Thread: China Tests U.S. Immigration Plan

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July 31, 2006

China Tests U.S. Immigration Plan

In Spat Over Asylum Policy,
Beijing Refuses Return
Of Illegal Entrants
By JUNE KRONHOLZ
July 31, 2006; Page A4

What can the U.S. do if a huge trading partner like China won't take back thousands of illegal immigrants? Not much, apparently.

In a spat over U.S. asylum policy, China is refusing to take back 40,000 deportable immigrants, insisting that asylum-seekers such as Falun Gong members and other political opponents of Beijing be returned as well. That has put the U.S. in a sticky position.


If illegal immigrants "are not accepted back, then, for all intents and purposes, they are free to remain in this country because we have no place to remove them to," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.

Key to the Department of Homeland Security's recent get-tough plan on immigration enforcement, which began last November, is the end of what it calls "catch and release" -- apprehending illegal immigrants and then releasing them into the U.S. population while negotiating their return home with their government. Department officials are awaiting completion of thousands of new prison beds next year -- bringing the total to 30,000 -- so that many of those people can be jailed while awaiting deportation, which they hope will also discourage others from immigrating to the U.S.

But China's refusal to accept returnees by not issuing travel documents undercuts U.S. attempts to discourage illegal entrants. "If the removal process has any deterrent effect, you have to show that people are being removed," says Paul Virtue, former general counsel to the immigration service.

Worse, though, it shows what few options the U.S. has in enforcing its deportation policy when other countries won't cooperate. "If China wants to dig in its heels, we would have real limitations," says Doris Meissner, who was immigration commissioner in the Clinton administration.

Of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., about 550,000 have received final removal orders from an immigration judge but remain at large, says Homeland Security. While Chinese account for only a small share of those ordered deported, they are "the largest population that we've had difficulty in returning," Mr. Chertoff told the AEI audience.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, Homeland Security says it was able to deport just 522 Chinese whose appeals had been exhausted. Even that was a drop from about 600 in each of the two previous years.

International convention holds that countries take back their nationals upon request. China's refusal is "breaking international norms and codes of conduct," Ms. Meissner says. But a handful of countries are routinely slow -- or like Cuba, simply refuse -- to issue the travel documents that allow the U.S. to return their citizens, says Susan Martin, director of Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of International Migration.

Nigeria, among others, has disputed attempts to return its nationals who have been convicted of crimes in the U.S., arguing that they turned to criminality while they were in the U.S. and shouldn't be Nigeria's responsibility. El Salvador has worried about taking back gang members for fear they will aggravate street crime. Somalia doesn't have a central government that can negotiate its citizens' return.


Other countries see no benefit in taking back immigrants who will add to unemployment, housing or political problems. China, meanwhile, has used the deportation issue to pressure the U.S. on its policy of providing political asylum. The U.S. granted political asylum to about 5,000 Chinese in 2001 and again in 2002, although the number has since fallen by half.

Mr. Chertoff argues that China's reluctance to take back deportable immigrants only encourages asylum seekers. People arrive illegally, are caught, then hear about asylum laws while they await deportation and "the wheels are turning in their mind," he said.

But China argues just the opposite: It says the prospect of political asylum attracts illegal immigrants.

Few illegal entrants ever get as far in the system as being ordered deported by a judge. Those caught within 14 days of arriving or within 100 miles of a border or international airport are simply sent home without access to the courts. That accounts for the bulk of returned immigrants. Others, apprehended outside those limits, agree to pay their way home after brief immigration-court hearings. By leaving voluntarily, many can retain the right to return to the U.S. legally at some point.

Those who resist leaving can appeal immigration-court decisions to the federal courts and up through the federal appeals process, which can take as long as five years.

After that, Homeland Security typically can imprison a nonviolent illegal immigrant for only six months while it negotiates his or her return home. But because the agency lacks prison space, many of those ordered deported are simply released while they wait for the two governments to negotiate a return home.

Homeland Security's enforcement arm, the Immigration and Customs Service, says it has only 730 of the 40,000 illegal Chinese immigrants in jail. Spokesmen for ICE and for Mr. Chertoff declined to say whether they know where to locate the other 39,000 deportable Chinese if their departure could be arranged.

Mr. Chertoff raised the removal issue during a visit to China in April and came to "an agreement in principle," says his spokesman, Russ Knocke, who declined to provide details of the agreement. China says it recently took back about 100 deportees. Still, Mr. Chertoff told the American Enterprise Institute audience that "we have a ways to go" in implementing the agreement.

