As the US marks the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, thousands of Chinese immigrants are crossing the US-Mexico border after witnessing a decline in the Chinese economy, as reported by Voice of America (VOA).
Zhongwei Wang, a Chinese national, made that journey this spring through Central America with his family.
“When I knew there was a way to leave China, I felt overjoyed, really overjoyed,” he said.
According to the US Border Patrol, from January through September, over 24,000 Chinese migrants crossed the border without authorization, about 13 times the number recorded during the same period last year, VOA reported.
The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, was the only law in US history that singled out a specific ethnic group. However, in 1943, then US President Franklin D Roosevelt officially ended the act and granted Chinese Americans equal citizenship rights for the first time.
Wang arrived with his parents, his wife, and their two children in May. They left China’s Anhui province because of the Chinese government’s aggressive COVID-19 lockdown and human rights issues.
The family flew from Hong Kong to Turkey to Quito, Ecuador, which offers a 90-day visa exemption for Chinese passports.
From there, they walked through the Darien Gap, a dangerous path in the mountainous jungle between Colombia and Panama that tens of thousands of migrants used in 2022 on their way to the US.
“We had to climb four hills on the first day,” he said.
According to the VOA, those without the means to obtain a visa sometimes choose this dangerous route.
Wang added that he originally planned to apply for a tourist visa to come to the United States, but at that time the waiting list for a tourist visa interview in the United States was more than six months.
While he said he objected to China’s COVID-19 lockdown policies and human rights record, he also protested against the Chinese government after he arrived in the US, which prompted local law enforcement to visit his uncle’s home in China.“We must not stop (protesting the Chinese government) overseas, despite their threats to intimidate my family, my uncle, and the others. So, when we are overseas, we cannot keep a low profile.
If we don’t speak out when (our families) are threatened, they (the Chinese government) know this method is effective and they will threaten others again,” he said.