Report: Affluent South Americans Flying to Mexico to Enter US Illegally; Tens of Thousands of Brazilians and Venezuelans Illegally Cross US-Mexico Border

AP Photo/Eric Gay, File

Affluent South Americans flying to Mexico to enter US illegally: report

Affluent residents of South American countries suffering economic woes are jetting to Mexico and mixing in with the crowds of poor migrants crossing into the US illegally, according to a report.

The economic conditions in countries like Brazil and Venezuela are forcing some middle-class residents to fly to the border and join other migrants fleeing poverty and crime to seek asylum in the US, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The US government doesn’t track the financial status of migrants, but Chris T. Clem, the chief Border Patrol agent in Yuma, Ariz., told the Journal that federal officials are encountering people who flew to a Mexican border city almost every day.

“They got off the plane and went to a cab or to a bus,” Clem said ​of the well-heeled illegal immigrants. “They literally were driven up and just walked up and turned themselves over to us.”

The ravages of the pandemic and the havoc it wreaked on the economies of many countries are ​spurring some well-to-do people to seek refuge in the US who wouldn’t have made the trek before. --->READ MORE HERE

Tens of thousands of Brazilians and Venezuelans illegally cross US-Mexico border:

Tens of thousands of migrants from South America have flown into Mexico and crossed into a remote part of Arizona since late summer, as word spreads far beyond Central America that the United States's southern border is penetrable, according to two people familiar with the change in migration trends.

More than 7,000 Brazilians and Venezuelans were encountered illegally crossing the border near Yuma in August, an unusually high number of people to come from countries outside the usual El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, whose citizens most often flee to the U.S.

Officials who work in the Yuma region told the Washington Examiner that the 7,000 figure rose considerably through September and October.

“Each and every single person has airline tickets to Mexico,” said one person who works with migrants in federal custody. The official asked to remain anonymous. “Venezuelans are saying, ‘Oh, I left three days ago.'"

Border Patrol agents and contractors on site where migrants are held and processed have been shocked by how much money the migrants are carrying, the same official said. Migrants who come from Central American countries typically cross the border with the clothes on their back and nothing else. --->READ MORE HERE

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