Thread: 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

pass the tissues :P

guy is educated enough to post on the Internet but can't figure out how to
ask someone in the Chinese community how to apply for citizenship.
What BS.

The story shouldn't end with his deportation....ICE investigators should find every one of his "employers" and go after them as well...I'm sure that they'd find more illegal aliens working there as well. There has to be

COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION INVESTIGATION AND ENFORCEMENT

I think that the Internet should be checked to see if what he said it true. It's too good an excuse and if he made it up, he should go NOW.

Of course, people who come here illegally SHOULD NOT have a user-friendly process to get through. We owe illegal people nothing! The idea is to seek citizenship and then come. Not the other way around.

People in China, all should have been beside the Monks when they bravely took on the corrupt government in China. They can't fight them all now can they. Unite! Do something. Do it at the Olympics, which we SHOULD NOT go to! No help should be given that communist government.

We could also give him documents that give him a new name and identity, so he will be safe there. I also think he likes America now and doesn't want to go. These are just my suspicions though . .

jimpasz wrote:

pass the tissues

guy is educated enough to post on the Internet but can't figure out how to
ask someone in the Chinese community how to apply for citizenship.
What BS.

IMO, illegal aliens should never have the opportunity to apply for citizenship while residing in the country illegally.

Liu said Weng had been doing everything possible to become a citizen during the last seven years.

LOL like using a fake United States passport. If you attempt to enter this country via fradulent means, your done, end of story, good bye forever!