The San Diego Sector has seen a more than 500 percent jump in the number of Chinese nationals entering the United States illegally, prompting security concerns.
The number of Chinese nationals entering the United States illegally has surged in recent times, with the latest data from the San Diego sector showing a staggering 500 percent surge so far this year compared to the same period a year ago.
As the nation remains gripped by an illegal immigration crisis of historic proportions, there’s been an exceptionally high increase in the number of Chinese nationals—especially military-aged men—who have unlawfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Some border patrol officials and others have warned this poses a national security risk because, among those simply seeking a better life, there may be those with links to the Chinese military.
Brandon Judd, the head of the Border Patrol union, recently warned about a sharp rise in the number of military-aged Chinese men crossing the southern border illegally, saying that he believes some of them may be spies working on behalf of China’s communist regime to “infiltrate” the United States.
And now, Jason Owens, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), has revealed that, so far this fiscal year, the San Diego sector has seen over 20,000 apprehensions of Chinese nationals, over five times the number in the comparable period last year.
“In FY24, San Diego Sector has made +140K apprehensions with +20K of them being from China (a more than 500% increase compared to last FYTD),” Mr. Owens wrote in a post on X.
Some analysts say that deteriorating economic conditions in China, as well as human rights abuses and policies such as strict COVID-19 lockdowns, are likely driving the sharp increase in the number of Chinese nationals entering the United States illegally.
Interviews with some of the Chinese border crossers indicate much the same thing, with some blaming an increasingly repressive political climate and dour economic prospects.
However, Mr. Judd and others have suggested that for some—possibly even many—there might be a different motivation.
By Tom Ozimek
