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Gueva Ba\u00a0tried to reach Europe<\/a>\u00a0by boat 11 times from Morocco, failing each attempt. Then, in 2023, the former welder heard about a new route to the United States by flying to Nicaragua and making the rest of the journey illegally by land\u00a0to Mexico\u2019s northern border<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Senegal, it\u2019s all over the streets \u2014 everyone\u2019s talking about Nicaragua, Nicaragua, Nicaragua,\u201d said Ba, who paid about 6 million CFA francs ($10,000) to get to\u00a0Nicaragua<\/a>\u00a0in July with stops in Morocco, Spain and El Salvador. \u201cIt\u2019s not something hidden.\u201d<\/p>\n Ba, 40, was deported from the U.S. with 131 compatriots in September after two months in detention, but thousands of other Senegalese have gained a foothold in America. Many turn to savvy travel agents who know the route \u2014 touted on social media by those who\u2019ve successfully settled in the U.S.<\/p>\n They are part of\u00a0a surge in migration<\/a>\u00a0to the United States that is extraordinary for its size and scope, with more people from far-flung countries accounting for crossings at the border. And as with this route used by the Senegalese, more are figuring out plans, making payments, and seeking help via social networks, and apps like WhatsApp and TikTok.<\/p>\n Arrests for illegal crossings on the U.S. border with Mexico\u00a0reached record highs in December<\/a>. January saw a drop for the month, but arrests have topped 6.4 million since January 2021. And Mexicans account for only about 1 of 4 arrests, with the others coming from more than 100 countries.<\/p>\n U.S. authorities arrested Senegalese migrants 20,231 times for crossing the border illegally from July to December. That\u2019s a 10-fold increase from 2,049 arrests during the same period of 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.\u00a0Many cross in remote deserts of western Arizona<\/a>, like Ba, and California.<\/p>\n Word of the Nicaragua route began spreading early last year in Dakar and took hold in May, said Abdoulaye Doucour\u00e9, who owns a travel agency that sold about 1,200 tickets from Dakar to Nicaragua in the last three months of 2023, for the equivalent of several thousand dollars each.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople didn\u2019t know about this route, but with social networks and the first migrants who took this route, the information quickly circulated among migrants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Some are motivated by Senegal\u2019s political turmoil \u2014 authorities\u00a0delayed February\u2019s presidential elections<\/a>\u00a0by 10 months \u2014 but the sudden draw seemed to hinge largely on social media posts and the spread of the route there.<\/p>\n Spikes attributed to social media have occurred in other West African nations, whose people have historically turned\u00a0first to Europe<\/a>\u00a0to flee.\u00a0Mauritanians have arrived<\/a>\u00a0at the U.S. border with Mexico in similarly large numbers, and migrants from Ghana and Gambia have come, too.<\/p>\n Many are eventually released in the U.S. to pursue asylum in immigrant courts that are backlogged for years with\u00a0more than 3 million cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n Passports from many African countries carry little weight in the Western Hemisphere, making the journey by land to the United States difficult to even begin. Senegalese can fly visa-free to only two countries in the Americas: Nicaragua and Bolivia, according to\u00a0The Henley Passport Index<\/a>. Nicaragua is much closer than Bolivia and avoids the\u00a0notoriously dangerous Darien Gap<\/a>\u00a0in Panama.<\/p>\n As U.S. sanctions against Nicaragua\u2019s repressive government have increased, the government of President Daniel Ortega has used migration to push back.<\/p>\n The Nicaraguan government went so far as to hire a Dubai-based firm to train Nicaraguan civil aviation to manage national immigration procedures for charter flight passengers. More than 500 charter flights landed from June to November,\u00a0mostly from Haiti and Cuba<\/a>, according to Manuel Orozco, director of the migration, remittances and development program at the Inter-American Dialogue.<\/p>\n But migrants from farther afield, like Ba, also made their way to Nicaragua on a series of connecting commercial flights from Africa. In African capitals, migrants typically buy multileg tickets from travel agents connecting through Istanbul or Madrid, followed by stops in Bogota, Colombia, or San Salvador, El Salvador, before ultimately arriving in Managua, Nicaragua. From there, they meet smugglers offering to take them to the Honduran border, or arrange the trip all the way to the U.S.<\/p>\n The U.S. State Department has called on Nicaragua to \u201cplay a responsible role\u201d in managing hemispheric migration, but that has yet to be seen. Nicaraguan first lady and Vice President Rosario Murillo did not respond to a request for comment on the surge in extra-continental migration through her country.<\/p>\n In October,\u00a0El Salvador began charging $1,130<\/a>\u00a0for citizens of 57 largely African countries and India transiting the country\u2019s airport. Authorities said most of those charged were on their way to Nicaragua aboard Avianca, a Colombian commercial carrier.<\/p>\n El Salvador\u2019s fee caused airfares from Dakar to rise toward the end of 2023, said Serigne Faye, an agent at the Touba Express travel agency in Senegal\u2019s capital. Some passengers instead fly through Bogota. Stopovers in Turkey are the most expensive.<\/p>\n While most asylum claims fail, the immigration court backlog means that people can remain in the U.S. for years, with eligibility for work permits. The asylum grant rate for Senegalese was 26% in the U.S. government\u2019s budget year ended Sept. 30, compared with 14% for all nationalities, according to\u00a0Justice Department figures<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ousmane Anne, 34, left Senegal on Sept. 25 with a plane ticket to Nicaragua, purchased from a travel agency. His journey took a month \u2014 longer and costlier than anticipated. Mexico was treacherous, he said, describing his traveling group as frequently harassed, threatened and robbed by gangs.<\/p>\n Despite the enthusiasm back home, he said, he\u2019d be hard-pressed to recommend the trip to anyone who doesn\u2019t understand the risks. But he made it to New York, which has the largest Senegalese population of any U.S. metropolitan area, according to census data.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew it would not be very easy to come here to the States, but the hope that I had was higher than all the obstacles and problems,\u201d Anne said. \u201cI knew the opportunities would be greater here.\u201d<\/p>\n He recently attended a forum in Harlem, hosted by the Senegalese Association of America. He learned basics of U.S. law, heard some do\u2019s and don\u2019ts from police officers about the e-bikes and mopeds that are popular with migrants, and got tips on navigating the health care system.<\/p>\n Even if he came away with more questions than answers, Anne said, he remains hopeful.<\/p>\n\n