Alejandro Mayorkas reveals there has been one China migrant deportation flight as illegal entries from Chinese nationals spike 6,300% during the Biden administration hitting 46,000

Alejandro Mayorkas said the U.S. has so far sent one flight of Chinese nationals back to the People's Republic of China.

The Homeland Security Secretary said during a House hearing on Wednesday after speaking for the first time with his counterpart for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an agreement was reached that the country would accept more removal flights.

It comes amid a massive surge of Chinese nationals entering the U.S. through the southern border with a lack of security and federal-level enforcement of immigration policies.

Mayorkas appeared before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee regarding the DHS 2025 budget proposal, which totals $108 billion – a 4 percent increase from the prior year.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday that one flight of Chinese migrants so far has been sent back to China

More than 46,000 Chinese nationals illegally crossed the southern border since the start of Fiscal Year 2023, according to CBP data. Pictured: Chinese migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border in Jacumba, California on Wednesday, October 4, 2023

The House voted to impeach Mayorkas and the articles are waiting to be sent to the Senate, where he will likely be acquitted.

Meanwhile, Republicans on the subcommittee took the chance with Mayorkas in the hot seat to grill the embattled DHS Secretary over border policies or lack thereof.

There has been a record-level of illegal crossings at the southern border under President Joe Biden and more undocumented migrants are living in the U.S. than ever before. 

This includes the more than 46,000 Chinese nationals who illegally crossed the southern border since the start of Fiscal Year 2023, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

'For the first time I had an engagement with my counterpart from the People's Republic of China to ensure that China would begin to accept removal flights so that we can deliver a consequence regime for individuals from the People's Republic of China who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States,' Mayorkas said when pressed on the issue by Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) during a House budget hearing on Wednesday.

'And those discussions are ongoing,' the cabinet official added, revealing: 'And we actually did effect one flight most recently, the first time in a number of years.'

Hinson, who asked Mayorkas about steps on removing PRC nationals in the country last year, was not pleased with the update.

Mayorkas said during a House hearing on Wednesday that after meeting for the first time with his Chinese counterpart Minister of Public Security of China Wang Xiaohong (right), an agreement has been reached for the Chinese Communist Party to accept more flights of deportations of Chinese nationals who illegally crossed into the U.S.

She also said she doesn't think the DHS budget for 2025 includes the ability to address Chinese migrants, which is the 'largest and fastest growing group attempting to cross' into the U.S. illegally.

'Unfortunately, we have to judge the Chinese Communist Party based upon their actions and not their words,' Rep. Hinson said. 'We know just recently, two Chinese nationals were arrested in Iowa on a nationwide fraud case they were involved in. One of them was believed to cross the Southwest border and was released into the country and they made their way to Iowa and joined in this National Fraud activity.'

She said DHS actions under Biden 'have essentially alerted our adversaries our borders are wide open.'

'I don't think there's an excuse for having the same conversation two years in a row and I'd like to see more stringent action from the administration concerning Chinese Communist Party nationals coming across our border,' the Republican congresswoman said.

During the at times contentious hearing, Mayorkas was not able to disclose how many 'gotaways' were able to evade authorities and escape illegally into the U.S.

'Our immigration system ... is fundamentally broken, including our asylum system that so significantly impacts the security of our borders and the processes we administer at it,' Mayorkas said in his opening remarks in the House.

'Only Congress can fix our broken and out dated system and only Congress can address our need for more border patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges,' he continued.

Shortly after when pressed by Hinson on how many 'gotaways' have entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, Mayorkas could not come up with a number.

DHS Secretary Mayorkas testified before House and Senate appropriators on Wednesday today answer questions on his agency's budget request for $108 billion in Fiscal Year 2025

His plea for cash comes while record illegal immigration has thrown his agency in turmoil 

'I don't have the number,' Mayorkas replied, saying he would provide that data to lawmakers later.

Hinson shot back '1.7 million gotaways.' 

She also pressed him on whether he would label the millions of migrants entering the U.S. under Biden illegally a 'crisis.'

'Yes, I would,' Mayorkas responded. 'And as a matter of fact, I work every single day with the Department of Homeland Security to only strengthen the security of our southern border as well as the northern border.' 

He also said that sanctuary cities - cities that disallow local law enforcement from collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain and deport illegal immigrants (ICE) - should work with with federal officials. 

'I believe that when an individual poses a threat to public safety or national security, their local or state jurisdiction should co-operate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the swift detention and removal of that individual,' Mayorkas said.

His rebuke of sanctuary cities is surprising given there are hundreds of them across the country and generally they are Democrat-led.

Mayorkas' budget request comes after the House voted to impeach him in February for high crimes and misdemeanors related to his handling of the southern border and for lying to lawmakers. 

Speaker Mike Johnson's office originally planned to send the articles over to the Senate Wednesday hoping to immediately begin a trial. 

But Tuesday afternoon GOP Senators asked that Johnson hold off on sending the articles to give the upper chamber more time.  

A spokesperson for Speaker Johnson said that 'to ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week.'

'There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial,' Taylor Haulsee told DailyMail.com. 

Mayorkas has overseen consecutive years of record illegal immigrant apprehensions 

This includes a 6,300 percent increase of Chinese migrants. Pictured: A man from China receives oatmeal from a volunteer once he arrives illegally in the U.S. through the southern border

Whether Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer actually decides to hold a trial, however, is up in the air. 

Some Republicans had concerns that Schumer would use the late Wednesday delivery to try and send senators home over the weekend without holding a trial at all. 

'Many House and Senate members think Johnson's timing is dumb, because a Wednesday night delivery [and] Thursday afternoon floor fight aren't enough time to win the news cycle and to hammer the fight in Washington,' a senior Senate aide told DailyMail.com earlier Tuesday. 

The two articles of impeachment accuse Mayorkas of failing to enforce immigration law and lying to Congress about the state of the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Mayorkas, 64, is now only the second cabinet secretary to be impeached and the first in nearly 150 years. 

The DHS chief has overseen consecutive record breaking years for migrant apprehensions. 

Apprehension records were set in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Last year alone, over 2.4 million migrants were apprehended while crossing into the U.S., according to Customs and Border Protection data, yet another record. 

'Our immigration system ... is fundamentally broken, including our asylum system that so significantly impacts the security of our borders and the processes we administer at it,' Mayorkas said in his opening remarks. 

'Only Congress can fix our broken and out dated system and only Congress can address our need for more border patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges,' he continued.

The White House, meanwhile, has called Republican-led impeachment effort a 'petty political' move, saying 'history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship.'

House GOP Whip Tom Emmer told DailyMail.com that if Senate Democrats dismiss Mayorkas impeachment articles before even holding a trial, 'they will be defying their Constitutional duty to their constituents and betraying Americans who have suffered under the worst border crisis in our history.'

'Voters won't forget this dereliction of duty, and we will remind them of the Schumer Senate's negligence every day until Election Day.'

With impeachment on their mind, though, it is yet to be seen how lawmakers will receive Mayorkas' budget request.