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Ecuador suspends visa-free entry for Chinese nationals amid “irregular migratory flows”
The above video was first published on Feb. 4, 2024.
Ecuador is suspending a visa waiver agreement with China. Some Chinese nationals have taken advantage of that agreement by flying from Ecuador to Tijuana, Mexico, then illegally crossing into the U.S. at the southern border.
The South American country cited “a worrying increase in migratory flows” in Tuesday’s announcement, noting that in recent months, around half of Chinese nationals coming into Ecuador didn’t leave the country through regular routes or within the 90-day period allowed by law.
The move comes amid an increase in Chinese nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border.
More than 24,000 Chinese nationals were encountered at the U.S. Southwest border so far this year, the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security said on April 18, with almost all of them apprehended while illegally crossing the border. The committee noted that such encounters had increased by more than 8,000% compared with March 2021. In April, which is the most recently available data, there were 3,324 encounters with Chinese nationals at the southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Last year, Customs and Border Protection reported 37,000 Chinese citizens were apprehended crossing illegally from Mexico into the U.S. Some of the migrants previously told 60 Minutes that they made the journey so that they could escape China’s increasingly repressive political climate and sluggish economy.
In recent years, it’s grown increasingly difficult for Chinese nationals to obtain visas to visit, work, or study in the U.S., 60 Minutes reported in February. Just 160,000 temporary visas were granted to Chinese nationals in 2022 compared with 2.2 million in 2016.
60 Minutes has reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection about how Ecuador’s announcement may affect migration at the southern border.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Tuesday the mutual visa exemption between China and Ecuador, which took effect in August 2016, promoted cross-border travel and cooperation.
Officials in Ecuador said the mutual visa exemption was only being temporarily suspended.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility reiterates its commitment so that people who visit the country can do so with adequate security guarantees, preventing them from being victims of human trafficking or migrant smuggling, as well as ensuring adequate national immigration control and precautions for the normal operation of air transport companies,” Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility said in a statement.
Lin also addressed smuggling during his briefing Tuesday, saying China’s government opposes all forms of human smuggling.
“In recent years, Chinese law enforcement departments have made tremendous efforts to fight crimes that involve obstructing national frontier and border administration, and remained tough on all kinds of human smuggling groups and individuals engaged in illegal immigration,” said Lin. “Their effort has produced good results. At the same time, Chinese law enforcement departments are working with relevant countries to jointly tackle human smuggling activities, repatriate illegal immigrants and maintain a good order in cross-border travel.”
Ecuador’s announcement comes just weeks after President Biden authorized U.S. immigration officials to deport large numbers of migrants without processing their asylum claims.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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