The NYTimes' November 24, 2023 [Growing Numbers of Chinese Migrants Are Crossing the Southern Border](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/24/us/politics/china-migrants-us-border.html) begins with the line: >More than 24,000 Chinese citizens have been apprehended crossing into the United States from Mexico in the past year. That is more than in the preceding 10 years combined. It later mentions that for some countries the US uses various types of leverage (often aid or otherwise economic) to get some countries that are initially reluctant to accept their citizens being deported back, but that China is resistant. It ends: > When Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi met last week during an international summit in San Francisco, for instance, immigration was absent in their discussion. Instead, they talked about fentanyl, American business investment in China and export controls, among other topics. > >In the past, American diplomats have tried to work with the Chinese government to persuade it to repatriate its citizens, and the response has tended to be the same. > >“They would just plain refuse to acknowledge the person was Chinese,” said Michele Thoren Bond, a former assistant secretary of state who [worked on these issues](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-114hhrg25546/html/CHRG-114hhrg25546.htm). > >“It is not credible that a country that documents and monitors its citizens as closely as China does not have photos of every citizen,” Ms. Bond added. **Question:** What happens to Chinese illegal migrants to the US that the US wants to deport but China won't accept? Do most of them eventually get released back into the US, are they interned somewhere, or does the US find other countries willing to accept them?