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Smuggled Chinese boy pleads to stay in U.S.
Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:53 PM ET



By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Chinese teenager smuggled into the United States 2 1/2 years ago is pleading to be allowed to stay in the country, saying he would be tortured or killed if he was returned to China.

In an interview with Reuters from a detention center near Houston, 17-year-old Young Zheng said the smugglers who arranged for him to enter the United States in 2003 would kill or torture him if he is returned to China because he has not paid the $60,000 they say he owes them.

The story of a "model student" pursuing the American dream but facing possible death in China has attracted national media attention from The New York Times to NBC News, highlighting the plight of immigrants fighting deportation.

What sets the case apart from myriad illegal immigrant stories is that most are caught and then sent straight home, according to Young's attorney, John Sullivan. Young was caught traveling on a fake passport but was allowed to stay with an uncle in Akron, Ohio, after requesting political asylum.

Young's mistake, Sullivan said, was that he chose to get an education rather than go "underground" and work illegally to pay off the smugglers, who are known as "snakeheads" because of the way they slip from place to place along clandestine routes.

"Here is a kid who could be a huge contributor to our society if only the government would let him in," Sullivan told Reuters.

Young's fear is so great that during a deportation attempt in April, he repeatedly hit his head against a wall in an effort to stop authorities from putting him on a plane to Hong Kong.

"I was trying to kill myself because I was so scared," Young told Reuters. He said he didn't know whether he would do something similar if U.S. authorities try again to deport him.

The U.S. Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals has rejected a request to reopen his case. But the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia recently granted a "stay of removal," allowing an appeal to go forward. A decision is expected in the next two months.

SECOND CHILD

Young told Reuters that his father and uncle had arranged for him to be smuggled to the United States because he was a "second-born child" under a Chinese law limiting couples to one child -- a situation that exposed his family to higher taxes.

At age 14 he agreed with the plan to slip into the United States.

"It meant I didn't have to worry about my education so I agreed to it," Young said.

On his arrival at New Jersey's Newark airport in January 2003, he was detained for traveling on false papers and has spent all but about nine months since then in detention.

After about a year in a Pennsylvania detention center, Young was allowed to live with his uncle in Akron, where he attended school, learned English and became an "A" student.

Professor Steven Lewis, a China expert at Houston's Rice University and a witness for Young, said in a court affidavit that he "faces a credible threat of serious physical harm" from local authorities and smugglers if sent back to China.

Young says he has been threatened by "snakeheads" and his father, who has also received threats, has disowned him and said the debt is Young's responsibility.

"He was very angry with me for reporting to immigration," Young said. "He wanted me to move to a city like New York and work but I came here ... to get a better education."

Young said he fears that if he is returned to China, the "snakeheads" will find him and hurt or kill him.

"I am always having a bad dream, that the smugglers were looking for me and would make trouble for me," he said. "I am so afraid."

A State Department report last month called China a source of "men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.