The undocumented Chinese men say they are confused by Trump’s stated plans to deport them first
“We are not military spies. Do you see anyone buying heavy weapons or weapons here?” “The fact that Trump is saying this is absolutely crazy,” Yang said.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
If it did focus on immigrants of Chinese descent, Trump’s deportation policies would likely be legally challenged as a blatant example of racial profiling. But experts suggest that after experimenting with versions of these policies in his first term, and encouraged by growing support among the public, Trump could be more successful at implementing them this time around..
“I expect we will see ICE raids that are conducted for the purpose of terrorizing immigrant communities and where the purpose is to inflict cruelty on immigrants,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told NBC News.
While Asian immigrants have long been the fastest growing undocumented population, the number of Chinese citizens crossing into the United States in particular has risen dramatically in recent years. Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, the number of undocumented Chinese citizens crossing the northern and southern borders tripled, from just over 27,000 to more than 78,000.
China’s economic downturn and political friction, which reached a peak during the country’s lengthy coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions, were largely at the root of the migration wave, experts and illegal immigrants said. But Trump has repeatedly suggested that men of “military age” are conspiring to build an army.
“They’re coming from China — 31, 32,000 over the last few months — and they’re all military age and most of them are men,” Trump said in April during a campaign rally. “And it seems to me, are they trying to build a small army in our country? Is that what they are trying to do?”
In a Dr. Phil podcast episode released in early December, Trump’s next “border czar” confirmed such comments.
“Sixty thousand Chinese men, most of them of military age, are not leaving China without the coordination and approval of the Chinese government,” said Tom Homan, who was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term. “This is a coordinated national security vulnerability involving the Chinese government.”