More than 1,000 Chinese nationals were arrested after illegally crossing the U.S. border last week, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials told Fox News.
Border Patrol agents arrested 1,026 Chinese nationals last week alone, sources said. Of those, 98.5% were caught in the San Diego area.
There were 1,011 encounters in San Diego, 10 in the Yuma area, two in the El Centro area and two on the northern border. There was no concern about the Chinese in Texas.
Border Patrol intercepts hundreds of Chinese nationals in just two days as numbers soar
A Chinese immigrant speaks with a Border Patrol agent before being processed after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The latest numbers come amid a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese nationals near the border and amid growing national security concerns and fears of espionage by some Republicans.
The San Diego area had more than 200 encounters in two days last week. Agents encountered 223 migrants on Thursday, after encountering 262 on Wednesday.
This means more Chinese illegal immigrants illegally entered the region in two days than across the entire southern border in the entirety of FY21 (342 immigrants were encountered at the time).
Overall, across borders, the numbers have increased dramatically since FY21. There were 1,970 encounters in FY2022, more than 24,000 in FY2023, and more than 24,200 encounters so far this fiscal year.
Some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about possible espionage by people coming across the border. Recently, House Republicans warned that the Chinese Communist Party “wants the chaos and devastation” caused by fentanyl flowing into the United States. Illegal fentanyl is primarily manufactured by Mexican cartels using Chinese precursors, and then migrated across the southern land border.
Secretary Glacier says foreign enemies won’t take back illegal immigrants
A Chinese immigrant attempting to enter the United States from Mexico is detained by Customs and Border Protection in Jacumba, California, on November 11, 2023. (Nick Ut/Getty Images)
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all rank-and-file Border Patrol agents nationwide, told Fox News earlier this year that the majority of Chinese border crossers are single adult men of military age.
“That’s a very frightening prospect. We know China hates us. We know we’re in China’s crosshairs,” he said. “And they’re exporting so many people into our country that we really need to be afraid of that.”
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At a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing, Acting ICE Director Patrick Rechleitner was asked by Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) that the most difficult task is to get people back home when they are deported from the United States. They were asked to identify the top countries. That list also includes China.
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“We have Bhutan, we have Cambodia at the top of the list and they have been up to the challenge. People’s Republic of China, That said, we’ve seen some cautiously optimistic progress with China recently, so I’d say we’re moving in the right direction.”
