https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/14/encounters-of-chinese-nationals-at-southern-border-outpace-past-2-years-combined/

Chinese nationals are arriving at America’s southern border in exploding numbers.

In January 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says, it encountered 89 illegal aliens from the People’s Republic of China on the southern border. That number grew over tenfold last month, to 1,084.

A similar increase has occurred in encounters with illegal immigrants from Russia, with CBP reporting 1,030 in January 2022, but over four times that—4,509—last month.

It is a “source of concern” when an influx of migrants attempts to enter America illegally from a country “that we know isn’t on our side,” Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Signal.

The likely reason for the border surge of Chinese and Russian migrants, Arthur said, is that “word’s gone out around the world that the southwest border is open.”

Since fiscal year 2023 began Oct. 1, Customs and Border Protection says it has has encountered 2,999 Chinese nationals on the southern border, outpacing the combined total of 2,626 for fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Arthur, who previously worked as an immigration judge, said he saw Chinese nationals in his courtroom who commonly paid “upward of $60,000 to $70,000 to have the opportunity to make it to the southwest border.”

One of the reasons for the increase of Chinese nationals at the border is that “the human smugglers have cracked the China market,” said Michael Cunningham, a research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)

“The China market is more lucrative,” Cunningham said, adding that smugglers charge Chinese nationals more to be brought across the border, simply because they can.

Cunningham told The Daily Signal that he doesn’t think the increase in illegal aliens from China indicates the communist regime is trying to send large numbers of spies into the U.S. Instead, he points to China’s political climate and extreme COVID-19 policies that likely spur Chinese nationals to flee.

“The border crisis [has] been ongoing for years under [President Joe] Biden,” Cunningham said. “The Chinese government is never this far behind the curve. So, I can’t say they haven’t been exploiting it, but if they have, then they have been all along.”

But Cunningham said that fears over China’s sending spies across America’s southern border are “a reasonable concern to have and … it’s just one of the reasons why it’s so important that the Biden administration start taking the border seriously, and that our country takes its sovereignty seriously.”

Concern over the threat China poses to America has been heightened because of the Chinese spy balloon that traveled across the country before a U.S. fighter jet was ordered to shoot it down over the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 4.

“Everybody’s focused on, you know, Chinese spy balloons going over the United States,” the Center for Immigration Studies’ Arthur said, adding that it is “the job of the federal government to protect all of our borders, be they land borders, sea borders, or from above.”

大批中国公民抵达美国南部边境。

美国海关和边境保护局说，在2022年1月，它在南部边界上遇到了89名来自中华人民共和国的非法外国人。 上个月，这一数字增长了十倍多，达到1084人。

在遇到来自俄罗斯的非法移民时也出现了类似的增长，CBP在2022年1月报告了1030人，但比上个月增加了4倍多——4509人。

移民研究中心的法律和政策常驻研究员安德鲁·阿瑟（Andrew Arthur）对《每日信号报》说，当大量移民试图从一个”我们知道不属于我们的国家”非法进入美国时，这是一个”令人担忧的问题”。

亚瑟说，中国和俄罗斯移民激增的原因可能是”西南边境开放的消息传遍了全世界。”

自2023财年10月1日开始以来，海关和边境保护局称，它在南部边境共接待了2999名中国公民，超过了2021财年和2022财年的总数2626人。

亚瑟以前曾担任移民法官，他说他在法庭上看到中国公民通常支付6万到7万美元，以便有机会到达西南边境。

传统基金会亚洲研究中心研究员迈克尔·坎宁安（Michael Cunningham）说，边境的中国公民数量增加的原因之一是”人口走私者已经攻破了中国市场。”

“中国市场更有利可图，”Cunningham说，并补充说，走私者向中国公民收取更多的越境费，仅仅因为他们能够做到这一点。

坎宁安在接受《每日信号报》采访时表示:”中国非法滞留者增加并不意味着共产主义政权想向美国派遣大量间谍,相反,他指出了中国的政治气候和新冠肺炎极端政策有可能刺激中国国民逃离美国。”

坎宁安说:”在拜登总统领导下，边境危机已经持续多年。 “中国政府从来没有这么落后过。 因此，我不能说他们没有利用它，但如果他们利用了，那么他们就一直利用它。”

但坎宁安说，对中国派遣间谍穿越美国南部边界的担忧是”合理的关切，而且……这只是拜登政府开始认真对待边境问题，而我国认真对待其主权问题的原因之一”。

由于2月4日一架美国战斗机在大西洋上空被命令击落之前，中国间谍气球横穿中国，中国对美国威胁的担忧进一步加剧。

美国移民研究中心的亚瑟说:”每个人都关注中国间谍气球飞越美国，并补充说:”联邦政府的职责是保护我们的所有边界，无论是陆地边界、海上边界，还是从上方保护我们的边界。”