by Anthony Kuhn

About the author: Anthony Kuhn writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Spurred by the potential for huge profits, traffickers are increasingly routing illegal Chinese immigrants through major U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), according to U.S. immigration officials.

Smuggling by Air

The influx has strained airport employees, from immigration personnel working overtime to process the Chinese, to maintenance staff repairing plumbing clogged with documents that would-be immigrants try to flush down toilets.

In 1999, an average of 170 suspected illegal Chinese immigrants have been detained each month at LAX with fake or missing travel documents, officials said.

Rosemary Melville, deputy district director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, in Los Angeles, said the agency was “marginally successful” at catching smugglers and their human cargo.

“But...