Enemies Among Us, No Thanks to Joe Biden
Only the most willfully obtuse on Capitol Hill would deny that the Joe Biden administration’s neglect of wide-open borders might lead to a national security crisis. Estimates vary on how many foreign nationals from numerous countries have unlawfully crossed the U.S. borders, but the independent news agency Axios put the total at 160.
Distance isn’t a deterrent. Many of those nations are avowed U.S. enemies like Yemen, Cuba, Venezuela and Afghanistan. Facebook airlifted some Afghans to Mexico with the probable intent to enable them to enter unvetted.
In testimony to Congress earlier this year,
Customs and Border
Protection confirmed that four apprehended individuals match names on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database. The watchlist is extensive and includes people “known to be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.” About 450 Chinese nationals also surged the border.
The Biden administration’s sanctioned border fiasco has been well documented, but the willy-nilly visa handout system, mostly unreported, also leaves the nation exposed to malfeasance.
To date, there have been at least three incidents where foreign nationals from unfriendly nations and with dubious intentions, specifically espionage, have accessed the highest levels of federal government.
The most infamous is suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang, California Rep. Eric Swalwell’s campaign donations bundler and suspected lover. Fang entered on a student visa and connived her way to social acceptance with California U.S. Reps. Judy Chu and Mike Honda, as well as other Midwestern government officials.
When the honey pot spy’s subversive purposes were under FBI investigation, she fled to China and took whatever confidential information she may have collected with her. Despite his well-known associations with a suspected Chinese agent, Swalwell is on the House Homeland Security, Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
Swalwell isn’t Congress’ only dupe. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein employed a Chinese national for two decades as her personal chauffeur that the FBI suspected of being a spy. At the time, Feinstein was chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
As with the Swalwell case, Feinstein’s office insisted that the driver, promptly fired when the truth emerged, never gained access to top secrets.
The driver may be small potatoes in the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s long-range plans, but in June 2015, Chinese hackers stole sensitive personal data of 20 million Americans. This included Social Security numbers, addresses and more when they breached the servers of the Office of Personnel Management. That data treasure trove provided Beijing with countless opportunities to access military secrets and take advantage of unsuspecting citizens, or possibly blackmail them.
A Washington Examiner story about Feinstein and the breach pointed out that U.S. university campuses are “host to scores of Chinese assets and operatives.” As of the academic year 2018-2019, nearly 400,000 Chinese students were enrolled in American universities, a total that tripled over the last decade, and raised concerns about intellectual property theft. The 400,000 total is exclusive of Chinese students who completed, either officially or informally, their course work but haven’t returned home.
In February 2021, the CATO Institute published its study titled, “Espionage, Espionage-Related Crimes, and Immigration, a Risk Analysis, 1990-2021.” Cato concluded that although suspected Chinese spies had a significant presence during the period studied, restricting immigration or visa issuance would be more harmful to U.S. prosperity than helpful to national security.
Congress’ goal for Chinese migration, and all other immigration matters, should be to strike a compromise solution with the primary purpose of advancing America and her interests without unduly restricting vetted, potential contributors.
Last summer, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton set off a firestorm of criticism when he suggested that Chinese students be banned from studying science, technology, math and engineering to protect against those disciplines ultimately being used against America.
Cotton didn’t propose ending student visa issuance to Chinese nationals or even limiting the visa totals, but simply making sure that potential enemies didn’t take unfair advantage of U.S. immigration generosity to undermine America when they return home or to prevent recent American citizen graduates from getting white-collar jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 300,000 foreign STEM and related non-STEM workers are in the economy performing jobs that should be American-held. But like other rational immigration recommendations that put Americans first, proposed but ignored in past years, Cotton’s idea went nowhere.
Obviously, the U.S. must do more than tighten student visa oversight to protect the homeland; border enforcement where illegal immigrants continue to arrive in historic numbers, and may reach 2 million during the current fiscal year, would be an excellent place to begin.
Abundantly clear 10 months into Biden’s presidency is that neither he nor anyone in his administration has the slightest interest in national sovereignty or in advancing America.
Incomprehensible to most voters, but undeniable, nonetheless.