Ecuador Cancels Chinese Visa Deal

FAIR Take | June 2024

Throughout the Biden Border Crisis, the South American country of Ecuador has served as a gateway into the Americas for migrants from communist China, large numbers of whom used it as a staging point for their long journey northward to the United States. Now, effective July 1, Ecuador is temporarily canceling the visa waiver agreement it had with China and reinstating visa requirements.

The China and Ecuador visa-free travel agreement, signed in January 2015 by the administration of Ecuadorian President Rafeal Correa, became effective in August 2016. The agreement allowed Chinese citizens to travel to and remain in Ecuador for up to 90 days. With growing abuse of the program by U.S.-bound Chinese aliens, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Chinese visitors were violating the conditions on entry. Many Chinese nationals overstay in Ecuador illegally or, most commonly, head north along what the Chinese call the “walking path”, through Colombia, the Darien Gap, Central America, and Mexico, frequently asking for asylum at the U.S. border, even though, as Newsweek explains, “[m]any of the Chinese encountered had middle-class backgrounds and have cited economic difficulties as motivation for undertaking the arduous journey.”

According to one media outlet, “[s]ince 2022, Ecuadorian authorities have tallied growing numbers of Chinese nationals entering their country. In 2023, the Ecuadorian government registered the entry of 66,189 Chinese nationals, only 34,209 of whom left within the terms of the visa waiver agreement.”

Under the Biden Administration, encounters of Chinese illegal aliens at our southern border – lured by open-borders policies – have skyrocketed year over year. Between February 2021 and April 2024, CBP encountered almost 144,000 Chinese nationals. Other countries situated between Ecuador and the U.S., such as Panama, have also seen a sharp increase in Chinese migrants traversing their territory. Panama recorded over 15,000 Chinese migrants in 2023, up from just 376 in the 2010 to 2021 period.

Asylum claims by Chinese nationals have topped the U.S. charts so far in fiscal year 2024. China now ranks fifth in terms of number of asylum applications with USCIS, with 13,213 applications filed this year and another 1,000 asylum cases have worked their way through the immigration courts.

It is likely that Ecuador’s temporary suspension of the China visa deal is the result of pressure from the Biden Administration, which is politically vulnerable due to its open-borders policies and thus needs cooperation from other countries to keep migrants at bay. According to the Los Angeles Times, “[t]he Biden administration, seeking to counter Republican assertions that the border is out of control, has been pressuring Mexico and other transit nations to crack down on asylum seekers from across the world who have been traveling through South and Central America and Mexico en route to the U.S. border.” However, “[i]t was not clear whether Washington specifically requested that Ecuador tighten its visa policy for Chinese nationals. Messages left with the U.S. Embassy in Quito were not returned.”

Whatever the reason for the suspension of visa-free travel, the move will at least temporarily delay and reduce illegal migration from China to the United States via Ecuador. That said, there are other paths Chinese migrants can exploit, such as traveling through Suriname, which allows visa-free travel for Chinese passport holders. Chinese migrants may travel through Bolivia, which allows Chinese nationals to obtain visas upon arrival. Chinese nationals may also travel to the U.S. via Mexico, which allows aliens who obtain visas from Japan, the Schengen countries and the U.K. to stay for 180 days, providing a shortcut to the United States.

Regardless of what restrictions other countries place on travel, U.S. has the obligation to secure its borders and enforce its immigration laws. This can and should include requiring foreign nationals to seek asylum in a safe third country before landing on U.S. soil. The cooperation of other countries in helping to protect our sovereignty should always be welcome, and Americans can only hope that Ecuador’s decision will give way for others to shore up their own visa waiver policies.

In the end, the Biden Administration’s open-borders policies remain in place and thus continue to tempt prospective illegal border crossers and asylum abusers from China, and all over the world, to try their luck. As FAIR has long argued, the executive branch has the power and responsibility to secure the border, but instead prefers to generate exemption-riddled ineffective proclamations while simultaneously incentivizing and rewarding illegal immigration by ushering through an amnesty.