Rap sheet isn't automatic ticket home
Critics decry system that let Chinese native charged in Sands ATM theft stay in U.S.
By Kevin Amerman
July 26, 2009

She has 13 felony convictions, a 50-page rap sheet and spent at least 21/2 of her 20 years in the United States behind bars.

While her convictions led to a deportation order last year, Shoumin Chai, a 55-year-old native of China, has been allowed to remain in the country. She is in jail again, this time facing more than 100 charges in an alleged ATM scam at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in which authorities say she stole as much as $10,000 from two dozen patrons last month.

Some, including Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli who is prosecuting the case, wonder how someone with so many convictions and an order to leave the country can be allowed to remain here.

Chai, of New York City, received a deportation order in 2008. In accordance with immigration law, she has remained in the country while appealing the order.

ATM scam at Sands hit 24 victims, police say ''This is the problem with the immigration system,'' said Morganelli, a vocal critic of the system. ''The federal courts are giving these people passes. I think historically, they've been too loose.''

Chai's past should have won her a one-way ticket back to China, Morganelli believes.

''We have enough of our own home-grown American criminals,'' he said.

Immigration authorities say convictions do factor into immigration proceedings, but committing a crime doesn't automatically mean deportation.

Mark Medvesky, a public affairs officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said people with green cards have a right to immigration hearings that are separate from their criminal cases. And each is given the opportunity to appeal.

''There's a certain amount of rights afforded to people, and we're a country that respects that,'' he said. ''People who we believe have violated immigration laws have due process. ... [Chai] has the right to challenge being removed from the country.''

But not everyone thinks immigrants should be able to challenge their status after convictions. Ira Mehlman, spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization in Washington, D.C., that lobbies for tougher immigration laws, says green card holders and illegal immigrants should be kicked out of the country as soon as they're done serving jail time.

''The procedure should be, they go from the door of the prison to the plane that takes them home,'' Mehlman said.

He said when immigrants obtain green cards, they agree not to commit crimes and a conviction should immediately terminate the visa. His organization's Web site lists more than 150 ''serious crimes of illegal aliens'' across the country since May 2004, ranging from drug crimes to rapes to murders.

''People pay a very heavy price for this failure to enforce immigration laws,'' he said.

Chai came to the United States in 1989 at the age of 35 and obtained a green card that established her as a legal resident, according to Sharon Clay, an attorney with the Office of Immigration Litigation, which is fighting to deport Chai. Authorities say she was committing crimes within three years of entering the country.

Chai was serving a 31-month prison sentence in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., for numerous thefts in Atlantic City, N.J., casinos when immigration officials filed a ''charging document'' on July 7, 2007, to have her deported, according to Susan Eastwood, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

The immigration judge hearing the case sided with Chai, but the decision was reversed by the Board of Immigration Appeals and a deportation order for Chai was issued on July 17, 2008.

The case, like most immigration matters, is not open to the public -- another aspect of immigration proceedings that frustrates Morganelli, who hasn't been able to view Chai's case.

''Even we have trouble accessing this stuff,'' he said.

The attorney handling Chai's immigration matter, Theodore N. Cox of New York City, could not be reached for comment. She did not have a criminal attorney for the Sands case last week.

Chai was arraigned Monday and is jailed under $200,000 bail on 47 felonies and 71 misdemeanors, including fraud, identity theft and receiving stolen property. Police say she stole at least $1,000, but may have taken as much as $10,000. The thefts, which police say occurred over a 13-hour period, went unnoticed by Sands security.

According to authorities:

On June 19 and 20, Chai stood near Sands patrons as they used their ATM cards.Before they completed the transaction, she told them they had to insert the card again. The victims didn't know inserting the card a second time made another ''window'' appear behind the screen they were looking at. Chai then peeked over their shoulders as they entered their personal identification numbers. After the customer left, Chai would then use the PIN in the second window to get into the bank account.

The thefts were uncovered when a patron noticed an irregular bank statement. A worker at Sands who used to work at an Atlantic City casino recognized Chai as a known thief on a surveillance tape and police were able to track her down.

kevin.amerman@mcall.com


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