Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the Santa Monica, California-based RAND Corporation think tank, warned in recent comments to the New York Post that a watered-down screening process for Chinese illegal immigrants puts national security at risk.
According to the Rand Corporation expert, the U.S. faces a growing threat of bad actors from China gaining entry into the United States by posing as asylum seekers. They know all the answers to give when questioned by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after CBP drastically scaled down its questionnaire for Chinese illegal border crossers last year.
DCNF reporter describes how Chinese illegal immigrants get fast-tracked to US
The vetting process for the illegal immigrants from China was drastically reduced from roughly 40 questions to five in April 2023, an email obtained by the DCNF shows. Human smuggling operations have…
— Wendy Patterson (@wendyp4545) January 3, 2024
“The change in procedure appears to reflect the reality that the volume of Chinese migrants is overwhelming the US immigration control system [ … and] should speed up the processing of applicants,” said Heath, “However, any simplification risks raising the risk that unwanted individuals slip through the cracks.”
Meanwhile, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party told the New York Post on Thursday that the new CBP policy to expedite entry to the U.S. by Chinese nationals who illegally cross the border is “unacceptable.”
“Americans do not want America’s foremost adversary facilitating the flow of fentanyl into our country or sending thousands of people across our border illegally,” the subcommittee said in a statement. “President Biden needs to secure the border now.”
The Biden administration drastically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants in April 2023, according to an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) email https://t.co/FqZnVxfDGa
— Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer) January 2, 2024
“This policy change has accelerated the time it takes to process Chinese illegal immigrants — this doesn’t make America safer,” said retired U.S. Border Patrol agent J. J. Carrell. “The final result is that dangerous Chinese illegal immigrants will still be released into the U.S [ … ] This is just the government covering their a—, so they can say they vetted.”
Federal data from CBP show that the number of Chinese migrants encountered by Border Patrol as they gained illegal entry into the U.S. doubled from January to November last year to a record-high inflow of 59,642 from 25,397 over the same period in 2022.
“As the economic and political situation in China deteriorates, the volume of Chinese people seeking asylum could well grow,” Heath said. “Moreover, China has proven uncooperative in repatriating illegal immigrants captured in the United States.”
