The top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee last Wednesday accused China of using the crisis at the southern border to embed military personnel in the United States, the Washington Times reported.
In a press conference announcing an investigation into DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Congressman Mark Green, the chair of the Homeland Security Committee said he had been told by a Border Patrol sector chief that since President Biden took office, there have been people with “known ties” to the People’s Liberation Army among the Chinese migrants who have crossed the southern border.
Green said while the US has “no idea” who these Chinese migrants are, it appears that China is using the same template that Russia used in Ukraine by sending military personnel over the border.
In the first half of FY2023, from October 2022 and April 2023, Border Patrol encountered 9,711 Chinese migrants at the southern border, a 393 percent increase over all of FY2022.
Calling it a “dereliction of duty,” Green blasted Secretary Mayorkas for failing to “faithfully discharge the duties of his office.” He said the Homeland Security committee has learned through “firsthand insight” from those on the front lines of the border crisis and through witness testimony “the devastating costs” of Mayorkas’ failure.
Green described Secretary Mayorkas as the “chief architect” of the border crisis and vowed that the Committee would leave “no stone unturned” in getting to the facts.
In a statement to the Daily Caller, the Department of Homeland Security defended the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, claiming that the department is enforcing immigration laws and securing the border. It claimed that DHS is protecting Americans from terrorism and improving cybersecurity while “building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.”
The statement called on Congress to stop “pointing fingers” and “pursuing baseless attacks,” and instead pass legislation that will “fix our broken immigration system.”
