U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirmed on July 17 an earlier World Journal report that 121 Chinese undocumented immigrants were sent back to China in a chartered flight. However, ICE officials emphasized that they don’t target citizens of any particular country, but rather enforce immigration laws in general.
ICE spokesman, Marc Raimondi, told the World Journal that of the estimated 40,000 undocumented Chinese immigrants, it is hard to tell how many still reside in the United States. He also admitted that the Department of Homeland Security hired an airplane recently to fly back 121 arrested Chinese nationals.
Raimondi said that U.S. law enforcement has long been troubled by the reluctance on China’s part to accept deported undocumented immigrants. Although Secretary Michael Chertoff went to Beijing earlier this year to resolve the problem, Beijing only agreed to pay attention to the issue without offering concrete promises or solutions.
The World Journal first reported on July 7 that talks had been circulating among members of the New York Chinese community for days about arrested undocumented immigrants who were sent back by chartered flights. Recently, some deported Fujianese called relatives in New York from China and told them that more than 100 Chinese were sent back to Fujian on a chartered flight in June.
According to a man who identified himself as Mr. Pan and who is a friend of a deported immigrant, he himself was on a plane with Chinese immigrants who were arrested in different parts of the United States and were detained anywhere from 12 days to six months. All were issued a one-way travel pass by the Chinese Council General in the United States.
On July 17, ICE officials announced that they had arrested 127 undocumented immigrants – mostly Mexicans, and some Chinese and Bangladeshis – in Oklahoma from July 12 to 15. Everyone who was arrested had a waiting deportation order. ICE arrested 46 Mexicans in the first day and deported them on that same day. Another 81 immigrants were arrested in the following days.
According to Raimondi, the recent enforcement activity is the continuation of “Operation Return to Sender,” which started in June. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted similar crackdowns in Ohio between July 9 and 14. A total of 154 illegal immigrants were arrested, including two Chinese immigrants.
Raimondi pointed out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has employed more manpower to be dispatched to different areas. Ohio and Oklahoma are states with large numbers of undocumented immigrants, but the states did not have local enforcement teams. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has now reassigned manpower from other regions, including Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Ohio. The new team has already arrested 154 immigrants. Officers reassigned from Dallas, Texas to Oklahoma have arrested 127 people.
All in all, ICE arrested 2,179 undocumented immigrants in its June operation, concentrating on people who have a deportation order from the Immigration Court.
