Undocumented Chinese nationals recruited to enter the United States on international websites have become victims of labor and sex trafficking, many of them in Oklahoma, where illegal Chinese immigrants are recruited to enter the United States. The victim was killed at a marijuana farm, the state’s top law enforcement official announced Wednesday.
“These ads are in Mandarin and thinly disguise their involvement in criminal activity,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee in Washington. .
One such ad, he said, “offers jobs at a ‘massage spa’ to people who can ‘tolerate hardship’ and ‘have good hygiene.'”
Drummond was participating in the Republican-led panel’s first impeachment hearing against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, President Joe Biden’s top border official, over the flow of migrants across the Mexican border. . He agreed with Republican lawmakers that the federal government is not doing enough to curb the influx.
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He said that “every case” of illegal marijuana cultivation investigated in Oklahoma involved some degree of illegal labor trafficking, “particularly in Chinese-operated operations.”
Drummond spoke of what he called a “living horror” discovered by two female Chinese investigators while executing a search warrant related to illegal Chinese drug activity.
He said the “mattresses on the bedroom floor were strewn with condoms, lotions and other disgusting items,” adding that the women spoke no English and had been in the U.S. for months, but were “not sure where they were.” I couldn’t tell you,” he added.
“They hadn’t left the house once since they arrived. They just woke up every day and went to work and went back to sleep,” Drummond said.
The hearing comes as Republicans threaten to block funding to Ukraine in its war against the Russian aggressor and force a government shutdown as part of efforts to “secure” the southern border. Immigration remains one of the top issues for conservative voters ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.
In 2023, U.S. Border Patrol apprehended approximately 2 million immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. During President Donald Trump’s term from 2017 to 2021, the most immigrants were arrested in 2019, at 852,000.
U.S. authorities encountered more than 24,000 Chinese nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 12 months ending October 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. According to the data, only about 2,000 Chinese nationals came to the southern border in the previous year.
People leaving China are often trying to escape persecution and poverty at home, the report said, as the country struggles to regain some level of pre-COVID-19 growth.
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Drummond cited the November 2022 execution-style killing of four Chinese nationals at an illegal marijuana farm in Oklahoma.
At the time, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics announced that nearly 80% of the 200 farms to be closed between 2020 and 2022 are run or owned by Chinese nationals.
Drummond said Wednesday that drug cartels from Mexico and China are involved in a “vast majority” of more than 50 “complex, multijurisdictional criminal cases” being investigated by the Oklahoma Organized Crime Task Force, which was established last year. He testified that he had done so.
Asked about his remarks, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said: “We always urge our compatriots to abide by local laws and regulations and refrain from any illegal or criminal activities while abroad.” ” he said.
The spokesperson added that the United States wants to “seriously protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals” in China.