Illegal Immigrant from China Arrested in California After Entering US Military Base
An illegal immigrant from China was arrested in California after unlawfully driving on to a Marine Corps base and refusing orders to leave, according to Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino.
On Wednesday, Border Patrol agents were notified by the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California that a Chinese national “entered the base [without] authorization, ignoring orders to leave,” according to Bovino, who said that the “purpose [and] intent” behind the individual’s actions are “still being investigated.”
Bovino confirmed that the man arrested for entering the military base was from China and was in the U.S. illegally.
“Despite being prompted to exit at the Condor gate by installation security, the individual proceeded onto the installation without authorization. Military law enforcement were immediately notified and detained the individual,” a spokesperson from the Marine Corps’ Training and Education Command told Fox News Digital.
Last year, in a letter sent to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alexander Myorkas, several U.S. Senators warned that Chinese nationals pose a national security threat and could potentially be residing illegally in the U.S. to engage in “espionage activities or cyber-attacks against our critical infrastructure, government agencies, or private sector entities.”
“[I]t is our understanding that not a single one of these individuals encountered has been detained for any length of time,” the senators wrote. “CBP is releasing busloads of these individuals into the U.S. interior.”
More than 22,000 individuals from China have been encountered by Border Patrol at the southern border since October 1, 2023. The enforcement agency encountered 2,176 during the fiscal year 2022, and 450 in the fiscal year 2021. China, which is an adversary of the U.S., is one of more than 150 countries whose citizens have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border. In October of last year, more than 70,000 “special interest aliens” individuals from Middle Eastern nations illegally crossed the southern border in 2022 and 2023, including from nations such as Afghanistan and Syria.
