The number of Chinese migrants crossing the southern border illegally continues to reach record highs, according to recently updated U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

In November alone, Border Patrol recorded 4,767 encounters with migrants from China crossing illegally, according to the data. The number of Chinese migrants apprehended at the southern border each year from 2007 to 2019 didn’t exceed November’s record, according to federal data.

In June, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green said that some Chinese migrants are tied to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“In terms of the verification that the individuals released into the United States have ties to the PLA came from a sector chief and I’ll leave it with that at this point. We have a classified briefing coming up in the very near future,” Green said at the time.

Border Patrol recorded 24,000 encounters of Chinese migrants crossing the southern border illegally in fiscal year 2023, 1,970 in fiscal year 2022 and 323 in fiscal year 2021, according to CBP data.

“Right now in China there’s extreme pessimism, especially among people in their 20s about the future of their country, so it’s understandable that they’re leaving and they’re trying to get into the United States. And, you know, these are people who are relatively middle class, so it shows you the problems in Chinese society are severe,” China expert Gordon Chang previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“When I first saw that the surge in Chinese migrants, that’s the thought that came to my mind that these are either Ministry of State Security agents or Chinese military, who are coming to this country to commit acts of sabotage against the US,” Chang said.

Jennie Taer on December 26, 2023