Is This Group of Illegals a Sleeping Dragon?
Is there a sleeping dragon in America?
The number of illegal, single adult, Chinese nationals crossing both the Canadian and Mexican borders has risen at an alarming rate, moving from 23,172 in fiscal year 2021 to 52,566 by June of fiscal year 2024. By comparison, the total number of Chinese nationals illegally entering the country in fiscal year 2020 was 1,282.
Are we taking this seriously? How are Customs and Border Protection agents dealing with Chinese nationals encountered at our borders?
A CBP supervisor sent an email to 500 Border Patrol agents in April, putting into practice the use of a five-question vetting system, as opposed to a nearly 40-question interview, for Chinese immigrants detained at our borders. CBP is not taking this threat seriously, merely sending those interviewed into America’s heartland through parole programs.
This puts America in a precarious position and opens the door for espionage and even attacks from within.
For example, on March 27, one of these immigrants breached Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms — the largest Marine base and a combat training installation in California. While the motives were unknown, this was not an isolated incident.
The Wall Street Journal reported that by September 2023, Chinese nationals — both legal and illegal — had intentionally entered U.S. military bases about 100 times in seeming evaluations “designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites.” The outlet added that “officials familiar with the practice say the individuals are typically Chinese nationals pressed into service and required to report back to the Chinese government.” The startling fact that these breaches are happening at all, coupled with the number of illegal Chinese immigrants in the country, spells major trouble for national security.
“They’re coming in from China — 31, 32,000 over the last few months — and they’re all military age, and they mostly are men,” former President Donald Trump said during an April campaign rally. “Are they trying to build a little army in our country? Is that what they’re trying to do?”
Trump is not alone in his belief that this Chinese Trojan horse is present.
Rebecca Grant, an IRIS Independent Research national security analyst, said, “Clearly, that border is a big opportunity. … I think some of those Chinese [nationals] quite possibly are here to spy and report back at a minimum. … I’m 99 percent certain that at least a little bit of this is [the] Chinese military infiltrating for reasons harmful to our national security. Is it one person, is it a hundred, is it a thousand — we don’t know.”
Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee also sounded the alarm, claiming in 2023 that “many of the Chinese nationals entering America were ‘military-age men,’ many of them having ‘known ties’ to the ruling Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army,” as reported by Newsweek.
In July the Commission on the National Defense Strategy released a similarly disturbing 132-page report about the strength of the communist nation’s military: “China is outpacing the United States … through two decades of focused military investment. Without significant change by the United States, the balance of power will continue to shift in China’s favor.” Furthermore, the “Commission [found] that the U.S. military lacks both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat.”
With such a threat abroad, how do the scores of Chinese nationals in America factor in? Can we afford to find out?
No we cannot.
Firstly, close the gaps at the southern border. Have Congress provide the funding to shore up and continue construction on a border wall.
Chinese nationals explained how they reached the border, flying to South American countries, such as Ecuador, that do not require Chinese nationals to have a visa, before taking a final flight into Mexico and driving to the wall. It’s an organized pathway that has been broadcast on social media platforms like TikTok.
Prevention is key, and a physical barrier could prevent thousands from entering America.
But we already have hundreds of thousands within our borders; the next step is repatriation and deportation.
The United States deported 116 Chinese nationals at the end of June, marking “the first large charter flight since 2018,” according to The New York Times. While more flights were being scheduled at that time, what is 116 to the staggering number — 147,954 — that have crossed illegally since fiscal year 2021?
Repatriation can be tricky, however, to a country that is one of the least cooperative, and is most likely engaging in mass-scale espionage. So America must look elsewhere.
Any Chinese national known to have entered via the southern border should be deported back to Mexico.
Under then-President Trump, the U.S. practiced the “Remain in Mexico” policy, aimed at keeping potential immigrants on the Mexico side of the border, ensuring they waited for any vetting process to be completed there, and deporting immigrants who already entered the U.S. from the south. If Mexico is willing to allow these Chinese nationals to fly there, they should be willing to house them.
The pathway to the border is not unknown — it has been broadcast, and if Mexico is unwilling to shut down these channels, it can deal with the influx.
National security is paramount, and in a time when tensions are high, America cannot take the risk of allowing illegal Chinese nationals to have free rein.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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