Biden's Open Border was a Boon to China, Finds New Report from FAIR

The CCP Exploited Border Chaos to Advance It's Economic and Strategic Goals of Overtaking the United States

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- It wasn't just record numbers of illegal aliens who took advantage of the open-borders policies of the Biden administration. The People's Republic of China, America's greatest adversary, also seized on the chaos of the past four years to advance their goals of weakening the United States and supplanting this nation as the world's dominant economic and military power.

A new report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), China: How America's Biggest Adversary is Weaponizing the U.S. immigration System, finds that between 2021 and 2024, some 182,000 Chinese nationals were encountered entering the U.S. illegally – including 67,665 in just the first ten months of 2024. These numbers compare with 25,265 such encounters for the entire ten-year period of 2010-2019.

"Unlike most of the millions of illegal migrants who entered the country during the Biden years, Chinese illegal aliens pose a unique challenge to American security," noted Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of FAIR. "China's totalitarian regime maintains extraordinary leverage over expatriates through their family members who remain behind. Willingly or unwillingly, Chinese nationals in the U.S. can be pressed into the service of the CCP and criminal cartels to engage in economic or military espionage, or to launder money from the sale of lethal fentanyl that originates in China."

In addition to the surge in illegal immigration from China, the presence of some 277,000 Chinese nationals who are in the United States on student visas – many studying at our elite universities – pose a risk to our economic and national security. These 'students,' including some with ties to the Chinese military, are bound by Chinese law to act on behalf of the government and are closely monitored while they are here.

Though the surge of illegal immigration was quickly brought under control in the first weeks of the Trump administration, the risks associated with Chinese illegal immigration remain. It is extraordinarily difficult to deport Chinese nationals, as Beijing refuses to accept repatriation of their citizens.

"The effort of the Trump administration must now be on bringing pressure to bear on the Chinese government to accept the return of illegal aliens who are living in the United States, including the threat of withholding new student and other highly coveted visas. All illegal immigration is harmful to the interests of the United States and the American people. But when a foreign adversary is exploiting these policies to the detriment of our economic and strategic interests addressing these issues must be the highest priority," Wilcox concluded.

The full report, China: How America's Biggest Adversary is Weaponizing the U.S. immigration System, can be found here.

Contact: Ira Mehlman, 213.700.0407 [email protected]

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)