Thread: Woman fights deportation after 10 years here

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Posted on Tue, Jun. 20, 2006

Woman fights deportation after 10 years here
Zhen Xing Jiang arrived here illegally in 1995 and lived quietly for 10 years. But she miscarried this year in U.S. custody and now is fighting to stay.
By Jeff Gammage
Inquirer Staff Writer

After she finished telling her story, her supporters - her husband, lawyer and Chinatown activists - pressed around a coffee table to talk tactics and debate which politicians might be willing to help.

The woman whose future they weighed, Zhen Xing Jiang, sat away from the group, silent, staring at the floor.

Her babies were dead. And her ordeal was not over.

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In person, Jiang, 32, seems too slight a presence to have provoked rallies in two cities and headlines as far away as Beijing. Her most prominent feature is the dark circles under her eyes.

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Jiang entered the United States illegally in 1995 and for nearly a decade lived quietly in Philadelphia, helping her husband run their Chinese restaurant. Today she stands at the center of a storm, buffeted by government machinations, legal motions, uncertainty and fear.

At rallies, demonstrators carry placards that bear Jiang's photo, her face partly hidden by a hospital oxygen mask. The "Justice for Mrs. Jiang" campaign is the most visible protest the Asian community has mounted in years - and it's running out of time. Jiang could be deported in 10 weeks.

Her situation has sharpened a divisive political and societal debate about U.S. immigration policy.

On Feb. 7, Jiang was 13 weeks pregnant with twins when she arrived at the federal immigration office in Center City for what she thought would be a routine interview. Instead, as her husband and two sons waited in the lobby, Jiang was seized by authorities, hustled into a van, and driven to New York's JFK Airport for immediate deportation. The eviction halted when Jiang, complaining of stomach pain, was taken to a hospital and doctors found she had miscarried.

Jiang and her supporters say she was roughly shoved into the van, and that, at the airport, the officers ignored her tearful pleas for medical help - allegations the government adamantly denies. Officials say Jiang was treated with extra care because of her pregnancy.

It's difficult to determine the cause of a miscarriage, according to Katherine Sherif, director of the Center for Women's Health at Drexel University. Though miscarriages spontaneously occur more often among women carrying multiple fetuses, emotional and physical stress can also cause miscarriage, she said.

Recently, after months of turning down interview requests, Jiang sat on a couch in the sparsely furnished living room of her South Philadelphia rowhouse. She speaks little English. But with her husband on her left and an Inquirer-supplied interpreter on her right, she described the events of that day - and what her life is like now.

"I have a feeling of uncertainty," Jiang said. "I have a feeling of, 'I really don't know what to do.' "

These days, she rarely leaves her home. She's seeing a psychologist. Asked about her hopes, she said, "I want to stay here, raise my children, have a normal life."

Jiang said she was terrified of being returned to China, of being found in violation of the country's one-child birth-planning policy and sterilized as punishment.

Her husband, Tian Xiao Zhang, 34, also entered the United States illegally and is fighting his own immigration battle. The couple's sons, William, 6, and Jason, 5, were born here and are U.S. citizens.

As the interview drew on, Jiang became increasingly withdrawn, shrinking into the couch, while her husband became more agitated, talking over the translator to emphasize his points in English.

"The government kidnapped my wife," Zhang said forcefully. "Why the immigration was in a rush to send a pregnant woman back to China?"

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In March 1995, Jiang left coastal Fujian Province and flew to New York with false documents, according to her attorney, Richard Bortnick, of the Cozen O'Connor law firm. She was stopped at customs, ordered to appear at a hearing, and released, he said.

Waiting at the airport, Bortnick said, was a member of the smuggling ring that helped Jiang leave China. She owed money - fees typically run to tens of thousands of dollars. The smugglers held Jiang captive for three months until her family arranged payment, he said.

Three years later, friends introduced Jiang to the man she would marry. The two found they could talk easily, and both saw hard work as the means to a better life. Zhang also had come here from Fujian, in 1994, entering the country, as he put it, "without inspection."

Zhang said he didn't leave China - he "escaped," like his wife, to seek "a better life of freedom... a better living."

Both have applied for asylum based on the one-child policy, grounds that are frequently invoked but often denied. Immigration authorities said China appears to deal "relatively leniently" with returnees who have two or more children, punishing them with fines instead of physical abuse, although the New York Times recently documented a case in which a man was beaten and sterilized.

The couple worked seven days a week at their King Food Chinese Restaurant in South Philadelphia. Jiang reduced her hours after the boys were born. The family, said Helen Gym of Asian Americans United, a Philadelphia advocacy group, "really tried to live and achieve an American dream."

Authorities notified Jiang in April 2004 that she would be deported the next month. Soon afterward, she was told that, at the government's discretion, she could stay in the U.S. "under supervision," which required regular check-ins.

