U.S. Senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bill Hagerty (R-TN) is leading the effort to prohibit U.S. asylum for members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Hagerty along with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) along with six other Senate Republican colleagues have introduced the No Asylum for CCP Spies Act which aims to deny members of communist or totalitarian parties, like the CCP from being granted asylum in the U.S. and ensures under federal law that members of these parties are ineligible for immigration benefits.
The lawmakers say that an estimated 40,000 Chinese nationals have been intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along the northern and southern borders of the country alone this year. The Biden Administration has left the border wide open, making it possible for potential Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies to come to the United States and take advantage of the country’s welcoming immigration policies.
According to Hagerty, this bill ensures that the CCP cannot exploit President Joe Biden’s broken border policies.
“We’ve now apprehended, under President Joe Biden’s watch, over 170 different nationalities crossing our border illegally, including 40,000 nationals from Communist China in this year alone. This bill would ensure that the CCP can’t exploit Biden’s broken border policies to spy, steal, and otherwise harm U.S. national interests,” Hagerty said.
According to Rubio, the Biden Administration’s open border policy is putting U.S. communities at risk.
“The American people are facing the repercussions of the Biden Administration’s open border policy, which is creating chaos and putting our communities at risk. We don’t know who’s illegally entering our nation. This presents an opportunity for the CCP to further take advantage and threaten our democracy and national security interests,” Rubio said.
Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS), Rick Scott (R-FL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) are also co-sponsors of this legislation.
“While the CCP grows more eager to undermine U.S. sovereignty by any means necessary, President Biden’s open border policies have welcomed nearly 40,000 Chinese nationals to our country in the last year. We need to know exactly what their intentions and affiliations are before they are allowed in via asylum or any legal means. Xi Jinping’s communist way of life has no place in the United States,” Blackburn said.
U.S. Representatives Mark Green (R-TN-07), Troy Nehls (R-TX-22) and Byron Donalds (R-FL) have also introduced companion legislation in the House.
According to Green, this legislation is “a solution to protect our national security from individuals associated with communist parties seeking to harm our national security.”
This follows a group of U.S. Republican Senators sending a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas raising concerns about the alarming number of Chinese nationals, particularly those who have ties to the CCP, encountered by CBP last week.
The Tennessee Star reached out to Hagerty for comment but did not receive a reply before press time.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, The Arizona Sun Times, and The Tennessee Star. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
