Authorities Struggle to Solve Mystery of Chinese Immigrants in Arizona Desert

To me this is no mystery. Have you ever been to a Chinese Buffet? Every time you go there you see an entirely different staff. I have noticed this for years. Which begs the question. Where did the Chinese folks that were working at the restaurant last week go?

Amid an overall drop in arrests of illegal crossers at the U.S- Mexico border, an intriguing anomaly has cast new light on the global underworld of immigrant smuggling.

Authorities report an almost ten-fold spike in arrests of clandestine migrants from China in the southern Arizona desert, the busiest smuggling corridor on the international line.

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector has caught at least 261 Chinese crossers this year, compared to an average of 32 during the past four years, officials say.

What explains the increase here? Does it reflect a major influx of Chinese illegals into the U.S.?

Enforcement officials say it's not clear. At the border, facts are elusive. Statistical barometers are imperfect. Differing interpretations, political spin and the mysteries of the criminal underworld complicate the picture. High-priced smugglers are better at dodging defenses, so it's hard to assess the correlation between arrests, crossing rates and the number of illegal immigrants who succeed.

U.S. investigators have gathered intelligence about thousands of Chinese who have settled temporarily in Ecuador with the intention of being smuggled into the United States, according to a high-ranking federal official.

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