Topped with razor wire that glints menacingly in the desert sun, a 30ft steel fence runs along part of the vast U.S.-Mexican border
, providing an imposing bulwark in America’s war against illegal immigration.
U.S. border agents are often on hand but they watch impassively as the migrants take the last few steps of their journey to a new life before waiting patiently to be taken into custody, processed and swiftly released — free to stay in America, probably for years, until their asylum case comes up. An adversary that has recently been accused of all manner of underhand operations in the U.S.: using spy balloons to target sensitive military bases and making suspicious purchases of nearby land, running a network of covert police stations across the U.S. and even intentionally flooding America with lethal drugs and malign social media.
Given that both Democrat and Republican politicians have already expressed severe alarm about devious behaviour by Beijing in the U.S., many are unwilling to give the newcomers the benefit of the doubt. ‘I’m not saying China is going to invade the United States but, if we were to defend Taiwan, you have to think this is part of some plan or strategy — you’d be foolish not to,’ said Mark Green, Republican chairman of the House committee on Homeland Security, in Congress.
Plagued by poisonous snakes, raging rivers and armed robbers, this notoriously dangerous jungle has become a bottleneck for migrants heading north. Weinstein added: ‘I think we have to stop punishing ourselves for considering things that once seemed crazy.’ Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst in Washington DC, told the Mail she considers the Chinese migrant numbers ‘truly shocking’, although she said it wasn’t unusual for them to be disproportionately young men — particularly given the rigours of the long journey they had undertaken from their homeland.
What they could be ‘taking advantage of’, say experts, is the chaos of the U.S. immigration processing system and the difficulty the FBI has in checking the identity of undocumented migrants, who routinely destroy their passports so they can’t be deported.Experts cite various covert activities, including espionage, coercion, counter-intelligence, cyber hacking and surveillance.
While there’s endless coverage nowadays of the damage that can be done by internet hackers, much of America’s infrastructure, such as dams and power grids, remains offline. ‘So some of this still requires boots on the ground,’ the analyst added. Other intrusions have been more insidious. Chinese ownership of American farmland has soared 20-fold in a decade from £63 million in 2010 to £1.4 billion in 2020.
After more than a year of heated discussions, during which Fufeng vehemently denied claims its mill would be used for spying or sabotage operations, the U.S. Air Force announced the project ‘presents a significant threat to national security’ and it was ended. Critics also note that TikTok provides Chinese migrants with detailed instructions on where best to breach America’s southern border, including at the San Judas Break, even listing where to find food and the location of lavatories.