The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deported a group of Chinese migrants earlier this week on a charter flight to China, according to officials.
Tuesday’s flight marked the second removal of Chinese nationals from the U.S. this year. The first flight, the largest since 2018, occurred in June with the cooperation of China’s National Immigration Administration.
“Intending migrants should not believe the lies of smugglers – Chinese nationals without a legal basis to remain in the United States are subject to swift removal,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement released Thursday. “The Department of Homeland Security will continue to strengthen consequences for individuals unlawfully entering our country and enforce our nation’s laws.”
In 2022, approximately 90,000 Chinese nationals entered the U.S., making it the third-largest source of immigrants after Mexico and India, according to the Pew Research Center.
China suspended cooperation with U.S. removal efforts in August 2022 by refusing to accept returning citizens. As a result, the country saw a drastic surge in the number of immigrants entering the country illegally from Mexico, The Associated Press reported.
The following year, U.S. border officials arrested more than 37,000 Chinese nationals at the southern border, 10 times the number during the previous year. However, China resumed cooperation with U.S. deportation efforts this year, according to the AP.
“In recent years, Chinese law enforcement departments have cracked down hard on crimes that harm the tranquility of national border, and maintained a high pressure against all kinds of smuggling organizations and offenders,” the U.S. Embassy in China wrote in a statement in May.
“Our work has produced good results. At the same time, Chinese law enforcement agencies have regular cooperation with relevant countries to jointly tackle cross-border smuggling activities, repatriate illegal immigrants and maintain the order of international flow of people,” the embassy added.
President Biden issued a proclamation in June temporarily suspending the entry of certain noncitizens across the southern border. Since then, Border Patrol officials say encounters have decreased by more than 55 percent.