Published on Sep 16, 2025
Customs and Border Patrol’s (CBP) policing of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) has fallen dramatically since the act was first implemented in 2022, according to publicly available statistics published by Customs and Border Patrol.
The UFLPA bans imports from China’s Xiangjiang province, where the Uyghurs and other minority groups are detained and forced to work in a network of 1,200 state-run internment camps, according to information published by the U.S. Department of State. The act also bans goods made by firms that are known to use forced labor.
CBP’s publicly available data showed that the number of shipments stopped under UFLPA was down 40% between March and July, compared with the same period last year. During 2023 and 2024, CBP typically stopped between 300 and 400 shipments a month. Currently, CBP is typically stopping between 100 and 200 shipments a month.
As of September 5, the CBP website showed that the agency had stopped only 14 shipments in July. Following a request for comment from The Capitol Forum, the website was revised to show that 184 shipments had been stopped in July.
CBP did not reply to a request for comment on why the data was changed.
CBP does revise UFLPA enforcement statistics after they come out, although changes are typically not as significant as what happened in the July data.
Shawn Bhimani, a professor at Northeastern University who researches forced labor in supply chains, said that CBP is stopping fewer shipments related to UFLPA because the agency has prioritized tariff enforcement over UFLPA enforcement.
Experts also said that the low enforcement numbers come as the administration has made dramatic cuts both to government agencies responsible for combating forced labor and to grants awarded to non-governmental organizations that partner with the U.S. government to enforce the UFLPA.
The CBP’s shift in enforcement is already leading to changes in corporate compliance and risk management.
“Companies know that enforcement is down. They’re allocating resources towards addressing tariff issues and are moving those resources away from dealing with compliance with human rights laws like the UFLPA,” said Laura Murphy, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who previously served as an advisor at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she worked on UFLPA enforcement.
One sourcing director at a major consumer goods supplier said that companies are de-prioritizing eliminating forced labor from their supply chains and are instead focusing on tariff compliance.
“Compliance specialists who work in sectors that have not been targeted for UFLPA enforcement say that ‘they are not getting the same traction at the C-Suite level as they used to’ when executives thought [potential future enforcement in non-target sectors] was more likely,” said Murphy. Murphy added that the individuals who work in UFLPA compliance are reporting this change in attitude due to the decrease in enforcement.
Forced-labor enforcement declines as CBP shifts to other priorities. The decline in UFLPA enforcement could be because customs officials are spending more time enforcing tariffs than forced-labor provisions, according to experts who spoke with The Capitol Forum.
The decline in UFLPA enforcement comes as CBP customs officials have had to implement Trump’s tariff policy and have overwhelmingly been focused on finding tariff fraud, said the anonymous sourcing director.
From January 2023 to September 2024, the Biden administration stopped an average of 365 shipments a month. Since liberation day on April 2, the Trump administration has averaged 240 shipments stopped a month, including a jump up in shipments stopped to 549 shipments stopped in June.
In April, May, and July, the Trump administration stopped fewer than 200 shipments. Before April, the CBP had not had a month where it stopped fewer than 200 shipments since the first month of UFLPA enforcement in June 2022.
The CBP stopped record numbers of shipments in December 2024, January 2025, and February 2025, stopping 1319 shipments, 1945 shipments, and 991 shipments, respectively. This spike in shipments came as companies increased imports into the U.S. to front-run tariffs.
Imports from China have been down following Trump’s April 2 liberation. However, as U.S. imports from China have fallen, they have remained level when looking at imports from China in addition to Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Mexico, when the CBP routinely identifies products made with Uyghur-forced labor, according to data from the U.S. International Trade Commission. This is likely because Chinese products have been routed through these countries to avoid tariffs, according to reporting from the Financial Times.
The decline in UFLPA policing is therefore likely not because there are fewer products made with forced labor coming into the United States.
Murphy noted that the end of the de minimis loophole, which exempted packages under $800 from customs enforcement, means that CBP must process roughly one million more packages a day. De minimis shipments, because they were not subject to CBP scrutiny, were used to import products made with forced labor into the United States. This increases the number of parcels that could contain products made with forced labor subject to CBP scrutiny, which should theoretically bring up the total number of shipments stopped; the fact that the end of de minimis has not resulted in more shipments stopped under UFLPA could show that CBP is focused on other priorities than UFLPA enforcement.
Trump ended the de minimis loophole for China and Hong Kong on May 2, and for all other countries on August 29.
In addition to the decrease in policing of shipments, the Trump administration has also not added any new companies to the UFLPA Entity List, which comprises companies found to participate in forced labor. Goods made by an entity on the list are prohibited from entering the United States. During 2024, updates were made to the list every two months on average.
CBP did not reply to a request for comment by The Capitol Forum.
“Paradox” between messaging and action. The administration sent an update to Congress on UFLPA enforcement strategy on August 19, reiterating a commitment to enforcing the act and designating new strategic sectors for enforcement.
Forced labor advocates widely viewed the report as a promising sign, but the “paradox” between public pro-enforcement messaging and the decline in enforcement statistics has led to confusion and concern among advocates and researchers, said Bhimani. “The general messaging makes it seem like they are focused on continuing enforcement, and yet the numbers don’t reflect that.”
Staff on the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, which helps write the report, are still working on the issue, said Murphy. Murphy suggested that the disparity between the report and the statistics may stem from the task force continuing its work on UFLPA while customs officials have shifted to other priorities.
The State Department told The Capitol Forum that adding new sectors to the priority UFLPA enforcement provides evidence that the administration is committed to robust enforcement against forced labor. However, Murphy noted that adding new sectors in the report means little practically if it is not backed up by enforcement actions.
Staff and grant cuts in focus as part of the explanation for drop in enforcement of UFLPA. Cuts at agencies involved in researching Uyghur-forced labor threaten the long-term ability of the government to enforce the act. In July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a vocal critic of forced labor and co-sponsored the UFLPA during his tenure in the Senate, cut roughly 80% of staff from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL).
The administration has also cut grants to civil society organizations that work to combat forced labor. In addition to the cuts, Secretary Rubio appointed a Uyghur-genocide denier as a top official at the State Department.
The cuts could limit the government’s ability to monitor Uyghur forced labor and other human rights abuses.
“Robust enforcement can’t happen without resources to labor organizations, civil society organizations, academics and experts, the stakeholders that make that policy possible,” said Kelly Fay Rodríguez, who previously served as the Special Representative for International Labor Affairs under the Biden administration and has since co-founded The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice.
“The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) continues to lead the State Department’s global efforts to combat human trafficking. We remain committed to implementing the UFLPA to prevent the importation of goods tainted with the forced labor of Uyghurs,” said a State Department spokesperson in response to a request for comment by The Capitol Forum.
However, cuts to grants for organizations and researchers that combat forced labor destroy trust that took “years” to build, said Rodriguez.
Outside organizations provide research and on-the-ground knowledge that inform government enforcement actions, according to Rodriguez.
Crippling the ability of the government to counter forced labor contradicts the administration’s stated priority of protecting American workers, said Rodriguez. “Anywhere there’s state-imposed forced labor, particularly to the extent to which it’s happening in China, it’s going to impact and undercut workers in global supply chains and certainly American workers. For an administration that claims to be making decisions for and on behalf of American workers, enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act should be a top priority.”
