Even the mainstream media now notice the unusually high number of Chinese migrants crossing our border. Why are people flying in from distant countries to enter the United States?

From CBS News. The number of migrants arriving at the southern border is unprecedented. Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded two-and-a-half million instances of detaining or turning away people attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico.

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So what’s the fastest growing group among them? Chinese migrants. Yes, you heard that right…Chinese. We saw large groups, including many from the middle class, come through a 4-foot gap at the end of a border fence 60 miles east of San Diego. …

Just after sunrise, we saw the first group of migrants make their way from Mexico…through a gap between the 30 foot steel border fence and rocks. …

Our cameras, and at one point this armed Border Patrol agent standing 25 feet away … did not deter them.

This man, a college graduate, told us he hoped to find work in Los Angeles. He said his trip from China took 40 days. …

Thirty minutes later, a smuggler’s SUV raced along the border fence and dropped another group at the same spot. And 30 minutes after that … another group.

Over four days, we witnessed nearly 600 migrants — adults and children — pass through this hole and onto U.S. soil … unchecked. We saw people from India, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Many of the Chinese migrants who came through will end up asking for political asylum. …

With the help of a translator, we learned a little about the Chinese migrants coming through.

We also met a banker and small business owners.

Some of the migrants made a grueling journey through Central America with dusty backpacks … but we noticed middle class migrants from China arriving with rolling bags. They told us they took flights all the way to Mexico.

Some flew from China to Ecuador, because it doesn’t require a visa for Chinese nationals. Then, took flights to Tijuana, Mexico.

The migrants told us they connected with smugglers, or what they call snake heads, in Tijuana.

And they each paid them about $400 for the hour-long drive that ended here … at the gap. …

Many of the migrants told us they made the journey to escape China’s increasingly repressive political climate and sluggish economy.

This 37-year-old woman said China’s COVID lockdown destroyed her child care business. She left her two young children with family at home.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And why did you decide to come to the United States? …

37-year-old female migrant/translator speaking English: Freedom. …

We wondered how all of these migrants … knew about this particular entryway into California.

The answer was in their hands.

Translator: TikTok, TikTok.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh you learned on TikTok.

TikTok is a social media platform created in China. The posts we found had step-by-step instructions for hiring smugglers and detailed directions to that hole we visited.

We were struck by just how orderly and routine it all seemed. The migrants walked about a half mile down a dirt road and waited in line for U.S. Border Patrol to arrive so they could surrender.

The land they are waiting on is owned by 75-year-old Jerry Shuster, a retiree. …

Shuster owns 17 acres … just north of the border fence and a quarter mile outside of Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Population 540.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You’re an immigrant yourself.

Jerry Shuster: Yes.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Where did you come from?

Jerry Shuster: I come from Yugoslavia. And I left Yugoslavia, I went to Austria. I stayed there eight month. And I knock on this door. I didn’t bust the door down to come over here. …

Sharyn Alfonsi: And what do you think about this?

Jerry Shuster: They– they don’t care. They– they– they– they come through the hole like they’re comin’ to their own country over here. And nobody do nothin’ about it.

Shuster says it all started in May. He went to investigate some smoke coming from his property and found migrants burning trees to stay warm.

Today, his property looks like a messy moonscape … littered with the trash and tents migrants have left behind.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you ever just yelled, “Get outta here?”

Jerry Shuster: Well, they say—I uh – it was, like, four month ago, 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.

Sharyn Alfonsi: They arrested you?

Jerry Shuster: Yeah, they arrest me. …

Shuster wasn’t charged — but his gun was confiscated.

Sharyn Alfonsi: If you had to guess, how many migrants do you think you’ve seen come through here?

Jerry Shuster: Maybe 3,000—a week. …

About two hours after these migrants arrived, we saw the Border Patrol pull up, broadcasting recorded instructions in Mandarin.

The migrants were driven to a detention facility near San Diego … where they are given background checks. Some are interviewed. Typically — within 72 hours — they are released into the United States and can begin the process of filing an asylum claim. …

For years, millions of Chinese entered the U.S. with a visa that allowed them to visit, work or study. But in the last few years, those visas have been increasingly difficult to secure as tensions between the two countries have grown.

In 2016, the U.S. granted 2.2 million temporary visas to Chinese nationals. In 2022, it was just 160,000. …

What do you think of the Chinese migrants pouring across our border? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

(Excerpt from CBS News. Photo Credit: Arthur Wang on Unsplash)