Thread: Chinese Woman Miscarries During Deportation

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_a ... e1de8e2ce9

Chinese Woman Miscarries During Deportation
News Digest, By Cao Jian, translated by Eugenia Chien,
World Journal, Feb 11, 2006


NEW YORK – A Chinese woman pregnant with twins suffered a miscarriage after federal agents tried to forcibly deport her at John F. Kennedy Airport, reports the Chinese-language World Journal.

Jiang Zhen-Xing, who was three-months pregnant, and her husband Zhang Tian-Xia were at a 9 a.m. appointment on Feb. 7 with an immigration official in Philadelphia, where the couple had lived illegally for 11 years.

While her husband was waiting outside the office, Jiang was told that she would be deported.

Two uniformed immigration officers hustled Jiang to the back of the building and forced her into a van.

Jiang complained of pain in her abdomen en route to the airport, but immigration officers ignored her request for medical attention. She had not eaten all day.

When Jiang arrived at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York at 1 p.m., she asked immigration officers to call an ambulance but was again denied. The officers told her there was nothing wrong with her and that they were going to deport her.

Jiang said she told immigration officials she was pregnant and wanted to have the babies here. After the babies are born, she told them, she would leave the United States voluntarily. Immigration officials told her that they knew she was pregnant and that was the reason she is being deported. (Children born here everntually can become U.S. citizens.)

Jiang was not taken to the Jamaica Hospital in Queens until hours later. When she arrived at the hospital, both fetuses had lost their heartbeats.

Zhang, who had been waiting for his wife at the Philadelphia immigration office all day, received a phone call from her at 4 p.m.. She told him that she had already been taken to the airport.

“She was telling me that her stomach was hurting very much,â€

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn

Illegal immigrant in US loses twin foetuses
By Yu Zhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-13 05:24



An illegal Chinese immigrant in the United States lost her unborn twins last week at the airport while being deported, the Beijing News reported yesterday.

Jiang Zhenxing, who was then three-months pregnant, has charged US immigration officials with causing the miscarriage by their use of force to repatriate her.

The Chinese Consulate in New York will investigate and work to resolve the issue.

Jiang, 33, came to the US in 1996 and married a Chinese man two years later. The couple opened a Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia.

For the last two years, Jiang reported regularly to the local immigration bureau, until last Tuesday when she was informed of her immediate repatriation.

She told the newspaper that she had appealed for a delay of departure so she could leave after the birth of her children, but her request was denied.

Jiang said a US official pushed her and bumped her in the stomach twice on the way to the Kennedy Airport.

Upon arrival, the pregnant woman had stomach pains and was sent to the Jamaica Hospital in Queens hours later.

After an operation, the hospital removed the dead twin foetuses. Jiang's condition is now stable, though weak. The hospital has not yet announced the cause of death.

After the incident, a spokesperson with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement argued that there was no violation of law during the repatriation of Jiang, and it is "not true" that an official's actions led to her miscarriage. Immigration authorities said Jiang will still be deported after she recuperates.

Cui Aimin, deputy consul-general of the Chinese Consulate in New York, said the consulate will give necessary support to Jiang, despite her illegal residency in the US, according to the Beijing News.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/new ... 866463.htm

Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006

Did feds cause miscarriage?
Woman was pregnant with twins
By MARY FLANNERY


The pregnant operator of a South Philadelphia Chinese restaurant miscarried twins while U.S. immigration agents were attempting to hustle her back to her native China, and her lawyer alleges rough treatment may be the cause.

Zhenxing Jiang, an undocumented alien who had exhausted her appeals to remain in the United States, was forced into a minivan in Center City last Tuesday and driven to New York's JFK Airport, the lawyer says.

The events leading up to the miscarriage have riled the Chinese-American communities in two cities.

Immigration agents were about to put Jiang on a China-bound flight when they finally responded to her complaints of physical pain, according to her lawyer, Richard J. Bortnick of Cozen O'Connor.

The agents arranged for her to be transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, where an ultrasound examination could find no heartbeat in either of the 13-week-old fetuses.

But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials deny that the agents mistreated Jiang.

"As far as we are concerned, they acted appropriately," said ICE spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs.

According to its Web site, ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, and is "responsible for identifying and shutting down vulnerabilities in the nation's border, economic, transportation and infrastructure security."

The incident has sparked protests by Chinese-Americans in Philadelphia and New York, who are appealing to U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

John Liu, a New York City Councilman who represents Queens, is organizing a rally today at Federal Plaza in Manhattan, said his chief of staff, John Choe.

"We want a full investigation of what happened," said Choe. "For humanitarian reasons, we are asking for a stay of deportation." Jiang also has two sons who were born in the United States and thus are U.S. citizens.

Bortnick said he will also petition the Justice Department today to stay her deportation.

Bortnick said Jiang is fighting deportation because of China's one-child-per-couple policy intended to limit population growth. "She feels she would be persecuted," he said. "She might not be able to bring both children with her. So she wants to remain here where her children are citizens."

