Washington —
As the U.S marks the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, thousands of Chinese immigrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, mostly for the same reasons as their countrymen did more than a century ago.
Zhongwei Wang made that journey this spring through Central America with his family.
"When I knew there was a way to leave China, I felt overjoyed, really overjoyed," he said.
According to the U.S. Border Patrol, from January through September, more than 24,000 Chinese migrants crossed the border without authorization, about 13 times the number recorded during the same period last year.
"They see a lack of opportunity. They see the Chinese economy stagnating. There’s also been a lot of frustration with how controlling the Chinese government is, how many restrictions there are on their lives, and people have been researching how to get to the United States," said Madeline Y. Hsu, a history professor at the University of Maryland.
