Biden administration brags about deporting Chinese migrants on charter flight - but it's less than 1% of total who entered US this year

The Biden Administration is taking a victory lap for its first 'large' deportation flight of Chinese nationals since Biden has been in the White House - 116 Chinese sent back to their home country over the weekend on the US tax-payer dime.

However the charter flight only carried 116 citizens of the People's Republic of China-- less than 1% of the 55,922 Chinese who illegally entered the US in the first eight months of fiscal year 2024, according to government statistics.

The October through June tally of Chinese who have snuck into the US has already surpassed all of fiscal year 2023's total of 52,700, and there are still four months left in FY '24.

The percentage of Chinese deported under Biden is even smaller when you consider at least 153,259 have entered the US without authorization since he took office in January 2021.

The flight comes at a time when US officials have been under intense scrutiny for allowing so many Chinese migrants in, as they flood over the border in record numbers. 

A recent photo of a migrant deportation flight carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement

The Department of Homeland Security, which announced the flight in a weekend press release, would not say how long the migrants on the flight had been in America.

The flight was conducted in 'close coordination' with the Chinese government the release said.

In the past, the US has been unable to deport Chinese citizens since their own government would not take them back. 

US officials cannot land planes in China without the government's permission, and repatriation flights from the US to any country usually requires the participation of the home country, DHS officials told DailyMail.com.

This might explain why there haven't been an earlier flights under the Biden Administration, one US official added.

These Chinese migrants were dropped off at a transit center near San Diego after they were processed and screened by federal immigration authorities  

Figures from US Customs and Border Protection show how many Chinese migrants have been encountered at both the norther and southern border of the US since 2021

Many of the migrants flooding the border are doing so legally with the help of CBP One  - the app the Biden administration has used to fly thousands into the country 

'This removal flight is the result of Secretary Mayorkas’ continued efforts to engage the PRC (People's Republic of China) on areas of mutual interest,' Tuesday's press release stated.

'Together, the United States and PRC are working to reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt illicit human smuggling through expanded law enforcement efforts. 

Biden officials also pointed out they have recently secured cooperation from Ecuador to require visas from Chinese migrants who travel to South America to make the journey from that continent up through Central American and eventually to Mexico. 

Chinese migrants encountered by DailyMail.com  in San Diego in recent months described traveling from their homeland to South America and then flying into Mexico or walking there along with South American migrants. 

Then they paid Chinese smugglers known as 'snakeheads' who are operating in synchrony with Mexican cartels to get into the US at the southern border, DailyMail.com was first to report in February. 

Chinese migrants are largely entering the US through the southern border, with most of them illegally crossing into the San Diego, California area before asking for asylum. 

Chinese migrants described traveling from China, to Taiwan, to Turkey and then South America before flying into Mexico. The multiple stops are necessary as Chinese citizens cannot fly from their homeland to the US directly. Above, some who entered legally with paperwork provided by the government