Illegal\nmigration across America\u2019s southern border isn\u2019t what it used to be. It\u2019s\nincreasingly \u201cextra-continental.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While\nnationals from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala\nand Honduras remain in the majority, more Africans, Asians and Middle\nEasterners are in the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal aliens from countries outside the Americas jumped from 2,526 in July to 5,752 through the end of November, according to the Center for Immigration Studies<\/a> (CIS). Many more are lining up to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThousands\nof extra-continentals are backed up in heavily transited Panama, which has long\nserved as a \u2026 throughway for U.S.-bound migrants who initially landed in South\nAmerica,\u201d CIS reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n CIS cited a just-released Mexican government report showing 8,992 Africans reaching Mexico between January and October 2020. A category of “unspecified” migrants not from the Americas numbered 17,043. Another 21,280 hailed from Oceania<\/a>. All of the numbers were up significantly from previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mexico’s\nnational guard has blocked some extra-continental migrants from proceeding\nnorth since June 2019. But well-paid smugglers are still circumventing the\nguard’s network of roadblocks, which helps explain how Middle Easterners and\nAfricans wind up at the U.S. border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Migration Policy Institute<\/a> (MPI) found that most extra-continental migrants enter South and Central America through legal means \u2014 either because visas are not needed, or because of lax visa requirements in countries such as Ecuador, Brazil and Guyana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond that\nthere\u2019s laxity on deportation in the transit countries. \u201cOf approximately\n34,000 extra-continental migrants apprehended in Mexico between 2013 and 2018,\njust 3.3 percent were deported,\u201d MPI stated. That percentage may have increased\nsince Mexico strengthened its immigration enforcement, but there\u2019s a long way\nto go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anticipating that illegal traffic across the southern border will \u201cclimb significantly\u201d after COVID-19 restrictions ease, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security<\/a> \u201cthreat assessment\u201d warned of \u201cthe potential for another [migrant]surge as those who were previously prevented from seeking entry into the United States arrive.\u201d Extra-continentals will surely be among them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Illegal migration across America\u2019s southern border isn\u2019t what it used to be. It\u2019s increasingly \u201cextra-continental.\u201d While nationals from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras remain in the majority, more Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners are in the mix. U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal aliens from countries outside the<\/p>\n