Chinese nationals are illegally entering Guam, posing a “major cause for concern” for the island which is home to an important U.S. military base and around 20,000 American troops, Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) told The Daily Mail.
Since 2022, Guam Customs and Quarantine has reported 118 unlawful or attempted unlawful entries by Chinese nationals, agency spokeswoman Alana Chargualaf-Afaisen told Stars and Stripes. There were 85 cases of attempted illegal entry into Guam by Chinese migrants in 2022, followed by 27 in 2023, and six so far in 2024.
Guam is just under 2,000 miles from the Chinese mainland and is home to Naval Base Guam, the only U.S. Navy submarine base in the western Pacific. The island also hosts America’s main Pacific bomber fleet at Andersen Air Force Base.
“Count on the Chinese Communist Party to exploit every potential vulnerability on the map. What the CCP is doing in Guam is almost certainly no exception,” Green told the Mail. “The United States maintains a significant military presence on the island, a vital outpost for helping America defend our strategic interests in the region.”
The “surging numbers of Chinese nationals coming into Guam” is a “major cause for concern, in part because we simply do not know for what purpose these individuals are coming,” Green said, adding, “It’s not just rising numbers of Chinese nationals illegally crossing our Southwest border that demands attention—what’s happening in Guam does, as well.”
The Department of Homeland Security told Stars and Stripes that the Chinese migrants are mainly going to Guam for economic reasons. Special Agent in Charge John Tobon of Homeland Security Investigations in Honolulu said, “The one thing about all those individuals is that they are all vetted before they are admitted into Saipan.”
“Once they’re in Saipan, they may try to come over to Guam, but the overwhelming majority are really doing it for economic reasons,” Tobon added.
Republicans, such as Green and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, maintain apprehensions about the Chinese migrants, however, saying that loopholes in the Visa process allow bad actors to take advantage of the U.S. Last November, 32 Republicans wrote a letter, warning Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the loopholes.
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“The Chinese Communist Party has already proven they will stop at nothing to infiltrate and outpace the United States, and I’m working to close loopholes that allow any further espionage,” Ernst told Newsweek on Wednesday. “We must put an end to Chinese nationals accessing our military installations on U.S. territories and conducting malign activity.”
Last month, CBS News reported that Chinese nationals are the fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. Over 24,000 Chinese citizens were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year, a number higher than the combined data on apprehensions from the ten previous years, according to a November report from The New York Times.