Adi Guajardo
More Chinese migrants take long journey to US border seeking asylum
Chinese migrants can use a route through Ecuador, which does not require certain visas. They then make their way north to the U.S.-Mexico border.
LEARN MOREPosted: 8:35 p.m. EDT Oct 31, 2023
A caravan with an estimated 5,000 migrants is heading north towards the U.S. The movement comes on the heels of a record-breaking year for migrant encounters along the southwest border.
In recent months, city leaders experiencing a spike in migrant crossings sought support from the federal government.
Republican Sens. John Barrasso, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz and Pete Ricketts recently embarked on a border tour and bashed the Biden administration for its stance on immigration.
"We have a humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border and it's created by Joe Biden's failed and inept policies," said Ricketts.
"We are hopeful that the broken immigration system under which we operate will be fixed," said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Earlier this month the Biden administration introduced a sweeping proposal seeking roughly $105 billion that includes funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel, as well as $14 billion to address the influx of migrants along the southwest border. The funds would boost the number of border agents, install new inspection machines to detect drugs and increase staffing to process asylum cases.
"In the president's request for additional money I will say no money, or any money that needs to be spent has to be spent to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, not to let all of them come through even faster," said Barrasso.
The financial request garnered support in the Democratic-led Senate but faced resistance from the Republican-led House.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling for stand-alone funding.
"We have sought from congress additional funds for the hiring of additional field office personnel in Customs and Border Protection and other resources to address the chronically underfunded U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies."
Migrants heading north also criticized Mexico's migrant processing center near the Guatemala border, saying the process for refugee or exit visas takes too long.
They said the overwhelmed system can leave people seeking visas waiting for weeks or months.
