he then flew to France, and then Mexico City, where he was kept in a room for another week. Afterward, he took another flight followed by a bus ride, eventually hitching his way to the US border, he said. He proceeded to cross into California, where he was then taken to a processing center where he saw several others who had undergone a similar journey from India. At that point, he and several others were allowed in virtually without question - thanks to nationalist policies put in place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that experts say are to blame for the recent hike in numbers. Modi’s Hindu-first policies, an associate of the prime minister recently told the New York Times, come as a calculated attempt to 'convert all of India into believers of Hinduism.' That, along with success stories from those who have already made the trip - now rife on social media - have fueled the charge, with footage surfacing almost every day showing men and women undergoing different journeys to make it to America.

In one clip recorded late last month, more than a dozen men who appeared to be Indian were filmed illegally entering the US at an unspecified point along the southern border, chanting Hindu religious slogans like 'Jai Shri Ram', and 'Jai Bajrang bali.' In another clip recorded somewhere deep from the jungles of Panama, a parade of presumably Indian as seen traversing a stretch of the Darien Gap, a dayslong trek across the rugged Colombia-Panama border. The crossing was once so dangerous that few dared to attempt it, but, given the current scale of the migrant crisis, today many migrants flood through its dense jungles to somehow make their way to and through Mexico. Crossings of the Darien Gap - 66 roadless miles of dense, mountainous jungle and swamp filled with armed guerillas and drug traffickers in Panama - have shot up so much they could approach 500,000 people this year alone. The migratory highway, similar to the miles of freight trains winding through Mexico, is one of several methods being exploited by groups including Indians, including smugglers who masquerade as travel agents to get US access - and it's not always from the South.

This past April, four Indians were found dead close to the U.S-Canada border after trying to cross illegally when their boat capsized and killed them all. Last year in January, four Indians similarly froze to death in Canada's Manitoba near the U.S border. Later in April, American officials rescued six Indians from Saint Regis River after receiving a report about a sinking boat near the southern border, barely saving all onboard. Last August, seven more Indians were apprehended by the authorities who were trying to cross over to the US from Quebec. All have contributed to the spike in illegal Indian movements that have been reported for the most part since October of last year. As border crossings continue to rise, administration officials have blamed migration from places like India and others set outside the Western Hemisphere on the US's failure to logistically address the parade of illegal entries at the southern border. Worsening matters is the US's lack of relationships with those countries - making a cap on immigration very difficult to enforce, and also very costly.

The surge in migrants, meanwhile, underscores the scale of the humanitarian crisis at the border, and the political challenge it presents for President Joe Biden as he seeks re-election in 2024. As it stands, the CPB 'will continue to remain vigilant, making operational adjustments as necessary and enforcing consequences under US immigration law,' said Troy A. Miller, the acting CBP commissioner, in a statement last week. That said, the new data also shows how Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the US border last month - replacing Mexicans for the first time on record. Miller has called the scale of migration 'historic' and said CBP was working with domestic and foreign partners to address the issue and step up enforcement. The Biden administration has also proposed about $14billion for the border in a $106 billion spending package - announced last week - and has insisted that any long-term solution requires help from Congress.

The White House proposal includes $1.6 billion to hire 1,600 new asylum officers and processing personnel, which could double the number of people working on asylum cases. It further suggests some $1.4 billion of the sum be used to add 375 immigration judges and their teams in addition to money for 1,300 new border patrol agents. The crisis, meanwhile, remains ongoing, though reached new highs late last month when Mexican officials revealed that some 11,000 migrants reached the Mexican border with the US in a day alone. The number came as the highly trafficked border city of Eagle Pass reported it had reached 'breaking point' due to outsized daily arrivals - leading the US to strike a deal with Mexico that saw it begin to deport migrants from its own border cities. Shortly after, Mexico's biggest railroad said it would be halting several of its trains due to the amount of migrants illegally hitching rides - a decision that has reportedly led to dozens of premature deaths.

