PA: ICE deports illegal Chinese..used fake passport
U.S. deports illegal Chinese alien held in Berks County Prison
Holly Herman
Reading Eagle
Berks County, PA - Federal officials Monday deported an illegal Chinese alien who was being detained in Berks County Prison.
Agents with Immigration Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, took custody of Zhenliang Weng, 25, at the prison about 5:15 a.m. and drove him to an undisclosed airport.
Weng, who had been in the United States illegally for seven years, said Friday that he had been notified of his deportation.
"I can’t do anything to stop it," he said.
Weng previously told the Reading Eagle he was afraid he was going to be killed for writing the anti-communist messages on the Internet during the last year.
Michael W. Gilhooly, northeast regional communications director for ICE, was unavailable for comment.
Weng’s lawyer, Frank R. Liu, New York, was saddened that Weng’s latest appeal had not been heard by the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office Immigration Review, Falls Church, Va.
Liu speculated Weng will be jailed and tortured in China.
"I don’t know what else I can do," he said. "I pray for him. This is not fair at all. I didn’t know why they didn’t hear the appeal. This is very upsetting."
Liu said Weng had been doing everything possible to become a citizen during the last seven years.
Liu said he plans to contact Weng’s relatives to see if he can provide further legal assistance.
Warden George A. Wagner said deportation is a routine process.
"The guy was here," Wagner said. "He violated our immigration laws. He was in this country for seven years and he did nothing about it. In that time the average person would have figure out how to apply for citizenship."
Douglas F. Didyoung Sr., a volunteer minister at Reading Lutheran Parishes and an associate chaplain at Reading Hospital, said he was working with state legislators and a church group to help Weng gain political asylum.
"This is absolutely devastating," Didyoung said. "I heard nothing bad about this man. People like Weng who come here don’t understand how to apply for citizenship. He was seeking to be free."
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Didyoung said filling out forms to become a citizen is difficult.
"The system is not very user friendly," he said. "It seems like as soon as you start the process to get citizenship they come get you."
There are over 32,000 illegal aliens held in U.S. jails.
Weng’s fight for freedom began nearly seven years ago when he flew into Miami after graduating from high school and completing a year of computer school.
He had been living with his family on a farm in Fuzhou, a province in southeast China with a population of more than 31 million.
Shortly after Weng arrived in Miami, he was arrested for having a phony passport. He was jailed for seven days, then freed to await a hearing on his request for asylum.
After two failed requests, he was ordered to leave the country.
But instead he stayed, working in Chinese restaurants and living in New York, Kentucky and Harrisburg.
Immigration officials arrested Weng in March while he was working in a Chinese restaurant in Harrisburg. He was transported to the Berks prison to await a ruling on his latest request for asylum.
On April 10, the ICE parole officer denied Weng’s request to remain here for fear of being persecuted upon his return.
On May 13, his lawyer filed the latest appeal, which is still pending.
• Contact reporter Holly Herman at 610-478-6291 or hherman@readingeagle.com.
©2008 Reading Eagle Company
