US Deportation Of Chinese Immigrants On Carter Plane

Chicago US/ILLUSTRATION OF UNSPLASH/Joel Mott

JAKARTA - The United States deported a number of Chinese people who tried to enter the country by charter flights.

The Department of Homeland Security did not specify how many people were on the flight.

The US and China are trying to reduce illegal migration and combat human smuggling, DHS said.

"We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and issue individuals without legal basis to stay in the United States," said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"People should not trust smugglers' lies," he added.

The difficulty of obtaining US visas and the economic impact of the lockdown due to COVID-19 in China has caused a sharp increase in the number of Chinese nationals coming to the US-Mexico border.

Nearly 56,000 Chinese migrants were found on the southwestern border with Mexico and the northern border with Canada that crossed between and at ports in the fiscal year 2024 to May, according to US government data.

This number is more than 52,700 people who crossed the entire fiscal year 2023 which ended in October.

US President Joe Biden took a strict political route in terms of immigration, by working to improve security on the US-Mexico border and also taking a more humane approach to illegal immigrants in the US..

The president's rival in the 2024 US presidential election from the Republican Party, Donald Trump, often criticized Biden for failing to stem the high level of illegal immigration.