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When the couple arrived in Cancun, they bought a plane ticket to Tijuana, a city just across the border from San Diego, and stayed there only long enough to buy a used car with California plates. At 4 a.m. on December 2, they joined a queue heading towards the US border station in their $3,000 black Chrysler 200s.

Ms. Shuvalova, 24, a political activist, said that when they reached the inspection booth, they were immediately honest with the American officers. “Sorry, we’re Russians,” he told them. “We Need Asylum”

At least two million Ukrainians have fled Russia’s attack on its own nation neighboring countries and Russians have also flocked out of their countries in recent weeks amid overwhelming economic sanctions and harsh crackdowns on popular opposition. But Russian immigration to the United States had already begun, as the number of Russians seeking asylum at the southern border reached the highest figures in recent history, according to figures on border crossings last year.

More than 4,100 Russians crossed the trespass border in fiscal 2021, nine times more than in the previous year. This year the numbers are even higher – 6,420 in the first four months alone.

Ukrainians are also crossing more borders with 1,000 arrests in the first four months of fiscal 2022 – some as recently as this week – compared to 676 in 2021.

Many of the newly arrived Russians, like Ms. Shuvalova and Mr. Ignatev, are supporters of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny and said they no longer feel safe in their homeland. These include excluded and abused religious minorities such as LGBTQ individuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“I get phone calls every other day; “People are fleeing Russia like crazy,” said Anaida Zadykyan, an immigration lawyer who helps Russians seek asylum in Los Angeles.

“Politically, times in Russia are worse than under Stalin; people live in terror,” said Zadykyan, who grew up in Moscow. “Economically, there is no money. People think they can’t survive.”

The spike in Russian immigration from the southern border coincides with a combination of factors that make it nearly impossible for Russians to enter the US directly, and the number of asylum seekers has soared in the months leading up to Russia. occupation of Ukraine.

The tense relations between the USA and Russia hindered visa procedures at the US embassy in Moscow, as consular operations in nearby countries that were closed due to the pandemic also stopped. With all these legal options to reach the US limited, Russians can enter Mexico with relative ease simply by needing a visa that they obtain electronically.

While exact figures are not yet public, some Ukrainians have come to the US border since the Russian occupation began to drive millions out of the country.

According to an immigration lawyer familiar with the case, a mother and three children who arrived at the San Diego border on Wednesday were denied entry, but US officials informed the family that they would be allowed entry the next day.

Ukrainians in the United States are pouring phone calls from immigration lawyers asking how they can sponsor their relatives stranded in Poland and other countries. “There’s a newfound panic and the demand is huge,” said Jeff Khurgel, a Russian-speaking attorney in Irvine, California. US consulates in some European cities have begun speeding up visas.

Russians and Ukrainians represent only a small fraction of all the people crossing the southern border. However, unlike most immigrants from Mexico and Central America, who have been frequently turned away since the start of the epidemic, they are allowed to seek asylum at ports of entry. While the vast majority of asylum cases are ultimately dismissed, two-thirds of those from Russia and Ukraine win, according to data analyzed by the government. Access to Transaction Records Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Between June and February 21, except for one week, Russians were among the top three nationalities that Russia helped. San Diego Rapid Response Networkproviding food and shelter to immigrants after their release from custody at the US border. The network also receives a small but growing number of Ukrainians, and the volume is expected to increase following the Russian invasion, assuming Mexico is relatively easy to access.

“This is about to be a flood,” said Lou Correa, a California Democrat representative who recently testified to Congress about what he witnessed at the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego. “You will have poor Ukrainians and hungry Russians.”

In an interview, he said that the plane he flew from Cancun to Tijuana six weeks ago was full of Russian speakers.

To obtain asylum in the United States, applicants must demonstrate that they have a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political views, or membership of a particular social group. All those who pass visa-free are subject to deportation procedures and file asylum cases in court hearings.

