From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Dan Bishop, chair of the subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, told the DCNF that a “wide-open border presents a ripe opportunity for the [Chinese Communist Party] to undermine our national security.”

A House committee is scheduled to examine the historic surge in Chinese illegal immigration next week, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability will hold a hearing on Thursday concerning the roughly 8,000% increase in Chinese illegal immigration the U.S. has experienced since March 2021, a committee spokesperson told the DCNF. The DCNF recently revealed an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) email showing that the Biden administration dramatically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants in April 2023, which has increased the speed of Chinese illegal immigrants entering the country.

The CBP email directed Border Patrol agents to reduce the 40 questions they were required to ask Chinese illegal immigrants down to just five “basic questions” concerning their “Military Service,” “Universities,” “POB/Region,” “Employment” and “Political Party.”

North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop, chair of the subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, told the DCNF that a “wide-open border presents a ripe opportunity for the [Chinese Communist Party] to undermine our national security.”

“This dramatic surge calls for intense scrutiny — especially as Border Patrol agents have been instructed to decrease vetting for Chinese nationals in order to process them into the country faster,” Bishop said. “As the CCP continues its quest for geopolitical dominance and threatens our sovereignty, we must examine the risks presented by releasing ever-increasing numbers of minimally-vetted Chinese nationals into our communities.”

READ the leaked @CBP email obtained by the @DailyCaller showing that the Biden Admin radically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/06sZK3Kiuz

— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) January 2, 2024

U.S. authorities have encountered 24,376 Chinese nationals at the southwest border in fiscal year 2024 alone, according to the committee. In February 2024, the Republican National Committee adopted a resolution condemning the Biden administration’s immigration policies, citing the national security threat posed by “Chinese military-aged men” entering the country illegally, the DCNF reported.

Ammon Blair, a former Border Patrol agent and Army veteran, told the DCNF that “being a Border Patrol agent during the surge in Chinese illegal aliens felt like confronting a scene from ‘Red Dawn.’”

“Gradually, it appeared that our role was being coerced by current administration policies, from honorably defending our borders to paradoxically laying down a ‘Silk Road’ for our adversaries,” said Blair, who now works as senior fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “This evolution in policy seems complicit in the CCP invasion and their embedded threats like cyber warfare, drug warfare with Mexican cartel proxies, and economic destabilization.”

The simplification of the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants and other Biden administration policies have “created pitch-perfect conditions” for “the infiltration of Chinese agents of espionage,” Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center For Immigration Studies, told the DCNF.

“Intelligence community assessments show that China intends to ramp up espionage and political suppression campaigns in the coming years inside the U.S. and will need an expanded labor force for the effort,” said Bensman, who is one of three experts scheduled to testify during Thursday’s hearing.

THREAD@BryanDeanWright kindly had me on his podcast to discuss recent @DailyCaller investigations re: CCP influence operations

PART 1/3 covered:

– leaked @CBP email re: how @POTUS simplified vetting process for 🇨🇳 illegals

🙏PLEASE WATCH & SHARE – THANK YOU!🙏 pic.twitter.com/HreHdynFSD

— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) March 8, 2024

Bensman’s testimony will feature photos of identification cards and passports discarded by Chinese illegal immigrants just after crossing the U.S. southern border, a committee source told the DCNF.

Cory Gautereaux, a small business owner and veteran living near the San Diego border, collected those discarded materials and shared them with Bensman.

Gautereaux told the DCNF that he believes Chinese illegal immigration is a “serious national security threat.”

“If they are discarding their IDs and hiding their identity there is a reason,” Gautereaux said. “Since our elected leaders are reluctant to visit the border, I’ll be glad to physically deliver these items to Washington and testify to what I’ve seen.”

From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

Swanton Sector agents apprehend in one week more than they did in fiscal 2021

Despite being stretched thin and understaffed, Border Patrol agents at the northern border continue to apprehend a record number of illegal border crossers.

In the busiest northern border sector of Swanton, Border Patrol agents made history by apprehending the greatest number of illegal border crossers in sector history of 1,109 in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. While the numbers are significantly lower than those apprehended at the southwest border, they are out of the ordinary for the northern border and its busiest sector. By comparison, agents apprehended 37 illegal border crossers in March 2021.

Those they apprehended in March 2024 came from 40 countries. The top three nationalities of those apprehended were India (408), Bangladesh (323) and Mexico (170), Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.

In one week, from April 28 to May 4, agents apprehended 492 illegal border crossers, more than the total apprehensions for all of fiscal 2021 of 365, Garcia said.

In the previous week, Champlain Border Patrol agents apprehended 220 illegal border crossers, “the highest number ever encountered in a single week in Swanton Sector history,” Garcia said.

Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents are breaking records every month, apprehending double or triple the number of people they apprehended in the same month in previous years. The CBP fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

In October 2023, Swanton Sector agents apprehended 1,075 illegal border crossers, up from 334 in October 2022, 43 in October 2021, and 25 in October 2020.

The Swanton Sector spans 295 miles of international boundary with the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, of which 203 miles is on land. The remaining 92 miles of border fall primarily along the St. Lawrence River. The sector is the first international land boundary east of the Great Lakes.

The sector includes all of Vermont, six upstate New York counties and three New Hampshire counties.

In fiscal 2023, Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents broke previous records by apprehending the greatest number of illegal border crossers in sector history of more than 6,700 foreign nationals from 76 countries, The Center Square exclusively reported. Those who evaded capture, known as gotaways, totaled at least 3,745, more than half of the apprehensions, according to data obtained by The Center Square.

Garcia has long praised the relationship Border Patrol agents have with local residents. He says residents have been instrumental in identifying suspicious activity that has led to apprehensions.

In the first six months of fiscal 2024, Border Patrol agents working in all sectors along the northern border apprehended 91,408 illegal border crossers – the greatest number in U.S. history for that time period, The Center Square first reported.

This is after in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, the greatest number of illegal border crossers were apprehended at the northern border, more than 60,600, the most ever for that time period in U.S. history, The Center Square first reported.

By comparison, in fiscal 2021, 27,180 illegal crossers were apprehended at the northern border. After Biden administration policies were implemented, that number increased dramatically to 109,535 in fiscal 2022, and to 189,402 in fiscal 2023. Fiscal 2024 numbers are on track to surpass those numbers.

The U.S.-Canada border is the longest international border in the world of 5,525 miles. Unlike the U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls or similar barriers separating the U.S. from Canada and most of the northern border is unmanned and unpatrolled.