The Department of Homeland Security blacklisted 43 Chinese companies linked to forced labor in a single sweep, the biggest expansion of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list to date.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Thursday that the 43 firms would be added to the UFLPA Entity List, a federal blacklist that bars goods produced with forced labor in China's Xinjiang region from entering the United States. Customs and Border Protection began enforcing the new designations Friday, the Daily Caller reported, based on documents the outlet exclusively obtained.
The move brings the total number of blacklisted entities to 187, a roughly 30 percent jump. The newly listed companies span aluminum, apparel, copper, cotton, tomatoes, and related downstream products. Two existing entries also received technical name updates.
Under the law, CBP now treats every shipment from those 43 companies as presumptively tainted by forced labor. Goods are blocked at the border unless the importer can produce evidence rebutting that presumption, a burden that falls squarely on the companies profiting from the trade.
Mullin, in a statement to the Daily Caller, tied the crackdown directly to fair competition for American businesses.
"The American worker must not be undercut and cheated by foreign companies that use slave labor. Our job is to defend the Homeland, and that includes protecting our citizens from unfair competition that not only disadvantages Americans, but harms human dignity."
That framing, forced labor as both a human rights abuse and an economic weapon against U.S. workers, runs through every official statement DHS released alongside the announcement. Rob Law, the DHS Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans who chairs the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, put it in blunt terms.
"We are uncompromising in the continued prevention of unfair practices that undermine American businesses, expansion of the UFLPA Entity List is a tool by which DHS can ensure both our economic and national security."
Law also said the administration "remains steadfast in its commitment to remove forced labor from U.S. supply chains and to holding foreign companies accountable for their exploitation."
The numbers behind the enforcement effort are substantial. Since the UFLPA took effect, CBP has denied entry to more than 24,300 shipments valued at nearly $1 billion. Separately, the DHS-DOJ Trade Fraud Task Force, a joint initiative between Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, has recovered or secured more than $1 billion in penalties, recoveries, and charged losses tied to illicit imports.
Aris Kourkoumelis, the DHS Assistant Secretary for Trade and Economic Security, said the task force "brings a new energy to our enforcement against illicit imports and our broader efforts to end the human suffering caused by forced labor." His warning to importers was direct.
"Importers should know that those who attempt to circumvent today's action and knowingly import goods produced with forced labor will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
DHS said it works with industry groups, nonprofit organizations, and international partners to identify forced-labor-linked companies and support compliance. The enforcement apparatus, in other words, is not limited to border stops, it extends to criminal prosecution and financial penalties for companies that try to skirt the list.
The blacklist expansion fits into a wider trade enforcement campaign. Days before the announcement, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appeared on Fox News to discuss how Section 301 tariffs and forced labor bans work together to protect American companies. "We are taking action to make sure that our workers and companies compete on a level playing field," Greer said.
And the administration's attention to Uyghur persecution extends beyond trade. In February 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly condemned Thailand for forcibly returning a group of Uyghurs to China, calling the action alarming and urging the Thai government to verify the safety of those sent back. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act itself passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 2021 with bipartisan support.
Several questions remain unanswered. DHS did not publicly identify the 43 newly listed companies by name in the materials obtained by the Daily Caller. The specific evidence or criteria used to designate each firm were not detailed. And it is unclear whether the $1 billion in penalties recovered by the Trade Fraud Task Force overlaps with the nearly $1 billion in shipments CBP has blocked, two headline figures that could represent partially the same enforcement activity.
Those gaps matter for importers trying to assess their exposure and for lawmakers who want to measure the law's full impact. But the direction of travel is unmistakable: a 30 percent expansion of the blacklist in a single day, backed by a clear promise of criminal prosecution for anyone who tries to work around it.
When American workers have to compete against products made by people who had no choice, the playing field is not level. It is rigged. This expansion is the kind of enforcement that makes the law mean something.
