It’s a 2,300 mile journey known as “The Route” or “The Big Beautiful.” It includes trudging through jungle and crossing the Rio Grande. Chinese migrants plan strategically. They fly into Ecuador, where they can enter without a visa. Then they start walking.
Social media sites offer practical tips. Pack Crocs and hiking boots. Bring money to hire a streetwise guide. Surrender to U.S. border patrol at the right spots. China blocks Twitter, but users can access banned sites through virtual private networks (VPNs).
From October to April, Chinese nationals made up the fastest-growing migrant group at the U.S.-Mexico border. About 6,500 were held there during that time.
Many migrants are small business owners who suffered financial losses during China’s pandemic lockdowns. But others are Christians seeking freedom to worship.
Beijing has increased restrictions on religions believed to challenge the Communist party. Border crossers can request U.S. asylum if they fear persecution in their home countries.
Imagine being so desperate for freedom that you fly across time zones and walk thousands of miles to an unknown fate. God repeatedly instructed the Israelites to aid foreigners in need. “Show kindness and mercy to one another. Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor.” (Zechariah 7:9-10)
Lihua Wu is a single mother. She sold her used BMW and borrowed about 10,000 yuan ($1,450) from family and friends. She and her five-year-old daughter flew to Ecuador. They found a group of fellow migrants in Quito. The migrants knew a Colombian guide known only as “Carlos.” Carlos is an internet star in China. Migrants like Wu are often targets for corrupt smugglers.
Carlos and his cohorts charged around $1,230 per adult and $700 per child to arrange for travel and hotels from Ecuador to Panama. The cost included a guide through the Darién Gap, a jungle region on the border between Colombia and Panama.
Former Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez says the rush of Chinese people put “a strain on our workforce due to the complexities of the language barrier.”
The U.S. Border Patrol took Lihua Wu and her daughter into custody on April 2. Migrants can be detained or released in the United States while their immigration cases are pending.
Why? Migrants risk much to taste the liberties we cherish daily. Pray our government and border guards will treat migrants appropriately with wisdom, care, and grace.
Heang Uy: Immigrant, Mentor, Teacher, American
Heang Uy (Hen Oy) has been a devoted history teacher and beloved coach in Western North Carolina for 23 years. His family escaped Pol Pot’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in 1979. Heang was a year old. A sponsor family in Tennessee offered them a home and community.
In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge tried to force its vision of a communist utopia. It made citizens march to work areas, usually rice fields. The regime separated family members based on age. All workers had to wear black uniforms. No affection or laughter was allowed. Citizens worked 12-hour days and suffered hunger. Minorities and suspected political opponents were killed. Up to two million people died—about a quarter of Cambodia’s population.
Heang was a sickly baby. Exhausted Cambodian families escaping into Thailand’s refugee camps often gave their infants to local villagers. Heang’s father refused, saying, “If we die, we all die together.”
Refugees like the Uys left their homeland to survive. Heang and his family are profoundly thankful for the people who gave them a fresh start. He and his five siblings all finished college and forged lives in America. Heang says, “I’m grateful to be where I am, and for what the generation before me was willing to do.”
For more about immigrants’ journeys to America, see Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri in our Recommended Reading.