Still, migrants continue to utilize the company's more than 700 remaining freighters - collectively known to many as The Beast - a fact bolstered by the new Fox footage. Several were seen making triumphant gestures to the drone filming overhead - offering a view of the group's overwhelming numbers. Standing atop a train that has no seats for passengers and is only meant for cargo, the asylum seekers likely spent hours - or even days - clutching onto whatever they can, as railroad officials on the ground continue to turn a blind eye to the practice. Days earlier, a double amputee looking to cross the dangerous body of water that has marked the boundary between Mexico and the United States for centuries, was seen being carried across by several other travelers. Another cluster of migrants was seen carrying the woman's two-year-old daughter - leading to a harrowing reunion on the El Paso side, where the pair were photographed together near razor wire designed to keep them out.

Such obstacles have proved fruitless in recent years as the migrant crisis has continued to worsen with the rescinding of Donald Trump's Title 42 in May - a move that has made it easier for migrants to seek asylum and circumvent border laws. The country's system of freight trains - long used as an alternative to other options like the Rio Grande - have also fueled rising numbers, spurring Mexico's railroad Ferromex to recently announce it would be halting 60 of its trains for the foreseeable future. The rationale behind the decision, the firm said, was that so many migrants were hitching rides on the trains that it became unsafe - citing at least a 'half dozen regrettable cases of injuries or deaths' in a span of just a few days. Just days after that warning was issued - after mayors of both Eagle Pass and El Paso claimed their cities have reached capacity - the Mexican government announced a new agreement with the US to deport migrants from cities such as Juárez, Chihuahuato, and Piedras Negras to their home countries. The deal will also take several actions to deter migrants from traveling by rails, as part of a new effort to combat the recent surge in border crossings.

Despite violence from drug cartels and the dangers that come with riding atop the train cars, such freight trains still remain popular. That said, the closures temporarily cut off one of the most transited migratory routes in the country at a time of surging migration. It also further underscores the historic numbers of people heading north in search of a new life in the US, and the dilemma it poses for nations in Central and South America - as they also struggle to cope with the amounts of migrants traversing their territories. Stateside, matters are even worse - after more than three years of thousands of illegal entries a day that have left states like Texas, and even New York, at a loss. The Biden Administration, even after its rescinding of Title 42, has failed to address the crisis, and is actually turning a lower percentage of border-crossing migrants back into Mexico than his predecessor, statistics show. According to federal data an average of 1,000 people have been sent back across the border each month since Title 42 ended, compared with nearly 3,000 the month before.

In August, the U.S. Border Patrol made 181,509 arrests at the Mexican border, up 37 percent from July but little changed from August 2022 and well below the high of more than 220,000 in December, according to figures released this month. That number, the statistics showed, is still on the rise, showing how the rescinding of Title 42 has helped fuel the crisis. It has led to migrants arriving from all over, including African nations, Russia and Ukraine. Most travel through the Darien Gap, a dayslong trek that is marred with hazards such as snakes and other jungle predators, as well as extreme climate with little land to live off. Colombia, which has taken on the brunt of the exodus from Venezuela, has long called on the international community for aid, while Panama and Costa Rica have tightened migratory restrictions and demanded that something be done about hundreds of thousands of people passing through the notoriously dangerous Gap. Panama even launched a campaign dubbed 'Darien is a jungle, not a highway.'

The Biden administration has pushed Mexico and Central American nations to control migratory flows and now requires asylum seekers to register through an app known as CBP One - despite its failure to address crises occurring in New York and Texas on American soil. Earlier this month New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced a new effort to help connect Venezuelan migrants with workplaces that will employ them. Made at a nonprofit taking part in the initiative Monday, the announcement saw Hochul tout how 18,000 jobs are now available to select migrants recently given Temporary Protected Status (TPS) by the Biden Administration - and praise more than 350 other employers who signed up to take part. Officials two weeks ago moved to grant temporary protected status to tens of thousands of Venezuelans - a decision Hochul, 65, hailed as brave and distinctly American. Only pertaining to migrants from Venezuela, the move was designed to authorize them to work more quickly, as cities continue to deal with an influx of newcomers.

