Rising numbers of Ecuadorians hurt by pandemic head to US

An extraordinary number of Ecuadorians has been coming to the United States — often to New York

NEW YORK -- It took just a few days for Monica Muquinche to reach New York after leaving Ecuador’s Andean highlands with her 10-year-old son. She flew to Mexico City, took a bus to the U.S. border, boated across and was detained by the Border Patrol. After one night in custody in Texas, she was released and then headed to the Big Apple. “I think God protected us,” said the 35-year-old, whose husband disappeared last year while trying to make the same journey. Muquinche is part of an extraordinary number of Ecuadorians coming to the United States. They surpassed El Salvadorans as the fourth-largest nationality encountered by U.S. authorities on the Mexican border, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Hondurans. U.S. authorities stopped Ecuadorians 17,314 times in July, compared with 3,598 times in January.