A massive 22,187 Chinese nationals were arrested crossing the U.S. southern border between January and the end of September, representing an almost thirteen-fold increase on the same period last year. The number of Chinese crossings appears to be accelerating, with arrests in September up by 70 percent compared to August, for a total of over 4,000.
Many of the Chinese illegals, who are overwhelmingly lone adults, begin their journey in Ecuador, which allows visa-free travel for Chinese nationals. From there, they join migrants of many other nationalities for the long march north through the Darien Gap, a roadless land route from South America to North America, covered in thick rainforest.
While fewer than 400 Chinese nationals are recorded as having made the arduous trek in over a decade from 2010 to 2021, the figure rose to 2,005 in 2022. So far in 2023, officials in Panama say they have registered 15,567 Chinese slogging through the Gap.
While a small fraction of the migrants entering the United States under Joe Biden’s lax border regime overall, Chinese illegals are suspected by many to represent a unique security threat, given the possibility of spies and other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents among their ranks, and the unusually strong hold the CCP regime is able to exercise over its expatriates abroad.