Jiang and her husband, Tian-Xiao Jiang, who is also an undocumented alien, have two sons, ages 7 and 4. The family lived in a residential South Philadelphia neighborhood, where they operated King Food Chinese Restaurant.

Two workers in the restaurant, on South American Street near Second, said yesterday that the business had been sold and that Zhenxing Jiang no longer lived upstairs. The Beijing News reported this week that the woman is 33 and that she married her husband two years after she arrived in the United States in 1996.

Bortnick said the husband met with him about the woman's case in Bortnick's Conshohocken office yesterday.

The woman's ordeal started last week at the ICE office at 16th and Callowhill streets. She, her husband and sons came to the office for a scheduled meeting.

But because her appeal had been rejected, Philadelphia-based agents were ready to enforce the deportation order, Fobbs said. Her husband's appeals have not been exhausted.

The agents "separated her from her family," said Bortnick. "She was taken to a back room, and they told her she was going to be deported. They pushed her into the back of a minivan where her stomach hit the back seat. This is what she told me.

"It's my belief that this pushing of a pregnant woman is not according to procedure. I don't want to disparage all of the Immigration office."

Fobbs denied that agents would "push" anyone. "That is not how they would handle anyone," she said.

The agents denied the woman food and water on the trip, said Bortnick, although she told them that she was pregnant. "She told them she was having pains, and they accused her of faking," he said.

Meanwhile, her husband had no idea she was being deported until she called him from JFK.

Zhenxing Jiang was screaming so loudly at JFK that airport police convinced the agents to get her to the hospital, Bortnick said. Her husband met the agents there early the next morning. They told her husband, according to Bortnick, that "he could bring his wife home and bring her back [yesterday]" for deportation.

However, Fobbs said that the woman now has more time. Immigration officials will resume the process of repatriating her "once she is medically sound," she said.

http://english.people.com.cn/200602/14/ ... 42663.html

Chinese consulate concerned over woman's misfortune in U.S.



Jiang Zhenxing, an illegal Chinese immigrant in the United States, lost her twin fetuses while being forcibly deported by officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (USICE) on Feb. 7, 2006.

Having severe pain in the abdomen at the airport, Jiang made repeated requests before finally taken to hospital. However, her unborn twins died.

Chinese Deputy Consul General to New York Cui Aimin visited Jiang at hospital. Cui said the Chinese consulate is highly concerned over the matter and is actively in contact with the U.S. authorities concerned.

Twin fetuses dead in their mother

33-year-old Jiang Zhenxing, who was pregnant for three months, is from Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province. She went to the U.S. through irregular means. Eight years ago, she married a fellow surnamed Zhang. They ran a take-out restaurant in Philadelphia and raised two sons. In the past two years, Jiang's immigration status has been under the watch of the U.S. immigration authorities and she has to regularly report to local immigration office.

On Feb. 7, Jiang was suddenly informed that she will be forcibly deported. Later she was driven to Kennedy Airport by two officers.

According to Jiang after the accident, she got bumped on the abdomen and had severe pain there. After requests once and again, she was delivered to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York.

While Jiang was on the way to the hospital, her husband Zhang Tianxiao in Philadelphia still knew nothing about it. He wasn't informed until 1:00 a.m. on Feb. 8 when he was told that his wife hasn't left America and she is in hospital. With the information, Zhang drove deep at night and made it to the hospital at dawn on Feb. 8.

Chinese consulate highly concerned over the matter

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Chinese Deputy Consul General to New York Cui Aimin visited Jiang immediately. Cui said the consulate is highly concerned over the matter and now it has taken hold of the general situation. Now the consulate is further contacting the U.S. authorities concerned so as to decide how to offer further assistance to Jiang's family.

Cui added that Jiang is not under legal residency in the U.S., but as Jiang is a Chinese citizen, the Chinese consulate is responsible for offering active and effective consular protection for her. China hopes the legitimate rights and interests of the party involved can be fully respected in the process of law enforcement. If humanitarian principle is violated and the basic human rights and dignity of the party concerned is damaged, the Chinese consulate will lodge a solemn representation through relevant means.

The hospital has not given a conclusion on whether the death of Jiang's unborn twins was directly caused by the forcible deportation. The New York Times on Feb. 10 reported that officers' violence over illegal immigrants during law enforcement is a problem that the U.S. government should pay attention to and shouldn't be continued.

Presently the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the USICE have said they are sorry for Jaing's misfortune and they will investigate into the matter on whether the officers involved behaved improperly during law enforcement.

By People's Daily Online

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ ... -apnewyork

NY immigrant advocates protest treatment of woman who miscarried

By KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press Writer

February 14, 2006, 7:19 PM EST

NEW YORK -- Advocates for immigrants' rights demonstrated in front of the federal building on Tuesday to protest the treatment of a Chinese woman who says she miscarried twins while in the custody of authorities who were trying to deport her.