The U.S. has few ways to force immigrants' return, and almost none with a huge trading partner such as China. Congress allows the immigration service to pressure a reluctant country by withholding visas to its tourists, students and business travelers. But that leverage is "so disproportionate that it's not used," says Ms. Meissner, the former immigration commissioner. Particularly with big trading partners, where back-and-forth business travel is essential for both sides, "it hurts you more than it hurts them," she adds.

Small countries often can be pressured or offered incentives to take back their nationals. But a strategically important country -- particularly a petroleum supplier or a country willing to lend its troops to tough peacekeeping operations -- has more leverage, immigration experts say. "Other diplomatic issues are at stake," says Georgetown's Ms. Martin.

But allowing deportable immigrants to stay is costly, says Mr. Virtue, the former immigration-service lawyer. The service generally has devoted years of effort to a case before a removal order is issued, he says. And word travels quickly among immigrant groups about flukes or changes in enforcement. "The deterrent is gone," he adds.

Write to June Kronholz at june.kronholz@wsj.com1

I think that more should be made of this story. Our number one "enemy" won't take back their people. And, we're not doing anything about it. How sad!

Ostrich

Originally Posted by TheOstrich

I think that more should be made of this story. Our number one "enemy" won't take back their people. And, we're not doing anything about it. How sad!

Ostrich

Convince China to take back its people?

We wouldn't even be able to get the Duchy of Fenwick to do that.

We're the world's dumping ground, and everyone knows it.

We need some of you guys at Democratic Underground to post this stuff.

Ang GUESS WHAT? The HIGHER THE PILE OF ABSOULUTE BULLSH&&&T, THE HARDER ITS GONNA FALL.....

PEOPLE ARE GETTING PISSSSSSSEEEEEEDDDDD OFFFFFFFFFFFFF....

This issue is like a pressure cooker......I swear in 2 or 3 more years 90% of RED STATES and 5% of Blue states will be passing real laws and making the feds enforce them.....

This issue will NOT GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!

They are just cooking BULLSH***T over a fire, and they keep adding more cow crud, and more wood.......

Count said:

We're the world's dumping ground, and everyone knows it.

In the eyes of the world we must look so weak and ineffective. This country use to be a 'super power' but no more. We may have mighty weapons but that is it. All talk and no show when it comes to protecting citizens and their rights. The politically correct situation has gotten us in this trouble. Feel sorry for this and that person, plant, animal, whatever but no one wants to be strong and outspoken in government on the tough issues that really matter. I am truly worried about our future with so many sellout policitians running the show for their own interests.
Are there any politicans reading this forum? I hope so. You may learn how to be a real human being, get back to who you were as a person before you became corrupt by DC's powerful elite. Do you politicans have grandchildren? I dare you to return to what is ethical and right for them and the future of this country.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115445640290523649.html

China Denies Blocking U.S. Bid To Send Back Illegal Immigrants
By Shai Oster
The Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2006; Page A7


Beijing -- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied U.S. government allegations that it is refusing to take back some 40,000 illegal immigrants from China whom Washington wants to deport.

'China is actively cooperating with related countries on dealing with the issue of returning illegal immigrants according to the principle of 'taking back after checking first,' ' the ministry said in a faxed statement yesterday.

U.S. officials have accused China of refusing to take back deportable immigrants unless asylum seekers such as Falun Gong members and other dissidents also are returned. China has blocked such deportations by refusing to issue travel documents, the U.S. officials say. That has left Washington in a bind, they and immigration experts say, underscoring the problem the U.S. faces in policing its borders just as it is beefing up enforcement.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry called such charges 'absolutely groundless.'

The ministry said it opposes the politicization of the issue of illegal immigration by people using political asylum as an excuse, which it called a double standard.

It said China issues the relevant documents and takes back deportable immigrants once it verifies they have Chinese citizenship and are from mainland China.

'The Chinese government has been consistently against any kind of illegal immigration and has adopted forceful measures to fight against it,' the statement said. It cited as evidence what it says was the first chartered flight by China and the U.S. to return illegal immigrants from the U.S. on June 28.

In Washington, the Department of Homeland Security and administration officials say the problem with the illegal immigrants awaiting repatriation is that China has been using the verification process as a delaying tactic. Spokesman Russ Knocke said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff secured promises from Chinese officials on a recent visit that they would work on speeding up the process.

How about putting them on commercial flights to China. Once in China, they depart the planes, the planes then take off. By the time the Chinese officials figure out what is going on, the planes are already halfway home. Mission accomplished.