Law enforcement officials have reported a massive influx of Chinese immigrants being arrested along the United States-Mexico border for January 2023, a 1,230% increase compared to January 2022. In January 2022, federal law enforcement agents apprehended 80 Chinese illegal immigrants. Last month, agents captured 1,064 Chinese immigrants at the border. Half of the arrests for this fiscal year were made in southeastern California’s El Centro region, a remote part of the state where agents have historically seen illegal immigrants from far-off countries trying to get into the U.S.
