California Border Patrol agents arrested more than 200 Chinese immigrants who were attempting to illegally enter the United States through San Diego on Monday.
A total of 269 Chinese immigrants were arrested in California in the one day, according to a Fox News correspondent. The number highlights an escalation in immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. from China, raising fears over the country’s influence in the states.
Some national security experts have voiced concern that the Chinese government could be sneaking spies into the country via illegal immigration, but others have claimed that it would be an unusual method for China, which has historically used Chinese citizens in the U.S. through visas to steal state secrets.
Michele Thoren Bond, a former assistant secretary of state, said using illegal border crossings would be unusual for China but admitted that China’s refusal to take back its own citizens was also odd.
“‘It would be a pretty random way to place your agents,” Bond told the Daily Mail.
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The arrests put fiscal 2024 on the path to surpassing the Chinese arrests last year. In 2023, there were 37,000 Chinese arrests, but there have already been 20,000 arrests in the current fiscal year. In 2021, the total amount of Chinese interactions with U.S. Customs and Border Protection was 451, according to Fox News.
The sudden immigration spike could come from Chinese nationals fleeing the communist state due to President Xi Jinping’s repressive political culture, an economic slug in the country, or as a result of its draconian COVID-19 restrictions.
