In one week alone, the number of African-born illegal aliens apprehended at the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector in Texas reached more than double last year's total across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
The Associated Press reports that only 211 African-born illegals were apprehended across the entire US-Mexico border in 2018. A single week of border apprehensions this past month reached more than 500. This is becoming a new trend of large influxes of migrants coming from places other than the Americas, as Border Patrol agent Raul Ortiz told AP:
’We are continuing to see a rise in apprehensions of immigrants from countries not normally encountered in our area.’
AP reports that the migrants apprehended were brought to San Antonio by federal immigration officials and bused as far as Portland, Maine.
It is reported that some of these Central African migrants fly into Ecuador due to the lack of a visa needed to travel there. From there, the migrants make a treacherous four-month journey to America.
One question that many should be asking is where all of this money is coming from? While the AP report claims that these are poor Africans trying to escape persecution and poverty, the costs associated with making such a trek don’t add up.
Four of the countries highlighted where these new illegals are coming from -- Congo, Cameroon, Sudan, and Angola -- all have per capita incomes that equal less than $4000 USD per year. When making a rough estimate cost of what a journey would be like, $1300 or more for a plane ticket, then the estimated $5000 or more that one would have to pay either a cartel or coyote to be able to make it to the US border, this would equate to well over a year of income for the average earner in these countries. In the case of Sudan, five to six times the average yearly income. Costs can even far exceed this depending upon whom is helping these migrants cross the border.
One thing for certain is once these migrants reach the US, they become financial burdens to taxpayers, costing US citizens and legal immigrants over $100 billion per year.