According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), there has been a recent spike in Chinese nationals illegally crossing into America via the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The numbers, in fact, show an increase of some 800% from last year, according to Fox News.

The numbers

The increase occurred during the first quarter of the 2023 Fiscal year. In terms of the calendar year, that quarter spanned from the beginning of October 2022 to the end of December 2022.

The New York Post reports:

The Customs and Border Protection apprehended 1,862 Chinese nationals trying to cross the US-Mexico border during the last quarter of 2022, according to numbers provided by Customs and Border Protection.

About half of those 1,862 – specifically 931 – Chinese nationals were encountered by CBP in December alone.

A more than 700% increase

To put these numbers into perspective, during the first three months of the 2022 Fiscal Year – which spanned from the beginning of October 2021 to the end of December 2021 – the CBP had only 229 Chinese national encounters at the southern border.

In December 2021, the CBP only had 64 such encounters compared to the more than 900 encounters in December 2022.

The increase, from 229 Chinese national encounters, in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2022, to 1,862 Chinese national encounters, in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023, is more than a 700% increase.

It is worth pointing out that Chinese nationals only make up a very small percentage of the illegal immigration that is occurring at the southern border under the administration of President Joe Biden. The CBP, for example, had 251,000 illegal alien encounters in December 2022, and, as stated, only about 900 of them were Chinese nationals.

What’s going on?

The question is what is driving this increase in Chinese national illegal immigration?

Gordon Chang, who has authored books about China, told Fox, “There is deep pessimism in Chinese society and that is driving people to leave the country. They are desperate.”

According to Chang, China’s iron-fisted approach to the COVID pandemic – which included very strict lockdowns and quarantines – is a large part of the motivation for people fleeing from China. “They just found it unbearable,” Chang said.

Chang further told Fox that, based on his understanding of the situation, “the flow of refugees from China will not diminish.”

According to Fox, it has been informed that Chinese nationals “are typically processed for expedited removal unless they claim to have a credible fear of persecution if returned to the country — where the Chinese Communist Party holds power.”