Thread: Restaurant owner faces forced return to China

patriotledger.com
By Chris Burrell
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 24, 2012 @ 07:52 AM
Last update Feb 24, 2012 @ 08:13 AM


Yin Ping Lin, 36, holds her daughter, Grace, while talking to her husband, Kong Chen, who is being held on federal immigration charges.

MARSHFIELD —

Almost three months ago, police surrounded a small home and the little restaurant downstairs on Careswell Street, then swept in to arrest the man inside, 38-year-old Kong Xin Chen.

His family – his wife, two small children, his brother and parents – hasn’t seen him since.

“When I got to the restaurant, my husband was already gone,” said his wife, Ping Chen, tears filling her eyes.

Chen was arrested by officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Dec. 6 and now sits in a federal detention cell in northern Alabama, 1,158 miles from his Marshfield home.

His future is grim: deportation, a one-way ticket back to China and the break-up of his family. But Kong Chen and his wife now cling to a chance to escape that outcome. Their customers have rallied behind the Chens like old friends, helping find him a lawyer and writing more than 100 letters.

“It just seems so unjust,” said Bonnie Chandler Conant of Marshfield, one of the many regulars at the Mandarin Tokyo Restaurant who has befriended the Chens over the last six years. “We’ll all be devastated if we can’t have an impact here.”

The impact Conant and others strive for is to rescue Kong from deportation and bring him back home.

Kong’s immigration troubles reach back more than a decade. He left China and came to America in 1993, seeking political asylum, but through a miscommunication with his lawyer in New York, he failed to show up for an immigration hearing in 1998.

That missed hearing meant Kong had a deportation order hanging over his head.

“He’s in tough spot,” said his new lawyer, Boston attorney Josh Goldstein.

But he pinned hope on President Barack Obama’s new policy that puts immigrants with criminal records or who pose a threat to national security at the front of the line for deportation. Many of the remaining are allowed to stay indefinitely.

“He has absolutely no criminal record whatsoever,” said Goldstein. “We’re going to request ICE in Alabama for a form of prosecutorial discretion. ...We are going to beg them – not to ship him off out of the goodness of their heart.”

The stack of letters from the Chens’ supporters are part of that appeal, said Goldstein.

If successful, this appeal would win Kong’s release from the detention center inside a county jail in the Deep South.

Goldstein doesn’t know how long this process will take. And while Kong waits and worries, the community that grew around the restaurant has built a website, started a Facebook page and is planning a fundraiser to assist his family and help cover legal costs.

That event, with music and food, is scheduled for 7 to 11 p.m. March 24 at the Marshfield Elks Club.

It took Ping Chen, who became a U.S. citizen after moving here in 1998, until just a couple of weeks ago to muster the courage to tell her customers what had happened to Kong.

“I didn’t want to be a bother to anybody,” she said. But the prodding of customers who queried about Kong’s absence from the restaurant finally pried loose the news.

Now, Ping marvels at the groundswell of people who have stepped in to help.

“I feel from here,” said Ping, touching her hand to her heart, “so lucky.” She and Conant, who had just finished her lunch, embraced as they said goodbye.

Thursday afternoon the phone rang, and it was Kong, calling from a payphone at the detention center.

“I pay taxes and work hard,” Kong said. “For six years, I’ve worked seven days a week without a day off. I’m worried now for my family. My kids are too young. They need their father for a better life.”

Their children are a 3-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. Both of them took turns grabbing the phone to hear their father’s voice.

Ping said her son woke up one morning this month and told her, “’I saw my father in my dream. I was running to hold him but he wasn’t there.’”

This is what she tells Grace and Jason when they miss their Dad: “If you be a good girl and a good boy, just listen to your mother, he will come back soon.”

Read more: Restaurant owner faces forced return to China - Quincy, MA - The Patriot Ledger

I read the article quickly, but if he is illegal and owning a restaurant, did he get a healthcheck anywhere aong the line while he has been here???? Makes me wonder how many illegal immigrants are serving us food in restaurants without any healthchecks.

Originally Posted by Kiara

I read the article quickly, but if he is illegal and owning a restaurant, did he get a healthcheck anywhere aong the line while he has been here???? Makes me wonder how many illegal immigrants are serving us food in restaurants without any healthchecks.

Since I am currently suffering from food poisoning that my office got from going to a well known fast food restaurant, your concerns really hit home.

Hope you're feeling better now. Yes it is indeed a concern.