(UnitedVoice.com) – The US-Mexico border has been in chaos since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. Immigrants from other parts of the world have even flooded Mexico for an opportunity to illegally cross into the US. One of the fastest-growing groups is Chinese citizens. Some of them manage to evade Border Patrol.
Gotaways
In 2023, Border Patrol officials arrested over 37,000 Chinese nationals at the Southwest border. That was 10 times higher than the number in 2022. The National Pulse, a conservative news blog, reported there were already 1,200 Chinese migrants arrested on the southern border in the first week of May 2024. That comes out to approximately 150 Chinese immigrants entering the US on a daily basis, not including those evading authorities
US Border Patrol doesn’t keep a running count of how many migrants get away from agents, so it’s not clear how many actually enter undetected.
China-US Deportation Cooperation
In August 2022, China suspended its cooperation on deportations, meaning the US wasn’t able to deport Chinese nationals. It was a response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) highly publicized visit to Taiwan. Beijing was furious that a high-ranking US official had contact with the island, which it claims sovereignty over.
Afterward, the US saw a drastic surge of Chinese migrants entering illegally through Mexico. Nearly two years later, the Asian nation’s foreign ministry issued a statement to The Associated Press and said they were “willing to maintain dialogue and cooperation in the area of immigration enforcement” with the Biden administration.
The statement from China came a month after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart and was told the nation would start accepting deportation flights again. He explained that would enable the US to “deliver a consequence” to the illegal immigrants who were illegally in America.
Fentanyl Crisis
US lawmakers are concerned about the surge of Chinese migrants at the Southern border because of the fentanyl crisis. The synthetic opioid is largely produced by China and makes its way into America through many different channels, including the Southwest border. Hundreds of thousands of US citizens, ranging from infants to the elderly, have died from drug overdoses as a result of the synthetic opioid, which is significantly more potent than heroin.
A House committee recently alleged the Chinese government was providing subsidies to companies that produce fentanyl precursors and analogues. China claims it is being sincere in its efforts to crack down on illegal trafficking, smuggling, and manufacturing of the drug.
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