On May 26, U.S. Border Patrol, working with Texas border authorities, arrested six Chinese nationals dressed in camouflage who were seeking to enter the United States illegally.
In a post on X the following day, Chris Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, announced that “U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 12 illegal immigrants on a private ranch in Maverick County, including six Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) from China, all dressed in camouflage.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security officially defines an SIA as a “foreign national originating from a country (determined by individual Components) identified as having possible or established links to terrorism.”
Andrew R. Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies noted that Maverick County, Texas, is “an area that saw relatively few Chinese entries even when it was a smuggling highway for migrants from less ‘sensitive’ countries.” “The biggest question,” he wrote, “is why [the Chinese nationals] were there, and how they arrived.”
Communist China Weaponizing Migration Against America
This incident highlights Communist China’s weaponization of mass migration against the United States. For example, as the Federation for American Immigration Reform has reported, China has taken advantage of America’s porous borders to smuggle drugs — including fentanyl — criminals, and spies into the country. And because of China’s lack of full cooperation with the United States, it is difficult to deport illegally present Chinese nationals back to their home country.
The number of Chinese SIAs apprehended by Border Patrol has declined significantly from the Joe Biden era. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, 37,833 Chinese nationals were apprehended by Border Patrol along the southern border in fiscal 2024 — in addition to thousands of people from other high-risk countries — but only 336 were apprehended in the first seven months of fiscal 2026. This data, however, does not include individuals who avoided apprehension or entered undetected.
Improvements Under Trump
The drop in mass migration during President Donald Trump’s second administration is allowing Border Patrol agents to more effectively monitor U.S. borders. Breitbart Texas, citing a CBP source, noted that “reduced illegal crossings along the southwest border and the end of ‘catch and release’ have freed up Border Patrol agents to saturate areas that once lacked routine patrols. The existing partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety adds to the agency’s ability to reduce the likelihood that a group of illegal border crossers will be able to escape.”
Additionally, the Trump administration has shifted U.S. immigration courts to take a strongly pro-enforcement stance, and is hiring additional immigration judges, steps that will allow the federal government to more quickly deport a greater number of illegal aliens.
Nonetheless, with more than 1.5 million illegal aliens estimated to have entered the United States without being caught during the Biden administration — and with continued evasions during the Trump administration — the question remains how many spies and other foreign agents are currently in the country because of our porous borders. And China is far from the only country to weaponize migration against the United States.
Congress Is the Key
Ultimately, Congress must enact stronger immigration laws — undoing the many vaguely written statutes that explicitly delegate congressional power to the president in violation of Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution — and vigilantly guard against the threat posed by Communist China, including via mass migration.
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