Central Asia: Illegal Migration and the Terror Threat; Russian, Central Asian Migrants Gather to Seek Asylum at Progreso Port of Entry

Central Asia: Illegal Migration and the Terror Threat:

Central Asia is a catch-all term for the ‘Stans’ group of countries once part of the Soviet Union: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They have a combined area nearly six times larger than Texas and a population four times larger than the state of New York, but this large region contributed very few immigrants to the U.S. until quite recently. The statistics concerning migrants from this region are revealing.

Statistics from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) show a clear trend of increased recent Central Asian migration to the U.S. The record-high asylum backlog of over 3,000,000 cases includes over 14,000 Central Asian nationals, an unprecedented high. Uzbek nationals alone contribute over 8,000 cases to this number, over eight times the number for Uzbek nationals in 2019. Tajikistan has gone from just a few dozen asylum applicants a year to over 700 a year. This asylum backlog data is a solid lagging indicator of illegal immigration from Central Asia, and it shows that it is skyrocketing just like illegal migration from previously unrepresented countries and regions.

It is not just data from TRAC that shows this pattern. Other sources, such as reports from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have noticed a surge in Central Asian nationals at the border. This is important for national security reasons. Central Asia has struggled for years with Islamist extremism. As tensions grow geopolitically, individuals with extreme beliefs may choose to move to strike the U.S. In early 2023, a group of Central Asian migrants were apprehended by CBP and it transpired they had been smuggled by an individual with links to terror group ISIS. Open borders are clearly an invite extremists may not be able to refuse.

This is something the national security community in the U.S. appears to be greatly concerned about. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in November 2023 that the terror threat to America was at “…a whole other level”, and migration of individuals from regions where terror groups are active should clearly be a source of concern. This is no idle thought experiment and there have already been attacks and other examples of support for terrorism linked to migrants from Central Asia in the U.S. —>READ MORE HERE

Russian, Central Asian migrants gather to seek asylum at Progreso Port of Entry:

Dozens of asylum hopefuls from Eastern Europe and Central Asia have been gathering at the Progreso Port of Entry.

Normally, in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, the port of entry is a tourist crossing and has never seen so many immigrants.

“We came here to ask political asylum in the U.S.A.,” Lera Solenko said.

Solenko is one of at least 170 immigrants who were at the bridge with her husband Emin Sevin.

She says she’ll give what she has to the next family that comes. Through these cold nights, families are keeping warm with tents and sleeping bags. Meals and food come in from good Samaritans on this side of the border, many waiting for days with kids and toddlers.

Each family has a different set of circumstances for leaving the region and coming here.

Solenko, a native Ukrainian, living in Russia, fled with her husband, a Kurd facing persecution in Turkey.

The families here now waiting together. Some paid human smugglers large sums of money to make it this far. Some have been robbed, but their goal is to just cross the bridge. —>FOR FULL STORY WATCH VIDEO HERE

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