(Daily Signal)—Customs and Border Protection encountered a record number of Russian and Chinese foreign nationals along America’s borders and at ports of entry in fiscal year 2023.
CBP encountered 57,163 foreign nationals from Russia between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023, over 20,000 more than the previous fiscal year. In the same time period, 52,700 Chinese nationals were encountered on America’s borders and at ports of entry, nearly 25,000 more than during fiscal year 2022.
“These alarming figures should not shock anyone,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told The Daily Signal. “The Biden administration’s border policies continue to incentivize foreign nationals from all over the world to enter our country illegally via the southern border.”
Along America’s southern border with Mexico, CBP encountered 24,314 Chinese foreign nationals and 43,210 Russian foreign nationals.
Biggs added: “Having tens of thousands of Russian and [Chinese Communist Party]-linked individuals show up at our border is not normal by any measure. The inaction from the Biden administration is unacceptable and jeopardizes American lives.”
During the final full fiscal year of the Trump administration, 5,946 Russian nationals were encountered on America’s border and 18,395 Chinese nationals were encountered.
On Saturday, CBP released data revealing that agents encountered a record 3.2 million illegal aliens at U.S. ports of entry and between ports of entry on the northern and southern borders. That number does not include “gotaways.”
A recent report from the House Judiciary Committee found that “more than 1.7 million known gotaways” have successfully evaded Border Patrol agents and entered the country during the first 26 months of the Biden administration. It is unclear how many illegal aliens have successfully evaded Border Patrol detection and entered America.
CBP also reported that 736 illegal aliens on America’s “terrorist watchlist” have been encountered at or between a port of entry in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30. The terrorist watchlist includes “individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States, including known affiliates of watchlisted individuals,” according to CBP.
“The United States’ adversaries understand that now is the prime opportunity to infiltrate our country, and the data should raise immediate concerns, especially with the increasing threats of terror attacks,” Biggs said, referring to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered a war.
CBP’s San Diego Field Office issued a memo Friday warning of members of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attempting to cross the border.
The San Diego office “assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the southwest border,” according to the memo, which was first reported Monday by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Foreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the U.S. to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico,” that CBP memo says.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
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Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
