The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin requesting a formal briefing on the agency's enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, according to a copy of the correspondence shared with Fox News Digital.
The bipartisan letter, signed by eight lawmakers including four Republicans and four Democrats, raises 10 specific concerns about DHS implementation of UFLPA, which was passed in 2021 to combat the importation of goods manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Among the products flagged in the letter are steel, aluminum, textiles, and silicon-carbon materials used in technology production. The committee also highlighted concerns about popular Labubu dolls, citing a New York Times report suggesting the cotton contained in the toys originates from supply chains involving alleged forced labor.
"The Uyghurs are being politically persecuted in Xinjiang, China. They are being forced to give up their religion. They're being forced to assimilate into Chinese culture. And many of them are being forced to do labor, to work for low wages or no wages and long hours," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., the ranking member on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
What the Right Is Saying
The letter's Republican signatories have similarly emphasized national security implications of forced labor imports, arguing that weak enforcement undermines American industrial capacity.
Committee Republicans joined Democrats in calling for DHS to update its list of companies and entities on the UFLPA Entity List. The letter specifically asks what work DHS and Customs and Border Protection are doing to ensure products produced by listed companies originating from Xinjiang are not reaching U.S. consumers.
"A lot of the textiles are coming, they come from China, are coming from Uyghurs," Khanna added in explaining why the committee included textile concerns in the letter. "It's one of the easiest places to force people into labor."
What the Left Is Saying
Khanna framed enforcement of UFLPA as both a moral imperative and an economic security issue for American workers and manufacturers.
"The broader problem also for Americans is that they're making steel, they're making aluminum, they're making textiles, and then they're dumping it into the U.S. market," Khanna said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "How could U.S. Steel or Cleveland Cliffs or our aluminum manufacturers compete with slave labor? Of course we can't."
The California Democrat argued that identifying products linked to forced Uyghur labor and adding companies to the UFLPA Entity List would level the playing field for domestic manufacturers facing what he described as unfair competition from goods produced under coercive labor conditions.
"This is about fair trade and human rights," Khanna said. "Americans aren't concerned about fair competition if China had laborers that were being paid a fair wage."
What the Numbers Show
DHS added 43 companies to the UFLPA Entity List in July, bringing the total number of designated entities to 44, according to committee officials.
"I think the administration may have gotten wind that we were doing this letter and that precipitated action," Khanna said. "For a year, they hadn't done anything. Now I give them some credit for having 44 of these companies on the list."
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was signed into law in June 2021 and established a rebuttable presumption that goods produced in Xinjiang involve forced labor, placing the burden on importers to prove otherwise.
Human rights groups have documented alleged oppression and forced labor imposed by Chinese authorities on Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority concentrated in China's far western region. The State Department has previously designated China as a country of particular concern regarding religious freedom.
The Bottom Line
The bipartisan letter signals sustained congressional pressure on DHS to strengthen enforcement of forced labor import bans. Committee members are seeking clarification on how CBP identifies shipments potentially linked to Xinjiang supply chains and what resources are available for verification efforts.
Khanna said he expects the briefing to address whether current staffing and technology allow adequate inspection of goods entering through major ports. The committee also wants answers on how DHS coordinates with partner agencies on identifying shell companies that may be used to circumvent existing bans.
The timing of the letter comes as lawmakers from both parties have expressed frustration over reports of Chinese companies routing manufacturing through third countries like Malaysia and Vietnam to avoid tariffs and import restrictions. What to watch for includes whether Congress considers additional legislation clarifying CBP authority to trace supply chains back to their origin points.