A top Republican lawmaker from Florida is warning that Cuba is working with Chinese nationals to infiltrate the United States by sea.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who represents the Florida Keys, called it “extremely concerning” after reports that 17 Chinese nationals were captured after entering Key Largo by boat this week.
“I think this is the first time we’ve caught (Chinese nationals) trying to enter the Keys area… it’s concerning,” Gimenez told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview.
“I don’t know who they are, why they are here or what they were doing,” he added.
Gimenez, a member of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said “greater ties” are being formed between the communist Cuban regime and then the communist Chinese regime.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who represents the Florida Keys, called it “extremely concerning” after reports that 17 Chinese nationals were captured after entering Key Largo by boat this week.
Border Patrol agents responded to five migrant landings and encountered 90 Cuban migrants in the Florida Keys
“It really concerns me that they are now trying to come in through the Keys, my part of the country. I understand that the Chinese are gaining more and more influence. More and more infrastructure projects and more and more activity in our hemisphere, especially in Cuba,” he continued.
The infrastructure projects are especially alarming because they are being built just 50 miles off the coast of the Bahamas.
The arrival of the 17 Chinese nationals this week – 11 men and six women – comes after a shocking new report claiming there have been more than 100 cases of US military bases being infiltrated by Chinese nationals.
The Chinese nationals posed as “tourists” and walked to a rocket launch site in New Mexico, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
In addition, some reportedly acted as divers to get close to a missile launch site in Florida, while others claimed to be staying at an Army base in Alaska.
The officers have reportedly claimed to be tourists who have become “lost” and unable to find their way to a Burger King or McDonalds that happen to be close to a US military base.
Government officials say Chinese nationals are often “enlisted” and required to report their findings back to the Chinese government.
Gimenez commented on the rise in the number of Chinese spies gaining access to sensitive military sites.
“We’ve seen a lot of Chinese nationals saying they’re tourists and stuff, photographing sensitive installations,” he told DailyMail.com.
He added that they are focusing on “our critical infrastructure and how it could be compromised.”
The Republican blames the Biden administration’s policies for “keeping our borders completely wide open.”
He warned that the United States currently faces an “increased threat of activity here in the United States, either espionage or terrorism or both.”
“And we need to get to the bottom of this, and it’s a failure of the Biden administration. Their porous border policies are making America less and less safe.”
More than 17,800 Chinese nationals have been released into the US this year alone, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green previously told DailyMail.com.
An aerial view of the Bahamas, which Gimenez says is close to new Chinese infrastructure projects in Cuba
Over the past year, Chinese nationals have increasingly been captured by border police
Helicopters fly over a mountain range near Fort Wainwright, Alaska
Fort Wainright in Alaska, the center of the U.S. military’s operations in the Arctic, was the subject of an apparent espionage attempt, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Green called the “stupidity” of the Biden administration’s current border policies “astounding.”
“Although the Biden administration has completely failed on border security, our Florida Highway Patrol troopers stand ready to protect the U.S. border, both in the southwestern United States and here off the coast of Florida,” says Florida Highway Patrol Executive Director Dave Kerner. .
“This detention of Chinese nationals shows how an open border allows individuals from hostile countries to enter our communities.”