What drove last year's surge in Chinese migrants at the southern border?

Last year, a record number of Chinese migrants crossed the U.S. southern border without authorization. In search of jobs and freedom from China's heavy-handed pandemic response, they followed paths long walked by migrants from many countries. But here in the U.S. they have come under a different kind of scrutiny, because they hail from America’s biggest geopolitical rival.

Politicians on the right, led by former President Donald Trump, baselessly claim Chinese migrants are spies or drug smugglers, sent by Beijing to harm Americans.

Trump suggested at a rally in May that "military-aged men" are "building a little army in our country."

At the Republican National Convention in July, former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro described migrants crossing the border as "murderers, rapists, human traffickers, terrorists ... Chinese spies."

"Chinese transnational criminal organizations are also ruthlessly exploiting our border's vulnerabilities, fueling the fentanyl crisis that claims thousands of American lives each year," Craig Singleton, a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told a House hearing in May.

None of those claims stands up to scrutiny. Research based on years of federal and local government data shows that unauthorized migrants — from China or elsewhere — do not threaten national security or commit crimes more than other immigrants or people born in the U.S. This June, unauthorized crossings hit the lowest level since 2021, following President Biden's executive actions restricting asylum claims and stepped-up enforcement in Mexico.

"We spend a ton of money and create a lot of fear, but we don't have any good credible evidence [that we should be afraid]," said Rebecca Hester, an associate