January saw an exponential increase in Chinese migrants unlawfully crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Last month, border patrol agents apprehended 1,064 unlawful migrants at the southern border, as reported by the Washington Examiner. Compared to a mere 80 migrants in January 2022, that figure represents a 1,230% increase.
Out of all the arrests of Chinese migrants made last month, 528 occurred in the El Centro region of southeastern California. Compared to other regions in Texas, such as Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio, border patrol in El Centro has not made very many drug or human trafficking busts.
Since October, when the government’s fiscal year began, federal agents along the southern border have captured 2,926 Chinese nationals.
During the same period last year, they arrested 309.
Rodney Scott, distinguished senior fellow for border security at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former 24th chief of the United States Border Patrol, told The Dallas Express he believes “this shift is likely a response to the [Biden] administration’s massive expansion and likely illegal use of the parole program for specific nationalities which is creating even further backlogs at the ports of entry.”
“By crossing illegally between the ports of entry, the Chinese in question are effectively cutting the line,” he continued. “The cartels are happy to add the Chinese to the large groups of illegal aliens that they use every day to overwhelm Border Patrol and create gaping holes in border security to exploit as they push their poison, criminals, and even terrorists into the US.”
Historically, unlawful migrants from countries in other parts of the world have tried to enter the United States through El Centro because it is a remote part of California.
Two Yemeni men on the FBI’s terror watch list were apprehended in El Centro in 2021, and in 2018, the region was the first to see a portion of former President Trump’s border wall finish construction.