Thousands of African asylum seekers have flooded Mexican border cities with the U.S. in an effort to get to California and Texas to obtain U.S. asylum — many of the unvetted migrants are from the terror hotbed of Somalia. Rather than having to hide along the way, the African migrants have been getting a special permit from Mexico that gives them a free pass to the U.S. border.

The influx of asylum seekers from African countries who entered Mexico illegally has been building for several weeks as hundreds of individuals continue to arrive primarily to Mexicali to cross into Calexico, California, in order to seek asylum. Mexican immigration authorities have been spotted ferrying the asylum seekers from shelters and plazas to international bridges with the U.S.

Mexican immigration authorities have largely kept quiet about the wave of African migrants who have been entering Mexico through that country’s southern border and then making their way to the U.S. border to seek asylum. Some of the cities they seek include Calexico and San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas.

According to Mexico’s El Universal African migrants have been entering Mexico and almost immediately turning themselves in to agents with the National Immigration Institute (INM).

Once in custody, the migrants receive a special 20 day pass that gives them the freedom to move about the country. The purpose of the pass is to allow them to get to the U.S. border. According to El Universal, INM issues the permit to individuals from countries that Mexico does not have diplomatic relations with. The permit makes it easier for the INM to have the migrants leave the country voluntarily than to deport them to their countries of origin.

During a one week period in late August, there were 624 African migrants who turned themselves in to INM agents in the city of Tapachula, Chiapas.

In 2013, Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby warned that the Mexican border provided “a global pathway” for illegal immigrants from the Horn of Africa including those from nations with Islamic terror ties such as Somalia.

According to Mexicali’s La Cronica, on Friday alone there were 180 individuals from Congo, Angola, Somalia and other African countries in the city awaiting for their time to cross. Other local outlets reported 200 and as many as 500 African immigrants in town on Friday.

According to Mexico’s Televisa News, in August 10, immigration authorities found 352 African illegal immigrants that had been riding in three buses in their attempt to get to the Mexico-California border. Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) did not release information of the African detainees at the time.