U.S. Authority Deports Over a Hundred Chinese Migrants

U.S. Authority Deports Over a Hundred Chinese Migrants

The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that it sent a charter flight of deportees back to China for the first time in six years.

The deportation, on a charter flight, took place over the weekend in coordination with Chinese authorities, the Department of Homeland Security said.

U.S. and Chinese authorities were working together on additional removal flights, the statement added.

The announcement comes during an intense debate about immigration and border policy in the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election in November. Since last year, a growing number of Chinese migrants has made the journey into the U.S. through its southern border, hoping to escape bleak economic prospects and political oppression.

Many follow a route made popular on social media that takes them through the treacherous Darién Gap on the border of Panama and Colombia, the only land route north from South America as migrants head to the United States. Once they arrive at the southern border, they surrender to U.S. border officers and apply for asylum, citing a credible fear if they are sent back to China.

On Monday, the U.S. government announced that it had signed an agreement with Panama aimed at halting the flow of migrants through the Darién Gap. The United States will provide funding and training for the new flight removal program, the State Department said.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement that the Chinese government “has carried out international law enforcement cooperation with the immigration law enforcement departments of relevant countries to repatriate people involved in smuggling activities,” adding that it has sent them “to their original places of residence, and pursued their legal responsibility in accordance with the law.”

In the 2023 fiscal year, more than 24,000 Chinese migrants were temporarily detained on the U.S. southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection — more than in the preceding 10 years combined.

Last year, Chinese migrants became the fourth-largest group crossing into the U.S. that way, exceeded only by Venezuelans, Ecuadoreans and Haitians, according to Panama immigration authorities