WASHINGTON 鈥 China is slowing its efforts to repatriate Chinese nationals who are in the US illegally, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters, warning that Washington was prepared to increase travel restrictions on the country if Beijing didn鈥檛 reverse course.
The new US threat toward China comes just days before President Donald Trump鈥檚 planned May 14-15 visit to Beijing, where, among other issues, he is expected to raise the deportation issue during meetings with his counterpart Xi Jinping.
The trip is an important one for Mr. Trump, who is hoping to win trade concessions from Beijing that he can present to voters ahead of November鈥檚 midterm elections that polls suggest could deliver losses for the president鈥檚 Republican party.
Since returning to the White House early last year, Mr. Trump has threatened tariffs and sanctions on numerous countries for failing to accept deportees, a central pillar of his campaign for the White House and hard-line immigration policies.
China for years has resisted US requests to take back tens of thousands of its citizens who have overstayed or illegally entered the country.
When Mr. Trump took office, China had suggested it was willing to repatriate 鈥渃onfirmed Chinese nationals鈥 following verification. But Beijing has said doing so takes time.
After accepting about 3,000 deportees via charter and commercial flights in early 2025, China has scaled back cooperation in the past six months, the senior US official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about administration plans.
China 鈥渞efuses to fully cooperate with the United States to take back its citizens,鈥 the official said, calling it a violation of China鈥檚 international obligations and responsibility toward its people.
The official said that if China didn鈥檛 increase cooperation on deportations, the United States would consider increased cash bonds accompanying visa applications, as well as denying more visas and blocking more entries at the border.
鈥淚naction by the Chinese government will jeopardize future travel for law-abiding Chinese citizens,鈥 the official said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Previously Beijing has said it opposes illegal migration, and calls it an 鈥渋nternational issue that requires cooperation between countries.鈥
TENS OF THOUSANDS AWAIT REMOVAL
Mr. Trump has pursued a hard-line immigration policy, including an aggressive deportation drive, revocations of visas 鈥宎nd 鈦爂reen cards, and checks of social media posts and past speeches of immigrants.
During the Biden administration, the number of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the US southern border surged聽from negligible numbers to tens of thousands, as China鈥檚 economy faced headwinds and US visas were harder to acquire due to COVID era restrictions.
There are now more than 100,000 undocumented Chinese nationals in the US, the official said. More than 30,000 have final orders of removal, and of those, authorities have detained more than 1,500 awaiting deportation. Most in this last category have committed other crimes, the official said.
Independent estimates of the number of undocumented Chinese nationals in the US vary. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) said that in mid-2022 as many as 239,000 Chinese immigrants were not authorized to be in the country.
Other countries with large numbers of undocumented people in the US, including India, are fully cooperating with the US, the official said.
The US wants Beijing to provide travel documents and approve Customs and Border Protection charter flights with deportees, paid for by the US, to land in the country.
Under Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act the US can place visa sanctions on countries deemed 鈥渞ecalcitrant鈥 in complying with repatriation requests, a label the Department of Homeland Security has routinely applied to China.
US authorities going back to the Obama administration have said they believe China slow rolls the issuance of new travel documents for the deportees because it doesn鈥檛 want to take them back or sees the issue as a useful point of leverage with Washington.
US law enforcement officials have told Reuters that China at times seeks to link Washington鈥檚 requests on deportations to Beijing鈥檚 requests to extradite economic or political fugitives who have fled to the United States. 鈥 Reuters
