Kristi Noem suspects that China is running a smuggling operation in the form of a travel agency
Shield of the Americas special envoy Kristi Noem joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss precious mineral exploration, AI competition and China’s surveillance activities in America.
China is allegedly planning a coordinated “tourism” operation designed to help Chinese nationals cross the U.S. border, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday.
Speaking exclusively on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria,” the current special envoy for the Shield of the Americas with intelligence details said it shows how networks allegedly supported by Beijing provide undocumented migrants with special documents and pass directly across the north-south border.
“We have seen a concerted attack of people entering the country from China,” said Noem. “The countries I’ve worked with in Latin and South America have told us how they’ve done Chinese jobs so people can fly to their countries, almost like a travel company would.”
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“They came, they were given some documents, a backpack, they boarded a bus and they boarded the bus directly to our southern border… And surprisingly, the evidence was that they were people of the same age, young people, mainly men, some women, but a great effort to bring people together in our country, to change our country,” he added.
Former US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks during a luncheon at Trump National Doral in Miami, Florida, on March 7, 2026. (Getty Images)
Republicans have warned for years about a record number of Chinese immigrants crossing the border, with reports of more than 22,000 encounters involving Chinese nationals at the southern border since late 2023.
US intelligence and the DEA have also repeatedly stated that most of the illegal chemical fentanyl originates from chemical factories inside China before being sent to Mexican cartels for processing and trafficking.
Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang criticizes NVIDIA’s plan to sell Vera CPUs to Chinese customers.
“They did that,” Noem said. “I wouldn’t say that, in fact, we’ve got obligations on it officially, directly from the government, but absolutely, the Chinese businesses, those tied to the CCP, those people who work with the sales companies to make sure that the product enters the United States.”
“And remember, China has a thousand-year plan to destroy the United States. They’re not just building up their military. They’re not just exploiting their money, they’re hurting us with trade practices,” he said. “They have a plan to kill our country from the inside by killing our next generation of Americans. They will use every tool at their disposal.”
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Attorney Jeff Van Drew, RN.J., discusses aspects of the firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on ‘The Evening Edit.’
Noem, a former congressman and former governor of South Dakota, was ousted from his top DHS post on March 5. Noem’s tenure marked a distinct reversal of the open border policies that his predecessor Alejandro Mayorkas endorsed during the Biden administration, and DHS reported record drug busts totaling more than half a million pounds of illegal drugs in his first year.
Under the leadership of Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security said in December 2025 that immigration enforcement helped promote the deportation of more than 1.9 million people and the removal of 600,000. Supporters praised the numbers as evidence of a record-setting effort, although independent demographers and fact-checkers have disputed the methodology of the eviction estimates.
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Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Charles Creitz and Alex Miller contributed to this report.
