Thousands Of Undocumented Brazilian Migrants Crossing Into CA

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — A surge in the number of Brazilian migrants fleeing their home country is being documented along the California stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, and it's speculated that the increase is due to challenging living conditions in the South American country hit hard by the coronavirus.

Sophisticated human smuggling operations are cashing in on the desperation.

U.S. Border Patrol agents working in the San Diego and El Centro sector offices have seen staggering increases in encounters with Brazilian nationals.

Since Oct. 1, 2020, San Diego Sector agents have apprehended more than 7,300 Brazilian migrants attempting to enter the United States. This is in sharp contrast to the 330 Brazilians taken into custody by the San Diego office over all of the last fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2020.

"Every month since April of 2021, [the San Diego Sector] has encountered more than 1,000 Brazilian nationals who entered the U.S. illegally," according to San Diego Sector Border Patrol officials. "This represents more than a 114,000% increase from the same timeframe in FY20, where [San Diego Sector] saw six total apprehensions of Brazilian nationals."

Brazilians currently make up about 70 percent of all non-Mexican migrants encountered by San Diego Sector agents, according to a Border Patrol spokesperson.

Figures provided to Patch by the Border Patrol's El Centro Sector office show 3,518 Brazilian nationals have been encountered there since Oct. 1, 2020. That compares to just 387 Brazilian migrants in all of fiscal year 2020.

Neither the San Diego nor El Centro Border Patrol sector spokespeople would speculate on what's behind the uptick, but a recent New York Times story quoted a Brazilian man who explained why he made the dangerous trek to the United States.

"What we’re hearing back home is that the new president is facilitating entry, and there is demand for labor,” Rodrigo Neto told The New York Times.

According to the paper, the pandemic killed Neto's business and he was swamped in debt.

More than half a million Brazilians have died due to COVID-19. The country has the second-highest death toll worldwide, behind only the United States, and the virus continues to rage there. The pandemic has exacerbated Brazil's poverty rate, which was high before COVID-19 hit.

Where there is despair, criminal organizations see opportunity.

Neto, 55, sold his belongings and closed his electrical shop prior to making his journey to the United States. He was unable to get a visa, so he took connecting flights to Tijuana where he met his smugglers, according to the Times.

Dozens of stories like Neto's exist. On July 27, USBP Chief Patrol Agent Aaron M. Heitke tweeted about 18 Brazilian migrants who were allegedly abandoned by smugglers and left lost in wilderness area near Campo in San Diego County.

Most Brazilian nationals apprehended by San Diego Sector agents are families, according to the office. Communication with the migrants is difficult, and translators who speak Portuguese are often called in to help facilitate.

"Due to language barriers and other factors, processing these large numbers of Brazilian nationals strains limited resources — increasing the number of agents removed from patrol duties and being reassigned to processing centers," Heitke said.

The San Diego Sector office is extremely busy. In fiscal year 2021, agents stationed there have apprehended more than 100,000 migrants from around the world — the highest number in over a decade.

President Joe Biden has continued a Trump-era program known as Title 42, which allows quick expulsions of migrants without due process. Trump invoked Title 42 as a pandemic-related order in March 2020.

Yet Title 42 hasn't seemed to slow human smugglers.

Most Brazilian migrants who are apprehended by San Diego Sector agents are coming to the United States via remote land areas that are often controlled by territorial smuggling organizations, although maritime cells appear to be wiggling into the Brazilian market, according to USBP Agent Angel Moreno.

The amount of money paid to smugglers is somewhere between $8,000-$12,000 per person, but the price can go much higher — a Chinese national might pay as much as $30,000, according to Moreno.

For those who can't pay up, human trafficking and indentured servitude are the common currency for a chance at life in the United States, according to Moreno.

"It's the part of illegal immigration that the public doesn't always see — these sophisticated criminal cells," Moreno said. "There are people who make a lot of money."