Homeland Security announced Tuesday that it sent a charter flight of deportees back to China for the first time in six years.
The department was cagey about details, saying only that it was a “large charter flight” over the weekend. The department didn’t say exactly how many people were on it, where it flew from and to, and whether future flights are in the works.
The flight comes as the U.S. is facing a massive increase in Chinese illegal immigrants, including an influx of young men of military age. That has sparked shots from congressional Republicans saying Chinese government operatives could be sneaking in amid the masses.
Homeland Security characterized the flight as part of its recent get-tough efforts at the border.
“We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement announcing the move. “People should not believe the lies of smugglers.”
China has long been among the trickiest countries to which to deport. It’s on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s list of “recalcitrant” nations that refuse to cooperate with taking back illegal immigrants.
The State Department has even leveled visa sanctions against some Chinese officials as retaliation.
For its part, China has treated deportations as a political weapon. After then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022, Beijing announced it would refuse all repatriations.
It wasn’t taking many anyway.
Before this weekend, the last large deportation flight it accepted was in 2018. It has taken back deportees on a case-by-case basis, but those are scattered.
In fiscal 2023, ICE managed to deport just 288 people to China. Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection recorded 52,700 unauthorized immigrants from China entering the U.S.
That works out to a deportation rate of just one for every 183 new arrivals.
Jonathan Fahey, who ran ICE at the end of the Trump administration, said it will take more than one flight for the Biden administration to prove itself.
“Whatever they’re doing is just really for show now because they want to look like they’re doing something before another election,” said Mr. Fahey, now a partner at the District of Columbia law firm Holtzman Vogel. “Everything which this administration has been purely politically driven cynicism.”
He said the challenge of going after the tens of thousands of Chinese already here is massive.
“I can’t even imagine how many flights they would need and how many hoops they would have to jump through for each individual,” he said.
While the Biden administration tied the deportations to what it calls a tougher approach at the border, which began last month, the flight had been in the works for months.
Acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner told a House subcommittee this spring that it was “moving in the right direction” with China.
“We’ve had some recent cautiously optimistic progress with the Chinese,” Mr. Lechleitner said.
ICE used to reveal its list of recalcitrant countries but hasn’t done so for years.
The most recent public list is from a Congressional Research Service report in July 2020. At the time, 13 were listed as recalcitrant nations and 17 were deemed “at risk of noncompliance.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.