Chinese Nationals Surging Southern Border at Alarming Rate

(RightWing.org) – Tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to rage after elements of the United States military recently shot down four unidentified high-altitude objects flying over North American airspace. Notably, one was identified as a Chinese surveillance balloon. The Chinese Foreign Ministry recently upped the ante, calling the US the world’s “number one spy empire.” Further complicating matters, a new report indicates it is not just the sovereign space above American territory that’s at risk — Chinese nationals are surging across America’s southwestern border at an alarming rate.

On February 6, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency updated its data regarding nationwide migrant encounters. The CBP report broke down the encounters into three categories:

Nationwide: all air, land, and water modes of transportation
The Southwest Land Border: the entire southern land border
The Northern Land Border: the entire northern land border

US #BorderPatrol has encountered 2,999 Chinese nationals at the southern border so far in fiscal year 2023—a 719% increase year over year, according to @CBP data released on Feb. 10. https://t.co/D3ET8AWwYC

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) February 14, 2023

The CBP’s data revealed an increase of approximately 719% in encounters with Chinese migrants at the nation’s southwest border for the first four months of the fiscal year (FY) 2023 (October 2022 through January 2023) compared to the same period in FY 2022. Chillingly, the report indicated 2,999 encounters so far for FY 2023, more than the 366 reported in the same period in FY 2022 and the 2,176 for all of FY 2022.

Encounters with Chinese migrants at the northern border reached 2,795 so far in FY 2023 versus 915 for the same period in FY 2022 (6,698 for the entire year). Looking at the first four months alone, FY 2023 saw an increase of 205% over the same period last year.

However, the reason for those increased figures becomes clear when taken in the context of nationwide encounters minus apprehensions and expulsions at the land borders.

During the first four months of FY 2023, the CBP reported contacts with Chinese migrants totaled:

4,793 non-land border encounters
5,794 at the southwest and northern land borders

However, for FY 2022, the report for Chinese migrants listed:

8,426 non-land border encounters
1,281 at the southwest and northern land borders

Putting this in context, the ratio of the non-land border to land border crossings with Chinese migrants for the first four months equaled:

FY 2023: 45% to 55%
FY 2022: 87% to 13%.

Additionally, the report indicates the overall numbers for FY 2023 are on a trajectory to hit roughly 31,761 encounters compared to 27,756 in FY 2022, for an increase of about 14.4%. There appears to be a major issue regarding the massively increasing number of encounters at the country’s land borders. Someone should inform the Biden administration!