WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) announced a hearing for Thursday, May 16, to examine the unprecedented flow of Chinese nationals across our borders—particularly between ports of entry along the Southwest border—and the national security implications of this historic influx. 
 
“Illegal encounters of Chinese nationals at our Southwest border are 20 times higher under the open-borders agenda of the Biden administration than the previous two administrations,” Chairman Bishop said. “While some continue to make excuses for these unprecedented numbers, 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. As the Chinese Communist Party (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. A wide-open border presents a ripe opportunity for the CCP to undermine our national security. We must be cleared-eyed about the threats this historic development presents.”

Read more in the Daily Caller via Philip Lenczycki.

DETAILS:
 
What: A Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability hearing entitled, “Security Risk: The Unprecedented Surge in Chinese Illegal Immigration.”
 
When: Thursday, May 16, 2024, at 2:00 PM ET
 
Where: 310 Cannon House Office Building
 
WITNESSES:
 
Simon Hankinson
Senior Research Fellow, Border Security and Immigration Center, The Heritage Foundation
 
Todd Bensman
National Security Fellow, Center for Immigration Studies
 
Craig Singleton
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Meredith Owen, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Witness testimony will be posted here. The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube and will be open to the public and press. 

BACKGROUND:
 
So far in FY24, 24,376 Chinese nationals have been encountered at the Southwest border, 24,214 of them apprehended illegally crossing the border. Encounters of Chinese nationals in March 2024 increased more than 8,000 percent compared to March 2021, and just six months into FY24, have surpassed total FY23 encounters. In addition, more than 1,000 Chinese nationals have crossed the northern border every month for the past five months.
 
In April 2023, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ DHS had instructed Border Patrol agents to drastically reduce the number of vetting questions, from 40 to only five, for Chinese nationals in order to more quickly process these aliens into the interior.’ In June 2023, Chief Patrol Agent Anthony “Scott” Good of the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, told the Committee during a transcribed interview that the unprecedented increase in border crossings by Chinese nationals causes him concern, saying, “It’s not the demographic that we normally see…[t]heir agendas, their ideologies, the reason for them coming could be missed.” Last September, another chief patrol agent told our Committee in an interview that finding translators for agents to interview Chinese nationals was tricky, and interviews could take as long as seven hours. 
 
Good also told the Committee that based on his observations, the “typical reason” given by Chinese nationals for entering illegally was “the same as most of the migrants—for work or a better life.” However, despite this not being legitimate legal grounds for asylum, according to one report, many Chinese nationals are claiming credible fear and “subsequently being released into the U.S. on their own recognizance and with a notice to appear for a court date for their immigration hearings.”
 
On March 27, a Chinese national in the U.S. illegally was arrested for breaching a military base in California and refusing to leave. 
 

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