The number of Chinese migrants being arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border soared over the past two years, with the Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee raising concerns that border policies are too relaxed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data from 2007 through August 2024 showed minimal numbers until 2023, when the number at the southwest border passed 24,000. In 2024, the number reached 36,500.
One expert told Newsweek that previously strict COVID-19 measures in China, as well as poor economic outlooks for many, pushed migrants to make the journey, but Republicans said the trend could not continue.
“The unprecedented number of Chinese nationals now illegally crossing our border is driven by the Biden and Harris policy of mass catch-and-release,” committee Chair Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, told Newsweek in a statement.
What is driving Chinese migration to U.S.?
“One chief patrol agent told my committee last year that, in his experience, the vast majority of Chinese nationals are coming for ‘work or a better life,’ which is not a valid ground for claiming asylum,” Green said. “Yet, the majority are still being released into the interior anyway.”
Green said that the Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated “on numerous occasions” that it intended to undermine U.S. security, and that the Biden-Harris administration had not handled the situation well.
Former President Donald Trump has previously claimed that China was trying to build an army in the U.S., while other members of the GOP have said those arriving were “murderers, rapists, human traffickers, terrorists,” as well as spies.
Min Zhou, director of the UCLA Asia Pacific Center, told Newsweek that Chinese nationals have headed to the U.S. in high numbers—in a journey known as “zuoxian,” or “walking the line” in Mandarin—for a variety of reasons.
“The unexpected and sudden relax of the rigid zero-COVID policy in December 2022, the dismal economic prospect with high unemployment and high-rates [of] small business closedown during COVID, and [the] uncertain political situation,” Zhou said.
“Also, major social media platforms, like Wechat, have played a powerful role of feeding real or fake information [mostly paid service] about the feasibility of zuoxian.”
Newsweek reached out to CBP and the Department of Homeland Security for comment Thursday morning.
Tennessee Republican Representative Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, before the start of a House Homeland Security Committee hearing titled “Havoc in the Heartland.” The number of Chinese migrants being arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border soared over the past two years, with the Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee raising concerns that border policies are too relaxed.
Getty Images/Photo by Kent Nishimura
Parties divided on tackling migration
Other members of the GOP, including Representative Nick LaLota of New York, have pushed the idea that the current administration’s policies have been too relaxed.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s inaction on the border crisis is unacceptable,” LaLota said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “House Republicans have led the way to pass a dozen bipartisan bills to secure the border; time for the Senate to act!”
However, Democrats have criticized former President Donald Trump over his role in killing the bipartisan border security bill.
A key component of the bill would allow the president to deport migrants who enter the U.S. between official border crossing points and to deny them the ability to apply for asylum.
The bill would have added 1,500 CBP officers and 4,300 asylum officers to deal with the immigration backlog.
Chinese migrants, and three from Bangladesh, line up for a border officer in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on June 6, when the group arrived after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border overnight. Customs and Border Protection saw a large spike in encounters with Chinese nationals in Fiscal Year 2024.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
Immigration policy is a key issue in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. A recent poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies shows that 47 percent of respondents trust Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, on immigration compared to 36 percent who trust Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.
In July, Republicans said that China was among a list of uncooperative countries refusing to take back those the U.S. wanted to deport.
At the time, a group of 17 Republican lawmakers announced said that more than 100,000 deportees, including more than 30,000 Chinese nationals, are awaiting removal to countries that are refusing to accept them from the U.S.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, members of Congress, including Republican representatives Chip Roy of Texas and Matt Gaetz of Florida, expressed their concerns about 13 nations, including China. The letter, obtained by Newsweek, laid out worries around national security after roughly 31,000 Chinese nationals had crossed the border illegally since last October.
In June, the number of Chinese migrants attempting to enter California hit a four-month high, continuing concerns among lawmakers who have urged the federal government to better address backchannels permitting more Chinese migration.
While there has been a spike in what CBP calls encounters of Chinese nationals, the rise came at a time when border crossings rose generally across the board, with the biggest increases in 2021 and 2022.
The chart above shows the total number of national apprehensions compared to the number of Chinese nationals.
Many are claiming asylum, citing fear of Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as the economic uncertainties referred to by Zhou, while legal visa pathways have become less-certain over recent years.
About 70 percent of Chinese asylum cases are approved, but many thousands are waiting in a backlog, along with those from all around the world.
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