In a Los Angeles suburb, Chinese ‘border crossers’ with ‘no future in China’ seek a new life after harrowing journey

The journey for some immigrants means flying from China to Ecuador, braving a 265km trek on foot, traversing Mexico by car and bus before crossing the US border

In April, US immigration authorities encountered nearly 3,200 Chinese migrants at the Mexican border. Before the pandemic, in late 2019, it was about 200 a month

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Published: 8:20pm, 3 Aug 2023Updated: 8:22pm, 3 Aug 2023

Drawn by a message on the WeChat app, the Chinese immigrants lined up for free bags of leafy greens that volunteers handed out from a battered minivan in a Monterey Park car park.

Many had recently survived a novel and dangerous journey – flying from China to Ecuador, braving the treacherous rainforest of the Darién Gap on foot, then traversing Mexico by car and bus before crossing the border.

A woman who wore an ankle monitor on this hot June afternoon so immigration authorities could track her said she had been “just getting by” running a small restaurant in Wuhan and wanted to escape the social stigma of being twice divorced.

“If your job and family situation aren’t good, there’s no future in China,” said the woman, 33, who had arrived in the L.A. area about a month earlier and would only give her English name, Sophia.

Monterey Park has long been a landing spot for immigrants from China with no English and a few hundred dollars in their pockets. “Family hotels” offer a cheap place to sleep, crammed in with dozens of others. Employment agencies can provide a gig at a restaurant, a warehouse or a marijuana farm – no work permit needed.

But the route that some immigrants once took – flying to the US on a tourist visa and obtaining lawful status or overstaying the visa – has been largely closed off for the last few years. The recent arrivals are showing new levels of desperation, willing to risk their lives, and sometimes their children’s lives, to reach American soil.

A migrant child walks with a stuffed animal at a free distribution of clothing, books and toys in Monterey Park in June. Photo: TNS

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