Reporter says he filmed thousands of military-age Chinese men heading toward US in migrant groups

US sees surge of Chinese nationals crossing southern border compared to 2022

Published April 19, 2023

A reporter released new video that appears to show hundreds of military-aged Chinese men in Panama heading toward the U.S. border.

Muckraker.com founder Anthony Rubin said on "Fox & Friends First" Wednesday that every day, multiple times a day, groups of men are lining up and getting on buses to continue their journeys.

Rubin described why these individuals are taking this route to get into the United States.

"This would be for people who can't fly into the U.S. directly. So what they do is they get on a flight, and they fly into some South American country. Then from there, they would go to Colombia, they would go across the jungle, pop out in Panama, and then they would head up to the United States. But this is going to be for people that can't fly into the U.S. directly. … You'd rather just fly into the U.S. and overstay your visa. This is for people that don't have that access for whatever reason." 

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March 29, 2023: Border Patrol agents encounter over 1,000 migrants in El Paso, Texas (Customs and Border Protection)

Rubin said it's fair to be concerned about the groups showing up at the Darien Gap at the Panama-Colombia border. 

He said many of the people he filmed "do not want their faces on camera." 

"Either they are foreign actors that are coming over here for nefarious reasons. … or number two, these are people that are afraid of some sort of retribution by the Communist Chinese Party.

"If it's number two, well then what does that mean? That means that these people are going to be beholden to the Communist Chinese Party once they're here. Oh, you're in the United States. Okay, well, we're going to threaten your friends and family back home in China unless you do X, Y, and Z.

"Either way, it's very dangerous. You can't allow this to just continue and have all these people cross the border. I mean, it just will not work."

Chinese nationals are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into the U.S. in unprecedented numbers this year, with the first few months of FY 2023 already eclipsing the total for 2022.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports that just under 2,000 Chinese nationals crossed the border in FY 2022, but the first few months of FY 2023 have already seen 4,300 encounters, according to federal data.

The Biden administration saw 1.7 million migrant encounters in 2021, followed by 2.3 million encounters in 2022. More are expected in 2023. According to Wall Street Journal, 2,200 migrants from China came through the Darien Gap from January to March of this year, compared to 71 in the same time frame last year.

"There are people from over 100 countries that are popping up here. And you would ask yourself why they're coming here," Rubin added.

He said many of the migrants are seeking "a better life" but his trip to the Darien Gap left him with concerns about America's national security