Former President Donald Trump is floating a policy that would put United States tariffs on foreign countries that refuse to take back their nationals who are illegally in the U.S. and have been ordered deported.
During a town hall event in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday, Trump said he would use tariffs against foreign countries that fail to help the U.S. stem the flow of illegal immigration at the southern border — including those such as China that have often refused to take back their nationals.
“We have tremendous economic power,” Trump said. “… we have these things called tariffs.”
Last month, Chinese officials suggested that they are cooperating again with the U.S. government in terms of accepting their deported nationals back.
The number of Chinese illegal aliens that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has sent to China is unclear. In April, officials said one deportation flight to China had been executed.
On President Joe Biden’s watch, Chinese nationals arriving at the nation’s borders have exploded. In the first half of Fiscal Year 2024, for example, nearly 25,000 Chinese nationals crossed U.S. borders and were encountered by Border Patrol agents — a 37,000 percent increase in just three years.
During the same period in Fiscal Year 2021, just 65 Chinese nationals were encountered by Border Patrol while crossing U.S. borders.
