The number of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the U.S. southern border has soared, with 452 detained near San Diego just between Saturday and Monday, customs officials told Fox News.
Under the Biden administration, encounters with Chinese illegal immigrants surged to over 24,000 in fiscal year 2023 from only 450 two years earlier, marking a 5,200 percent jump. Since the start of fiscal year 2024 in October, the U.S. Border Patrol has already apprehended over 18,750 Chinese migrants at the southern border by the end of January, on track to outpace the 2023 numbers, the outlet reported.
"That is a very scary prospect. We know that China does not like us. We know that we are in the crosshairs of China," Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News. "And they are exporting so many people to our country, and you have to really fear about that." Judd also noted that most of the Chinese detainees are adult males of military age.
In September, a group of Republican senators wrote a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas about the surge in Chinese citizens illegally entering the United States. "There have been numerous documented instances of Chinese nationals, at the direction of the CCP, engaging in espionage, stealing military and economic secrets," they said.
"We cannot allow the CCP to undermine law and order here on U.S. soil," the senators added, "whether it's funneling fentanyl into our communities, stealing our intellectual property, setting up CCP spy police stations across the country, infiltrating our public school curriculum, or flying a massive spy balloon through our heartland."
Last week the Republican-led House impeached Mayorkas for his handling of the migrant crisis. The Democratic-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to vote to affirm the impeachment and oust Mayorkas.