(The Center Square) – Chinese illegal border crossers total over 177,600 since 2021. That’s equivalent to 35.5 U.S. Army brigades.
The U.S. House has passed several bills to combat national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Republic of China. They include HR 8631, the “Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act;” HR 8663, the “DETECT Fentanyl and Xylazine Act of 2024;” and HR 7404, the “Subterranean Border Defense Act.”
“The United States must decouple from Communist China in all facets of our lives,” said U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-FL, who’s been warning about Chinese-Cuban threats. He filed HR 8631 to prohibit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from procuring batteries from six major companies owned and operated in the PRC, including Contemporary Amperex Technology Company, Ltd., and Gotion High Tech.
“We were already late to recognize the PRC’s battery threat, and we cannot afford to do it again,” he said. “We must proactively stay ahead and address these threats that undermine the U.S. supply chain and leave our national security at risk.”
U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, R-NY, filed HR 8663 to “provide resources to law enforcement with cutting-edge technology to detect and stop the flow of lethal substances like fentanyl and xylazine before they reach our streets.” The precursors of fentanyl are produced in China and shipped to Mexican cartels, border experts have told The Center Square. The bill provides resources to DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate to improve the safety, effectiveness and efficiency of drug detection equipment used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
U.S. Rep. Eli Crane, R-AZ, filed HR 7404 to require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to report annually to Congress on its efforts to identify and remediate illegal cross-border tunnels into the United States. “The Biden-Harris Administration has eagerly dismantled our border, leaving Americans inexcusably vulnerable,” he said. His bill will “help forge a desperately needed layer of defense by ensuring that Congress has the necessary data to address the deadly threat of cross-border tunnels.”
U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, R-FL, also filed a bill to create a multi-agency task force to combat CCP and PRC-sponsored cyber actors, including Volt Typhoon. She filed it after federal agencies warned all 50 state governors about “disabling cyberattacks” targeting water and wastewater systems nationwide. The warning describes how Volt Typhoon is targeting information technology of multiple critical infrastructure systems. Its “choice of targets and pattern of behavior are not consistent with traditional cyber espionage,” it states. “Volt Typhoon actors are pre-positioning themselves to disrupt critical infrastructure operations in the event of geopolitical tensions and/or military conflicts.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress earlier this year that Volt Typhoon hackers infiltrated U.S. critical infrastructure and installed malware to commit a cyber-attack in the future. DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also published a report on Volt Typhoon strategies.
“The CCP, acting through ‘Volt Typhoon’ and other threat actors, has made a concerted effort to pre-position itself within our networks in order to target and compromise the critical infrastructure Americans rely on every day – from the transportation and water sectors to the energy sector,” Lee said. Her bill “implements a focused, coordinated, and whole-of-government response to all of Beijing’s cyber threats.”
“The threat actor ‘Volt Typhoon’ remained undetected and undeterred in our networks for far too long,” U.S. Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-TN, said. “The discovery of the new actor ‘Flax Typhoon’ further demonstrates the CCP’s unabashed commitment to infiltrating our critical infrastructure. While intrusions from threat actors like the Typhoons create a dangerous opportunity for espionage, we know they could also serve as open doors for the CCP to manipulate or thwart crucial services Americans rely on in the event of escalation in the Indo-Pacific.”
The bills were filed by members of Green’s committee after the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration.
They totaled nearly 160,000 since fiscal 2021 through June, first reported by The Center Square. That number totaled 177,631 through August, according to CBP data. It excludes an unknown number who illegally entered and evaded capture, known as gotaways, which total over 2 million since fiscal 2021, first reported by The Center Square.
The majority illegally entering are single, military age men, including those who’ve reportedly breached U.S. military bases. In recent years, Chinese nationals accessed military bases and other sensitive sites nearly 100 times, The Wall Street Journal reported last fall.
Officials describe Chinese nationals breaching U.S. military bases as a “potential espionage threat,” the Journal reported. Incidents “range from Chinese nationals found crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico to what appeared to be scuba divers swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket-launch site in Florida.”
The number of Chinese illegal border crossers reported under the Biden-Harris administration totals the equivalent of 1,776 U.S. Army companies, or 177 battalions, or 35.5 brigades, nearly 12 divisions, or nearly 4 corps.
A U.S. Army company is comprised of 100 soldiers, a battalion of 1,000, a brigade 5,000, a division 15,000, and a corps, 45,000, according to U.S. Department of Defense data.
Chinese illegal border crossers total more than the 100,000 U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan at the height of the 20-year conflict.
