Thousands of Chinese nationals are being arrested for illegally crossing the besieged southern border near San Diego each week, presenting a significant security risk, according to sources.
Border agents have encountered 21,000 Chinese nationals illegally entering the US in just one border sector in California since October – a higher number than even Mexicans arrested, which numbered 18,700, according to information obtained by Fox News.
The number of Chinese nationals crossing into the US has exploded and in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended in September, CBP officials apprehended 24,048 Chinese migrants at the US-Mexico border — a record high.
That was over ten times the 1,970 arrests recorded in 2022 and a more than 7,000% increase from 2021 when just 323 Chinese nationals crossed the border during strict pandemic travel bans and lockdowns.
The influx has sparked national security concerns that some have been sent by the Chinese government as spies.
“Some of those people want to come here and have a better way of life, but I think some of those Chinese [nationals] quite possibly are here to spy and report back at a minimum,” Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst at IRIS Independent Research, previously warned to Newsweek.
Grant said she is “99% certain that at least a little bit of this is [the] Chinese military infiltrating for reasons harmful to our national security.”
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, first sounded the alarm on the wave of Chinese migrants entering the United States last June — claiming the majority are military-age men with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army.
Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council — which represents all rank-and-file Border Patrol agents nationwide — also noted the majority of the Chinese migrants are single adults of military age.
“We know that China does not like us, we know that we are in the crosshairs of China,” he previously told Fox.
Many of the Chinese migrants fly to Ecuador or Mexico and then walk to the border, sources helping them to immigrate have previously told The Post.
Most Pay people smugglers, known as Coyotes, to drive them to places where there are gaps in the wall on the Mexican side of the border, particularly near the remote town of Jacumba Hot Springs.
From there, they walk around an hour and gather at an unofficial camp to wait for Border Patrol, as The Post’s exclusive pictures show.
Border Patrol regularly arrive at the camp and take the migrants to a processing center in buses and vans. Over the next few days they are held and processed to see if they have valid asylum claims and if so, are released into the US with a court date.
On Friday Fox News reporter Bill Melugin posted video on X showing six buses arriving in San Diego and “mass releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants” to the city’s streets.
In September, Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Good of the El Paso sector also told the committee in a private hearing his agents were “trying their best to figure out why” the wave of Chinese nationals are coming in, but said “information can be hidden” and “their agendas, their ideologies, the reason for them coming, could be missed,” the outlet reported.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies produced a report identifying 224 major instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States for political, military or commercial gain between 2000 and 2022.
The center noted their count did not include incidents against private companies — which is a far greater number — and said the level of espionage far outstripped that of any other country, including Russia.
Their report noted: “Chinese espionage also created immeasurable damage to national security with the theft of weapons technology, including nuclear weapons test data.”
The FBI also acknowledges the threat, warning: “The Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.”
The FBI notes China targets al levels of society including businesses, academic institutions and the general public.
The committee’s Republican chair, Rep, Mark Green, said the surge is a “massive” national security concern.
He said agents were being “overwhelmed” by the wave of Chinese nationals being “released into the interior with little consideration for their country of origin,” and blamed Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas for making it “clear to the entire world that our borders are open, the Mail reported.
“While it is true that some individuals may be seeking relief from authoritarian regimes, there is no way for our brave men and women on the frontlines of the crisis to adequately vet all of them before being effectively forced to release them — particularly when countries like China won’t allow us access to their various law enforcement databases.”
Customs and Border Patrol did not respond to The Post’s request for comment Friday.
