China and Cuba have reportedly teamed up to transport Chinese nationals across the Atlantic Ocean’s Straits of Florida and smuggle them into the United States, according to a top Florida Republican lawmaker.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who represents the Florida Keys, warned about the alleged partnership between the two communist nations in an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday — after 17 Chinese nationals were apprehended inside the congressman’s district last week.
“This is the first time I think we’ve caught [Chinese nationals] trying to cross getting into the Keys area … it’s concerning,” Gimenez told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview. “I don’t know who they are, why they’re here, or what they were doing.”
U.S. Border Patrol agents and Florida Highway Patrol troopers responded to a vessel landing in Key Largo on October 23, which led to authorities capturing three Ecuadorians and another 17 Chinese immigrants — 11 men and six women, according to local media.
Gimenez, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, Homeland Security Committee, and the new Select Committee on China, immediately requested additional information about the individuals.
“That really kind of concerns me that now they’re trying to make their way in through the Keys — my part of the country,” he told The Daily Mail. “I understand that the Chinese are having more and more influence. More and more infrastructure projects, more and more activity in our hemisphere, especially in Cuba.”
Such projects point to the secret deal China reached with Cuba earlier this year to build an electronic eavesdropping base in the island territory — approximately 100 miles off the U.S. coast.
The latest incident followed a bombshell report from earlier this year that found more than 100 incidents have occurred where Chinese nationals posed as tourists to test the security of military bases as well as other sensitive sites.
“We’ve seen many, many Chinese nationals, saying they’re tourists and stuff, and they’ve been photographing sensitive installations,” Giminez told the outlet, adding the individuals have targeted critical U.S. infrastructure to “see how that can be compromised.”
One case involved Chinese nationals who said they were tourists attempting to force their way past guards at the military base in Fort Wainwright, Alaska, the home to the Army’s 11th Airborne Division. Chinese nationals have reportedly repeatedly photographed the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the largest overland military test range in the U.S.
Chinese nationals were reportedly found swimming near a Key West, Florida, military facility. They claimed they were tourists. Other Chinese nationals seemed to be scuba diving near Cape Canaveral, where spy satellites are sent into space, according to the Journal.
Giminez blamed the potential national security threat on the Biden administration’s open border policies, which have led to record-breaking illegal immigrant encounters since President Joe Biden took office in 2021 — an estimated 6.5 million just in the three fiscal years alone.
He warned of an increased threat of spying and terrorist activity in the United States.
“And we need to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a failure of the Biden administration,” he said. “Their porous border policies are making America less and less safe.”
Chairman Mark Green of the House Homeland Security Committee previously told the Daily Mail over 17,800 Chinese nationals have been released into the U.S. in 2023.
Hank Berrien contributed to this report.