Number of Chinese Nationals Crossing US Border Reaches Record High

Photo byTobias TulliusonUnsplash

When we think of New York's current migrant crisis, the assumption is that most of the asylum seekers originate from Latin American regions. While many do, thousands of migrants are from the African nations of Senegal, Burundi, Chad, and Mauritania, among others. African migrants have been traveling by plane to Latin America as they have more lenient visa requirements. After acquiring their visas, the African asylum seekers can make the trek northward to the United States border. But there is another group mixing in with the Latin American and African migrants: Chinese nationals.

Over the 2023 fiscal year, which concluded in September, Customs and Border Protection agents arrested 24,048 Chinese nationals at the Mexican border. This number is more than 12 times higher than the 1,970 arrests made during the previous fiscal year. The trend raises concerns about potential Chinese spies entering the US while disguising themselves as regular migrants, underscoring the fact that migrants everywhere are aware of the appalling restrictions at the US border.

“Clearly that border is a big opportunity,” Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst at IRIS Independent Research, recently told Newsweek. “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,” she cautioned.

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.

“Is it one person, is it a hundred, is it a thousand — we don’t know, but the fact that we have to ask this question is outrageous,” she told Newsweek.

The head of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), expressed concern about the influx of Chinese immigrants arriving in the US in June, stating that the bulk of them are men of military age with established connections to the People's Liberation Army and the Chinese Communist Party.

As a reaction, a representative for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the agency used biometric and biographical data on individuals at the border “to identify potential terrorists or criminals and prevent their release into the US,” as reported by Newsweek.

The spokesperson also stressed that “anyone who poses a national security or public safety threat is detained and not released into the United States.”

But Grant said she still has concerns.

“We know that China is using everything that they have, every bit of espionage, to spy on our military and our high technology,” she told Newsweek last month.

“And we know China’s government is not our friend, so this dramatic upswing, I think it could definitely present a potential national security risk.”

The Chinese migrants often fly to Ecuador where they can enter the country without a visa. They then follow online videos and messages that provide instructions on how to enter the US, including what to pack, where to find guides, how to survive in the jungles, and what to do and say if they encounter US immigration officers.

One migrant told Reuters about how she found "Baozai," an online celebrity who posted videos of his journey to the US and amassed tens of thousands of followers on Chinese platforms Douyin and Xingua Video, as well as YouTube and Twitter — all of which are blocked in China but accessible through a virtual private network.