The number of Chinese migrants entering the US at the southern border has reached a record high — sparking national security concerns over possible spies.

Customs and Border Protection officials apprehended 24,048 Chinese citizens at the border with Mexico over the 2023 fiscal year ending in September — more than 12 times the 1,970 arrests in the previous fiscal year.

It is also a more than 7,000% increase from 2021, when just 323 Chinese nationals crossed the border during strict pandemic travel bans and lockdowns.

The trend further highlights how migrants worldwide are aware of the disastrous controls at the US border — while also increasing fears of possible Chinese spies sneaking in while hiding with regular migrants.

“Clearly that border is a big opportunity,” Rebecca Grant, a national security analyst at IRIS Independent Research, recently told Newsweek

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“Some of those people want to come here and have a better way of life, but I think some of those Chinese [nationals] quite possibly are here to spy and report back at a minimum,” she warned.

In fact, Grant said she is “99% certain that at least a little bit of this is [the] Chinese military infiltrating for reasons harmful to our national security.

“Is it one person, is it a hundred, is it a thousand — we don’t know, but the fact that we have to ask this question is outrageous,” she told the outlet.

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The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is instructing Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents to ask immigrants they encounter for their “preferred pronouns” and to use gender-neutral language while on the job.

The guidance, obtained by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and titled “Guide to Facilitating Effective Communication with Individuals who Identify as LGBTQI+,” also tells CBP agents to avoid using certain terms.

“This job aid provides guidance to all CBP employees who interact with the public … including individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming,” the document reads. “This guidance should be used by all CBP employees who encounter members of the public.”

The agency goes on to demand that Customs and Border Patrol agents do not use “‘he, him,’ ‘she her’ pronouns until you have more information about, or provided by, the individual.” CBP agents are also instructed to not use words like “Mr,” “Mrs,” “sir” or “ma’am.”

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EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE:  The U.S. is also making a historic transition from conventional power plants fueled by coal and natural gas to cleaner forms of energy such as wind and solar power. Grid operators across the U.S. have been warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, and that gaps could lead to rolling blackouts during hot or cold weather extremes.

Everything is bigger in Texas, including its electricity use, which is increasing at historic rates in a sign of what is to come for much of the U.S.

The country’s largest electricity producer and user saw sales grow at five times the national rate for the past decade, roughly like adding Louisiana. A crushing heat wave this summer broke 10 peak demand records for the main Texas grid operator, which narrowly avoided blackouts one hot evening.

Texas is an extreme example with a big population that needs a lot of air conditioning, but it is also at the center of trends pushing electricity use higher in pockets of the country: the reshoring of manufacturing, the growth of power-hungry data centers and a push to electrification.

New customers that have connected to the Texas grid in recent years include the Tesla gigafactory near Austin. PHOTO: JORDAN VONDERHAAR/BLOOMBERG NEWS

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