With the increasing threat of terrorist enemies entering the United States through the Biden Adminstration’s failed immigration policies, American airports, heliports, and military bases become especially vulnerable.

An individual working for the US Border Patrol in one of the 47 counties in the Del Rio Sector of Texas, recently noted a trend in illegal immigrants having hand held lasers in their possession.

“We thought it was a way for them to communicate or signal each other as they are manuevring around trying to find a less vulnerable and easy way to cross the (Rio Grande) river,” he said. “But now we are taking an expanded view.”

When laser beams are aimed at any piloted aircraft, whether military or commercial, what might seem like a tiny beam on the ground can blind aircrew, potentially causing a midair collision or other incident.

In 2023 alone, the Federal Aviation Administration (or FAA) received more than 13,000 reports of laser strikes.

In 2005, Supervisory Special Agent David Gates recalls that the FBI received fewer than 300 laser strike reports. By 2010 that number had grown to 2,800.

That increase concerned the FBI, according to Gates, who leads FBI Los Angeles’ satellite office at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

“Laser strikes can distract or cause physical damage to pilots,” he said. “When laser beams hit cockpit windows, the glare they create can cause flash blindness, a condition in which vision is affected after exposure to the source of light.”

The U.S. Air Force Safety Center notes that “aircrew are issued laser eye protection glasses before each flight.”

“If you’re on the ground aiming a laser pointer at a plane or a helicopter, it’s not just that little tiny point,” he said. Once a laser beam reaches the aircraft, cockpit windows reflect it, filling the space with blinding light.

“By the time it reaches the cockpit and the pilot is looking out, that beam of light might be the size of a watermelon or a cantaloupe,” Gates explained.

“Laser exposure is most hazardous when a direct laser beam, or its specular (mirrorlike) reflection, enters the pupil along the axis of vision when the eye is focused on a distant object,” the FAA writes. “The energy density of the laser beam can be intensified up to 100,000 times by the focusing action of the eye.”

A 2012 federal statute makes it illegal for people to “knowingly” point a laser pointer’s beam “at an aircraft”—whether private, commercial, or military—or its flight path.

Most importantly, it attaches consequences to this action: A monetary fine of up to $250,000 and/or a federal prison sentence of up to five years. On top of that, the FAA’s website notes that it “can impose civil penalties of up to $11,000” each time someone aims a laser beam at an aircraft.

The lasers are only one piece of the puzzle of why there has been an uptick of spying activity at American military bases in the U.S.

Last week, Admiral Daryl Caudle warned that “this thing of our military bases getting penetrated by foreign nationals, it’s happening more and more. This is something we see probably two or three times a week, where we’re stopping these folks at the gate.”

“This is just Navy alone. We’re seeing folks try to come in. Usually, the cover story is — I’m a student, I’m here, an enthusiast, I want to see the ships. That type of thing,” he explained. “We have to turn them around. Typically we get NCIS involved and biometrics when possible.”

Operatives from Communist China have been caught scuba diving close to Cape Canaveral, wandered on to a missile launch site in New Mexico, and claimed to be looking for Holiday Inn when caught at an Army base in Alaska

● In 2019, three Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison for illegally taking photographs of military infrastructure at the NAS Key West Navy base in Florida.

That same year two Chinese citizens were expelled from the U.S. after attempting to drive on to the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, reported the Virginia Pilot.

In 2023, Chinese nationals attempted to enter U.S. military sites more than 100 times, often posing as tourists or food delivery drivers such as DoorDash.

This is not new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) surveillance tactic, according to Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert, and “certainly isn’t the only way they are actively surveilling the U.S.”

“Just watching pattern of life and gathering open source intelligence provides them a lot of opportunity to understand our security practices,” Teichert said. “When you piece a lot of these data points together, then you come up with an overall idea of our capabilities or readiness and our vulnerabilities.”

“It is Chinese communist clubs on college campuses or Chinese police stations in US cities or 700 billion dollars of stolen intellectual property a year by the Chinese communist party,” he continued. “Sadly, they have been implementing that strategy for the last two and a half decades, and to some extent, we’re not as vigilant and diligent as we should be to stop them.”

● In 2022 federal investigators pursued Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei over concerns that U.S. cell towers fitted with its gear could capture sensitive information from military bases and missile silos that the company could then transmit to China.

● In 2023, a suspected Chinese spy balloon reportedly flew across the United States and intercepted electronic signals and communications of military facilities.

It first appeared in American airspace via Alaska in January 2023. It flew over a military base in Montana before it was shot down by an F-22 Raptor over South Carolina.

● In March, 2024, fishermen at sea near Alaska pulled a similar spy balloon out of the water. Supposedly, the FBI now has it in Quantico.

● In May, 2024, mining company, MineOne Partners, backed by Chinese nationals, operating within a mile of Francis Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming was deemed a “national security risk” by federal officials.

The base is home to part of the U.S. arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Treasury Department said “specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities” were just one reason they are blocking the company from owning that land.

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