(IntegrityPress.org) – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave comments to NBC News on April 5 suggesting that China’s posture on refusing to accept deportations of Chinese nationals in the United States illegally, may be shifting.
Mayorkas hinted that high-level members of the administrations are attempting to coordinate the return of some of the Chinese nationals who entered the U.S. illegally through the southern border. It’s been estimated that roughly forty thousand Chinese have entered the country illegally under the Biden administration.
China has been unwilling to collaborate on coordinating the return of their citizens thus far. Mayorkas highlighted that they’re planning to repatriate Chinese after their asylum claims were rejected. Given the current backlog of cases, it seems unlikely to occur any time soon, however.
Mayorkas reported that he was “hopeful” that the Chinese would come around, but said they were in a “wait-and-see” mode. He said that he brought the issue up in February during a meeting with Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong in Vienna, Wang is his counterpart in China. The announcement was first reported by NBC News.
The number of Chinese illegals coming over the southern border has skyrocketed in recent years. Customs and Border Protection officials recorded roughly 24,000 Chinese illegals coming in in 2023 alone. That’s an order of magnitude greater than the 2,000 that came in the year before. The total number of illegals coming in under Biden is estimated to be closer to ten million by the time the election rolls around.
The talks followed ongoing deterioration of relations between China and the rest of the world. The communist country has been harassing Philippine and Japanese boats in the South China Sea over access to disputed territories. A Chinese spy balloon also triggered animosity last year. Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jingping in November in San Francisco, and had a recent phone conversation on April 8.
China and the U.S. have had a strained relationship during Biden’s administration, and further deterioration during an election year would be another red mark on Joe Biden’s proverbial presidential report card.
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