WASHINGTON – The number of Chinese immigrants trying to cross into the US illegally has risen since President Biden took office, worrying congressional Republicans as Beijing makes increasingly bold moves to spy on Americans.
Since Oct. 1 2022, US Customs and Border Protection reported finding 39,575 Chinese nationals, a 115% increase from the number found in the last full fiscal year of former President Donald Trump’s term.
“When you open our borders, you don’t get to choose who comes in,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told The Post Thursday. “The [Chinese Communist Party] infiltrating our country is a result of the Democrats’ open border policy that puts our national security at risk.”
Between Oct. 1 2019 and 30 Sept. 2020, CBP reported, 18,395 Chinese immigrants were caught trying to enter the US. That number increases to 23,471 in fiscal year 2021 and 27,756 in fiscal year 2022.
As of Aug. 1, the number of Chinese migrant encounters is already up 43% compared to the number encountered in all of fiscal year 2022, driven by at least 4,000 stops per month starting in March this year.
“I’ve been to the border, and I can tell you firsthand: when we can’t control who enters our country or what they bring, that’s a serious national security risk,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb. ) told The Post. “The CCP is always looking for opportunities to violate our sovereignty, and President Biden’s border failures are a welcome invitation for any of our enemies to potentially exploit.
The number of Chinese immigrants trying to cross into the US illegally has increased since President Biden took office. James Keivom
The COVID-19 pandemic likely played a role in the relatively low number of Chinese immigrants seen in fiscal year 2020, experts said, noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping issued an exit ban that prevented people from leaving his country while the Trump administration issued a Title 42 health policy that allowed the authorities quickly rejected the immigrants.
However, most of those policies continued into the Biden term, suggesting recent increases are directly attributable to lax border enforcement. The State Department in June reissued an advisory warning to Americans traveling to China that the exit ban is still in effect, and that border agents are still using Title 42 to remove immigrants until it expires in May of this year.
“Biden’s self-inflicted border crisis invites China – our greatest enemy threat – to infiltrate our country and endanger the safety of the American people,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). “This Administration’s disastrous policies not only hurt the American people, they strengthen our enemies.”
“States like Texas must use their constitutional authority to secure their borders and protect their citizens when the federal government fails to do so,” he added.
Since Oct. 1 2022, US Customs and Border Protection reported finding 39,575 Chinese nationals, a 115% increase from the number encountered from the last full fiscal year of former President Donald Trump’s term.
Although CBP did not respond to The Post’s request for more information on what may have caused the rapid increase, the dramatic increase comes in a year that has been marked by increasingly bold moves by Beijing to police the US. While it remains unclear whether the two surprising trends are related or coincidental, Republicans say they cannot be ignored.
In late January, China launched a spy balloon into American airspace over Alaska, which the Biden administration saw flying over the US before ordering the Air Force to shoot it down off the coast of South Carolina about a week later. In June, the White House revealed that China had also been spying on the US homeland from a secret surveillance base in Cuba since at least 2019.
“We don’t know how many foreign terrorists or spies have taken advantage of Biden’s open borders to gain illegal entry into the United States,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told The Post. “China has become more and more brazen over the past three years, and open borders will be an easy way for Xi to send operatives into our country.”
The dramatic increase comes in a year that has been marked by increasingly bold moves by Beijing to monitor the US.REUTERS
Marshall – who led a May congressional tour of the US southern border on the eve of Title 42’s expiration – said Americans should be concerned not only with how many Chinese nationals have been stopped by Customs, but also with those who slipped past border agents and “are now here on our earth.”
“We don’t know who these people are and why they’re here, but if the actions of the CCP under the Biden Administration are any indication — it can’t be good,” Marshall told the Post. “The sad reality is that the Chinese Communist Party pays more attention to our border vulnerabilities than the Biden Administration.”
While the vast majority of Chinese who try to enter the US are simply looking for a better life for themselves, Gatestone Institute International Policy Advisor senior fellow Gordon G. Chang warned earlier this year that some could pose a serious threat to America.
“Immigrants make nations strong, and almost all Chinese immigrants who cross the southern border will contribute to American society,” he wrote for the nonpartisan think tank in June. “Some, however, will come to make war upon the United States.”
Regardless of the migrants’ intentions, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) – the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee – said the US “must confront China and the cartels, and take action now to secure our borders.”
“Regardless of what’s causing China’s surge in illegal immigration — people fleeing oppression, assets infiltrating our country, or something in between — it’s time for the Biden administration to end its dangerous and irresponsible open border policy,” he told The Pos.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
