An increasing number of people from far-flung corners of the world have quietly tried to sneak into the US among the hundreds of thousands of other, mostly Latin American migrants caught at the Mexican border in the last year, according to arrest data from the Homeland Security Department.
The arrests of more than 8000 people from India, China, Romania, Bangladesh and Nepal between October 2015 and the end of August is offering a new challenge to immigration agents tasked with fully identifying would-be immigrants and quickly deporting people caught crossing the border illegally.
The group of overseas migrants represents a tiny fraction of the more than 408,000 people caught crossing the Mexican border illegally in the last year. But the arrests suggest a rising trend in the number of migrants opting for a convoluted trek that sometimes wends across the seas to South America, over land to Central America and then through Mexico before arriving at the U.S. border illegally.
For decades Mexico dominated the discussion on illegal immigration as the country from which most immigrants went to the border illegally. But in recent years the number of Mexican nationals who have been trying to sneak into the US has dropped.
India and China are now squarely among the top 10 countries of origin for people caught trying to sneak into the US. Large numbers of immigrants from those two countries have long come to the US legally and many have overstayed visas to remain here. Now some people are taking a different approach altogether by making their way to Mexico to try to sneak into the US as visas are harder to come by.
Victor Manjarrez, a former Border Patrol sector chief and director of the Center for Law & Human Behavior at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the rising number of migrants from countries far beyond the Americas should be seen as a growing concern.
"That is very unusual. If I was still sitting as the chief of El Paso or Tucson ... I'd be a little concerned," Manjarrez said.
"In the grand scheme, as a percentage, it's relatively small but the raw numbers are such a big jump historically."
The changing face of illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border is a small part of a broader trend of global migration, with millions of people fleeing their home countries. But the arrival of so many people from far beyond US borders brings with it broad implications for US border security and other immigration enforcement efforts.
The Homeland Security Department has made arresting, jailing and deporting recent border crossers a top priority for immigration agents. Most Mexican migrants caught at the border are sent home within just a few days. But for migrants from countries a continent away the process is often far longer and costlier for the US government as the migrants wait in immigration jails for travel documents to return home or a judge to decide their fate.
The uptick in arrivals of people from other continents, combined with an increase in overall border crossings in the last 12 months, has led to a spike of more than 40,000 people being held in immigration jails in recent weeks.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's budget gives them enough money to house 34,000 people at any given time and the recent overflow has officials worried they may face a budget shortfall of more than $US130 million in the coming months if the trend continues.
DHS spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the agency has enough money to "operate at current levels" until December 9, when a temporary budget resolution expires. After that, she said, DHS will work to either shift money from other parts of the department or find another "alternative budget strategy." She described the possible budget adjustment as "common".
