The Immigration Drag

Migrant Encounters Hit an All Time High at the Mexican/US Border in December 2023 of 250,000

As many of my long term readers know, I have been in an ongoing immigration dilemma with my husband Ka, who has not thus far not been granted a family based preference visa to come be with me in the USA. The Thailand housing situation is a lot of moving parts but we can no longer stay at our old bungalow. I plan on seeing how things look on the ground soon.

At this point the entirety of the holdup on my husband’s USA visa appears to be back to the Covid vaccine mandate which is still in force for the panel physician checkup for immigrant visa holders. Ka may also need a new Thai passport as his expires in less than six months. We started setting up this process in 2019, the same year that we married.

Meanwhile the invasion of the Southern border continues. Here are some charts from PEW research. In December of 2023 migrant encounters hit an all time high of almost 250,000. For just. that. month.

More people are coming in families it seems, which is safer if I were planning to cross in this manner with my husband (for those who don’t know I was born and raised in Ohio as a US citizen American as Apple Pie Bluebell):

The coutry mix is changing from migrants originating from Mexico and Central American countries to, well, everywhere else:

For the fiscal year of 2023 there were around 2.5 million border crossers. For comparison purposes I went to this Boundless Immigration link regarding legally obtaining a visa or green card to come to the USA. How many people are stupid enough to actually try that still? The most recent statistics I could find were for 2022:

Visa Approvals Bounce Back to Pre-Pandemic Levels in 2022

---

Both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas saw large upticks according to visa report

Jan 25, 2023

---

Visas issued overseas (at foreign service posts outside of the U.S.) increased significantly in 2022 according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2022 visa report.

The yearly data report details all immigrant and nonimmigrant visa issuances by the State Department in the 2022 fiscal year.

Here are some of the high level takeaways from this year’s visa report:

Approval numbers for nonimmigrant and immigrant visas improved between 2021 and 2022, with wait times decreasing in both categories.

• Total nonimmigrant visa issuances in 2022: 6,815,120

• Total immigrant visa issuances in 2022: 493,448

So total immigrant visas issued were a little under 500,000 for 2022, while illegal border crossings were five times as many for fiscal 2023. Not everyone who comes through Mexico in this way is an invader per say. Some almost certainly have family in the US already, but the requirements on “Family preference” visa categories are extremely high. Some people don’t want to get a Covid vaccine or do not meet the income threshold. Some might have criminal charges, unpaid taxes or any number of small infractions that make it very difficult for one side or the other. Some might not want to wait five years to be with their family.

I am sure that part of the flow of migrants have too difficult of a time making a legitimate visa to come to the United States for which they might otherwise be qualified. But the vast majority of this migrant flow is almost certainly based on economic factors. So who is paying for these people?

Spike Hamson detailed it well in this Brownstone article. What are the gears of the refugee machine?

“We now know that even the United Nations is involved in housing, feeding, and transporting would-be illegal immigrants headed north. It follows that our federal government is the main source of funding for much of this UN effort. The American citizenry remains ignorant about this.

Border crossings in Central America are tightly regulated for people like you and me, but clustered hoards of illegal immigrants are magically waved through from one country to the next. There are six or seven border crossings to be made before reaching the United States. Do you really think administrations in those countries are unaware of the situation? The unencumbered passage of millions of migrants is only possible if critical palms have been well greased — by Yankee dollars that Americans have paid in taxes.

For those who are unaware, the frontier zone between Central America’s Panama and South America’s Colombia is called the Darien Gap — a thick, wet jungle of hill country through which no road passes. Until recently, it was rarely penetrated and only by extreme adventurers or suspect characters, but now has three different jungle trails for illegal wannabes headed north. On any given day, thousands of people complete the trek, virtually always in large groups accompanied by several guides.

This 50-75 miles of jungle trekking has become a conduit for those from the Caribbean and South America who can find no easier pathway to the US. It is also favored by many of those coming from overseas since the country of Ecuador does not require a visa for entry and the circumvention of designated border crossings into Colombia is relatively easy.

Those with means but from countries whose citizens are severely restrained from traveling to other countries fly to Quito, circumvent the Colombian border stations, hazard the Darien Gap, and use either their feet or buses and trains to reach the US border. And virtually always this is done as part of a large group consisting mostly of strangers.

Many Americans are unaware of the degree to which illegal migrants are recruited and assisted by international and non-governmental organizations — all of which wish to see the United States Southern border eradicated. The flood of illegal immigrants across the border is clearly an invasion being sponsored by a globalist ideology.  

I’m becoming curious if there are services offered, almost certainly in Thai language exclusively, to bring migrants to the USA from there. Illegal crossings from Mexico were almost unheard of from Thai nationals in times of old, although USA visa overstays were heavily preferred in Thai restaurants and massage parlors due to the wage suppression it allowed.

All of this, every last bit, is a song and dance supported by politicians on both sides of the aisle in order to suppress wages for the working class. Those border crossers who have been processed now have veritable time bombs over their heads regarding endless hoops of immigration. Enforcement actions may or may not be taken, creating an exploitable underclass.

So hypothetically if I were to illegally cross the border with my Thai husband, or try to, how would I go about doing such thing? The first thing is that I would want a real on the ground view of the situation, not some idiotic laser pointer being wielded for a 30 seconds of hate reelection campaign. The Secular Heretic has done some good posts regarding what it really looks like in Arizona:

what we are not being told about the border situation

As Kyle Young writes:

“During construction (of the border fence), illegal traffic along the border essentially came to a halt.

Then Trump was replaced by Biden. Migrant traffic quickly began to increase. But the new fence had completely altered the dynamics. Prior to Trumps fence many migrants came across on their own. In other words, they didn’t need to pay Mexican drug cartels to get across the border.

Trumps wall changed that. Today, some sections remain unfinished. The bigger sections are mountainous stretches that, due to the very rough terrain, may never get completed (see upcoming videos). I doubt if a migrant has ever tried to cross in those areas.

But there are smaller, more important gaps. These are known as water gaps or flood gaps - places where flood gates were to be installed in the fence to allow runoff from major downpours to move, unrestricted, down arroyos and across the border. They were to be opened manually just before a storm and then closed manually after. If those gaps were not there, runoff from big rain events would tear out major sections of the fence. The gates for these water gaps were to be the last phase of Trumps wall. They never got installed.

Today those gaps serve as funnels for migrants. More importantly, they serve as lucrative toll gates for Mexican drug cartels. Various cartels control sections of the new fence and its water gaps. For about twenty or so miles on either side of border town Nogales, Sonora/Arizona, the Sinaloa Cartel runs all the water gaps. About twenty miles or so either side of Sasabe Sonora/Arizona, the flood gaps are coming under the control of what is known as the New Alliance, Los Salalzar/Los Cazadores/Los Paredes. The two cartels meet just about due south of my place. This is where a lot of shootings have occurred as the rival gangs fight for control of some particularly popular flood gates about half way between those two towns.”

As much fun as it sounds like to be held for ransom by a Mexican drug cartel, I’ll pass, thanks. Now I might be able to win an award with my high school class for most interactions with the Thai Mafia, but then again a classmate was doing Muay Thai in Pattaya for a few years and Toledo is a weird place so who knows?

Destabilization is the name of the game. Always follow the money…

Buy me a ko-fi