It is unclear why Jiang was afforded that courtesy. Or why she was seized on Feb. 7. Officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not respond to calls and written questions from The Inquirer about the case. A temporary stay of deportation issued after Jiang's miscarriage expires on Aug. 25.

"She hasn't really even had a chance to grieve," said Debbie Wei, principal of the Folk Arts Cultural Treasures charter school, which Jiang's son William attends. "She lost the babies, then she's immediately in the spotlight, but also in jeopardy."

Zhang said he recently sold the King Food restaurant and had taken a job as a real estate agent to devote more time to his wife. Also, the family needs to keep its assets liquid in case it must leave the country.

In August 2004, Zhang was nearly deported under nearly identical circumstances, according to New York lawyer Stanley Mark, who is helping the family.

Zhang managed to avoid deportation when he argued, from Philadelphia to New York to the door of the plane to China, that his seizure was a mistake because he had an active appeal. Still, he spent 100 days in detention, Mark said.

In this country, Zhang and Jiang are but two of an estimated 250,000 illegal Chinese immigrants. In China, Zhang taught high school physics. Mark recalled how, when they fell to talking about science, Zhang picked up a pen and sketched out an equation - Einstein's theory of relativity.

Bortnick, Jiang's attorney, said he hoped to meet with ICE officials this month and persuade them to let Jiang stay permanently. If that fails, he will seek relief in federal court - where Jiang's treatment on Feb. 7 could become an issue. Jiang's supporters have pressed her to file a civil suit against ICE concerning her miscarriage.

Her backers also are trying to have a member of Congress introduce what's known as a private bill, a law to grant her permanent residence or citizenship. Like all legislation, it must pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president. The odds against passage are long.

"Most people who have orders of deportation do get removed," said Mark, program director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

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Walk the streets of Chinatown, and you might see activists posting photos of Jiang in a hospital bed, her arm hooked to an intravenous line. Her treatment by immigration authorities spurred protests in Philadelphia and New York. Even now, volunteers gather signatures on petitions.

"I don't want to see the father or the mother go out of this country," said Steven Zhu, executive vice president of the Greater Philadelphia Chinese Restaurant Association. "It's a disaster for the family."

The family's mixed immigration status is not unusual. Estimates are that 3.1 million citizen-children have been born to illegal immigrants, and parents who face deportation often wonder whether it's better for their children to stay or go.

Jiang's allies include State Rep. Curtis Thomas (D., Phila.) and City Councilman Jim Kenney, though she largely avoids the campaign, a dilemma for leaders who think her future could depend on how much publicity they generate.

"You're trying to respect the needs of the family, and what they're going through, with the desire to get this out as publicly as possible," said Ellen Somekawa, executive director of Asian Americans United. "Mr. Zhang is so concerned about his wife, and how she's just really not doing very well."

Zhang said if his wife is deported, the family will leave with her.

"We are scared, really scared," Zhang said in English. "I try to fight to stay here. They say it's an immigrant country, right?"


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Contact staff writer Jeff Gammage at 610-313-8110 or jgammage@phillynews.com.

Inquirer-supplied interpreter

Well, we know who the highest bidder for the interview was.

Dixie

Illegal - get out

She speaks little English

Been here ten years and they needed an interpreter to interview her. These people don't want to be Americans, they only want our money.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/15139711.htm

Posted on Thu, Jul. 27, 2006

Attorney: Illegal immigrant who miscarried can stay for now


Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - An illegal immigrant from China who miscarried after being seized for deportation will be allowed to stay in the United States pending appeals, her attorney said Thursday.

Attorney Richard Bortnick said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had agreed to let Zhenxing Jiang and her husband remain while they pursue administrative and legal appeals.

"It relieves some pressure," Jiang's husband, Tianxiao Zhang, who faces his own immigration fight, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "For that, we're really appreciative. The final order we're still worried about, in case we lose the appeal."

Jiang, who entered the country illegally in 1995, had a miscarriage on Feb. 7 after reporting to immigration authorities in Philadelphia, where she and her husband own a Chinese restaurant.

Advocates have accused authorities of ignoring her requests to see a doctor as she was being driven to New York's JFK Airport. The story made headlines around the world and sparked demonstrations in New York and Philadelphia.

The agency has called suggestions that Jiang was mistreated while in custody "categorically false." Efforts to reach the agency Thursday were unsuccessful, the paper said.

Zhang said his wife, who speaks little English, is "so-so."

"She doesn't really feel as well as before, before the tragedy happened." he said. "I try my best to take care of her."

Helen Gym, of the advocacy group Asian Americans United in Philadelphia, called the agreement appropriate, but said members of the community still want to meet with federal officials.

"This case continues to raise all the questions about deportation practices," she said.