Zhenxing Jiang, who is in the United States illegally, suffered a miscarriage on Feb. 7 after reporting to immigration authorities in Philadelphia, where she and her husband own a Chinese restaurant, for a regularly scheduled appointment, according to advocates and her brother-in-law, Zhang Tianchen.

"Within minutes of her arriving for her appointment she was whisked off into a van, driven from Philadelphia straight to JFK airport in New York, and after several hours of waiting in the airport Ms. Jiang began to complain of stomach pains and of back pains," New York City Councilman John Liu said.

Liu, a Queens Democrat, said Jiang asked the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who were escorting her to let her see a doctor but they ignored her requests and told her she was "not going to get out of this" and would have to have her babies in China.

After someone called 911, an ambulance arrived and the immigration officers let Jiang go to a hospital, Liu said. An ultrasound showed her twin fetuses were dead, he said.

"The issue is how on Earth could law enforcement officers in the United States stand by and ignore a crying pregnant woman in pain," Liu said. "And not only ignore her but belittle and mock her."

In a statement issued Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said suggestions that Jiang was mistreated while in its custody were "categorically false."

The agency said officials "took special care in handling her" after learning that she was pregnant, allowing her to travel unrestrained and offering her food, water and the chance to use rest rooms on the trip from Philadelphia to New York.

The statement said Jiang did not express a need for medical attention until after she arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport and just before she was to board the flight to China, when she said she needed an ambulance and was taken to a hospital.

"Once Ms. Jiang is cleared by medical officials, efforts to remove her will resume pursuant to the court order issued by the immigration judge," the statement said.

ICE said the case would be investigated by its office of professional responsibility.

Zhang, who is acting as the family spokesman, said his brother, Zhang Tianxiao, and sister-in-law are hardworking people with two sons ages 6 and 4. He said Jiang has been in the United States since 1996, her husband since 1994, and they met at work.

"They shared the same dream: to build a happy family together, on this land of freedom; to have two, maybe three children laughing and running around at home; to stand on their own feet and be proud of themselves," he said.

The executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, Chung-Wha Hong, said, "What happened should have never happened to anyone in America. A pregnant woman who was pleading for medical help should have been allowed to go to the hospital."

Under immigration law, Jiang could have been deported any time after 2002, when she exhausted her appeals on the denial of her application for political asylum based on China's one-child policy.

But her lawyer, Richard Bortnick, said she had been allowed to report routinely to immigration authorities in Philadelphia until last week.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/b ... 875385.htm

Posted on Wed, Feb. 15, 2006

Temporary reprieve from deportation
Woman miscarried twins while in custory of immigration agents
By MARY FLANNERY


Zhenxing Jiang, the operator of a South Philadelphia Chinese restaurant who miscarried twins last week as immigration agents were trying to deport her, has won a temporary reprieve.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) yesterday reinstated an order of supervision for six months, which removes any immediate threat to send the undocumented alien back to her native China.

Jiang, 33, was expected to be reunited with her husband and two sons last night.

She had alleged through her lawyer that rough treatment may have caused the miscarriage, had been in hiding from ICE officials since her discharge from Jamaica Hospital in Queens, N.Y., on Thursday

Immigration agents had taken her there after a daylong drama that began on Feb. 7 in Center City, when the agents told her that her appeals to remain in the United States had been exhausted and she was to be deported immediately.

Agents hustled her into a minivan and drove her to New York's JFK Airport, according to her husband, Tianxiao Zhang.

En route, according to the account given by her supporters, agents reluctantly offered her water and crackers.

At the airport, her cries of pain became so loud that the agents permitted her to be taken to the nearby hospital, her husband said. There, doctors told her that her 13-week-old fetuses were dead.

"My wife said they grabbed her and pushed her" in ICE's Center City office, said Zhang through translator Alex Wong. "Two people dragged her to the back seat of the minivan. The INS [agents] pushed her and shoved her into the vehicle."

Asked whether he believes agents' mistreatment caused his wife's miscarriage, Zhang said, "The doctor hasn't drawn conclusions yet."

Jiang's doctor is waiting for medical reports from Jamaica Hospital and for results of blood tests she had done in Philadelphia two weeks ago.

Attorney Richard J. Bortnick, of Cozen O'Connor, said yesterday that the cause of the miscarriage "may be another issue for me to discuss with immigration officials."

His main interest is to have Jiang's status reviewed on its merits. Bortnick maintains her deportation had been ordered for procedural reasons because she missed filing deadlines.

"I have heard of deportation happening before, but I have never heard of it happening to a pregnant woman," said Jimmy Chang, president of the Philadelphia Hoyu or Chinese-American Association. "This is shameful."

Both Zhang and his wife came to the United States about 11 years ago.

They met and married in Philadelphia, and owned a take-out restaurant, King Food, on American Street, near 2nd.