Over the weekend, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 116 Chinese nationals who did not have a lawful basis to remain in the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Tuesday — marking the first “large” charter flight removing people to China since 2018. 

Key Quote: Per the Associated Press (Lean Left bias), the flights could not have happened without cooperation from the Chinese government, which “quietly resumed” earlier this year. A DHS statement said this flight was “the result of Secretary Mayorkas’ continued efforts to engage the PRC on areas of mutual interest,” adding that the U.S. was working with China to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt illicit human smuggling through expanded law enforcement efforts.”

For Context: With 1.4 billion people, China has the world’s second-largest population — more than four times the size of the U.S. population. While Chinese citizens migrate to many countries, including the U.S., American border arrests of Chinese nationals spiked to 37,000 in 2023, with 15,500 Chinese nationals counted walking north towards the U.S. across Panama’s Darién Gap.

How the Media Covered It: Echoing previous coverage, some left-rated outlets expressed more sympathy for migrants, with The New York Times (Lean Left bias) noting that Chinese nationals at the southern border were “hoping to escape bleak economic prospects and political oppression.” On the other hand, Fox News (Right bias) used its usual “illegal” descriptor, stating that the Chinese nationals were sent “back to their country.”