LGBTQ people from Russia have sought asylum in the United States for years. In recent years, however, repression against them in Russia has increased with a series of state-sponsored discriminatory policies. especially in the Russian Chechnya republicaccording to advocates working with new immigrants.

“The rise in LGBTQ asylum seekers from across the border reflects the helplessness people feel,” said Tess Feldman, an immigration attorney for the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

Immigration lawyer Mr. Khurgel said Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have faced raids and imprisonment since a Russian court labeled the Christian denomination as an extremist group in 2017, have made their way to the US border with pictures of themselves worshiping and proving that they have been baptized.

Most Russians passing through San Diego-area border crossings follow tips shared by groups on the encrypted messaging app Telegram—about how to plan the trip, how to find car dealers in Tijuana, and avoid arousing suspicion. (Hint: Don’t buy a faster car.)

In December, when a record 2,000 Russians were faced, officers shot at two vehicles San Ysidro was carrying 18 Russians as it ran towards the port of entry. While the bullets hitting one vehicle hit the other, two immigrants were slightly injured.

Ilia Kiselev, a 29-year-old Russian opposition activist who attended the tour in November, said she felt increasingly vulnerable last June after a Russian court classified organizations linked to the Kremlin’s imprisoned critic, Mr Navalny, as extremists. He attended opposition rallies and put up posters denouncing the September parliamentary elections as bogus. The police in his hometown of Yaroslavl wrote down his information on a piece of paper and then said they came looking for him at his home.

“I knew I was a target and I had to get out of Russia before it was too late,” Mr. Kiselev said in a recent interview at a cafe in Los Angeles.

In late November, he paid $1,500 for a vacation package to Playa del Carmen, a popular beach town south of Cancun. While there, he spent $220 on airfare to Tijuana and Mexico City; never intended to fly to the capital, but had read on Telegram that Mexican authorities were detaining Russians with a one-way ticket to the border city.

Mr. Kiselev from Tijuana and a Russian friend drove to the border on a bright red Honda motorcycle.

After applying for asylum, they were handcuffed and detained in a room with about 15 people, mostly from Russia, until they were allowed to go to Los Angeles.

Another activist, 34-year-old roommate Vadim Fridovskii, was turned away by American officers standing a few meters from the port of entry. (Asylum claims can only be made by people who have touched American soil.) A few hours later, Mr. Fridovskii and his group managed to reach the car window and seek asylum.

Ms. Shuvalova and Mr. Ignatev said that before seeking asylum in the United States, they attended events organized by supporters of Mr. Navalny in their hometown of Ulyanovsk.

“We saw with our own eyes that people were beaten and arrested; We could be next,” said chemist Ms. Shuvalova, sitting next to her husband, the chef, one afternoon.

The couple tried to enter Poland, but the visa was denied. Thus, they turned to social networks where people exchanged information on how to enter the United States through Mexico.

They told their families that they were planning a beach vacation in Mexico.

“They would never understand the truth. They think we are zombies programmed with Western propaganda,” said Ms. Shuvalova.

In late November, the couple boarded a charter flight from Moscow to Cancun with two carry-on and one suitcase between them. The flight was full, the couple remembered.

After receiving a tip that Mexican authorities were arresting Russians in hotels, they spent several nail-biting trips in Cancun to arrange a trip to Tijuana. They bought a car in the border town and drove towards the border with the help of GPS.

Ms. Shuvalova said she was shaking as their car drove towards the checkpoint.

When they reached the window and asked for asylum, “the American officers chuckled and replied, ‘Oh, more Russians,'” he recalled, instructing them to pull over.

After two days in detention, the couple was taken to a San Diego shelter with a notice to appear in immigration court, their discarded car was confiscated by US authorities.

Mr. Ignatev was horrified as they watched the events unfolding in Ukraine and Russia, but said they were particularly grateful for leaving their homeland, although some relatives called them “traitors”. The couple is expecting their first child, who will be American.