Chertoff: China Won't Take Back Deportees

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS : The New York Times
March 14, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- China is refusing to take back an estimated 39,000 citizens that have been denied immigration to the United States, clogging detention centers on the taxpayer's bill, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Chertoff said that China last year readmitted 800 Chinese nationals. But that made only a small dent in what he described as a backlog of thousands of Chinese who are being held by the U.S.

''The math is pretty easy -- at that rate, we wind up with increasing numbers of migrants who, if we're going to detain them, we're going to have to house at enormous expense,'' Chertoff said.

He added: ''We can't be in the position any longer where we are paying the burden and bearing the burden for countries that won't cooperate with us and take their own citizens back.''

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately return a call for comment.

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