The announcement came hours after Hochul - who refused advances from Eric Adams that would see state suburbs serve as a relief valve for the city - complained the border is 'too open,' and that there needs to be more done to limit daily arrivals. Meanwhile, the arrivals keep arriving. On Thursday, they included people from Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Nepal, India, and Pakistan. The routes are well-worn by now. From Senegal to Morocco to Spain to Ecuador to Colombia to Mexico City and north by bus, for example. And the stories are just as well worn. The night's big contingent from India all told a similar story, rehearsed on the 15 or so days traveling. 'It's the political thing,' said 22-year-old Dhruv Patel, as he described how people from politically connected families like his face the constant threat of kidnap. 'Threatening calls,' said another young man in his group. 'Criminality,' said a third.

The temperature cooled to a pleasant 75F as the sun disappeared behind the wall, easing conditions for crossers in one of the least hospitable areas of the country. With that comes a record number of migrant detentions last month. Data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed there were 269,735 encounters at the southern border in September, beating last December's record, and bringing the total for 2023 so far to 2.47 million. The Biden administration has tried to respond. It announced recently that it would grant temporary legal status for nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the United States on July 31, while at the same time promising to deport those who arrived illegally after that date and failed to get asylum. The deportation flights to Venezuela have begun as part of a diplomatic thaw with the government of Nicolás Maduro. That might bring temporary respite, said Chris Clem, former chief patrol officer in nearby Yuma sector, but does not change the overall trend. 'It's a couple of hundred people a day, that's a drop in the bucket,' he said. 'Until there's a significant policy shift, until there is a significant focus on reestablishing our border security as a priority, I think we're gonna suffer and morale will suffer.'

The conflict in the Middle East, he added, could have offered the Biden administration a solution but instead it has become a way to distract from the problems at the border. What's happening in the Middle East, in Russia, and with China, that could have been the for reinforcing our border security efforts,' he said. 'Not because President Trump wanted to do it, they could have said there was a real national security interest in doing it now.' In the meantime, nothing will change so long as there is a clogged immigration system that means arrivals are pretty much free to enter the country while waiting years for their court hearings, say the men and women charged with patrolling the border. 'I'd send them straight back,' said an agent working in neighboring Yuma sector. 'There's no real penalty for anyone coming in illegally.'

As for Adams - who months ago touted New York as a sanctuary city and publicly challenged Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to send over arrivals - has said the crisis will cost the city $12billion over three years. The city is currently paying hotels an average cost of $185 per day per room, and spending about $385 a night per migrant family that needs housing and feeding. According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, asylum seekers are costing the city roughly $10 million every day. New York's mayor, meanwhile, has warned that the city's services will be affected by the incredible additional expenses on the budget. He has previously stated the city is planning on cutting services such as library hours, meals for senior citizens, and free, full-day care for three-year-olds. A record 260,000 migrants flooded across the border last month alone, causing chaos not only in border states that are ill-equipped to stomach such massive population influxes but in sanctuary states like New York. 'We want [ Congress ] to have a limit on who can come across the border,' said Hochul During a Sunday appearance on CBS' 'Face the Nation,' in which the politicians said she feels the country's border is currently too much of a free-for-all.

The comments came as Hochul has faced widespread criticism for failing to intervene on the city's crisis, and refusing to ship travelers off to nearby communities and counties in Long Island and Upstate. Many of the areas Hochul does not want migrants sent - Long Island and The Hudson Valley - serve as two regions vital for Democrats' bid to secure House control in 2024. Adams, apparently unconcerned by public opinion in those areas, has recently ramped up pleas to Hochul to issue an emergency order to command counties in both areas to shelter migrants, a demand Hochul has repeatedly rebuffed.

The lack of cooperation shows the collision course the two politicians seem to be embarking on ahead of the upcoming election - one that many anticipate will be extremely contentious and be a rematch of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12685611/Record-number-illegal-immigrants-INDIA-crossing-border.html?ito=msngallery

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