Chinese illegal immigrants discovered in Texas border town
LA JOYA, Texas (AP) -- Local police are accustomed to dealing with illegal border crossings but were astounded by the video of 15 Chinese immigrants unfolding themselves from the back of a sport-utility vehicle near this small border town.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/06/texas.chinese.ap/index.html
Immigration attorney Hongxin Shi joined the Texas law practice of Paul Esquivel last year, after Esquivel saw a need for Mandarin-speaking attorneys at the Willacy County Processing Center, the largest immigrant detention facility in the U.S.
Shi, who has about 20 pending immigration cases with Chinese immigrants, said he has heard of immigrants flying into Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico to begin the journey north.
In March 2007, Mexican federal police detained 81 Chinese immigrants and 22 Mexican immigration officers at the Cancun airport. They believed that the Chinese were hiding in the airport with the help of the immigration officials until they could begin the next leg of their journey north to the United States.
In Mexico, they meet "coyotes," or smugglers specializing in crossing the U.S. border, who have been arranged by their Chinese smugglers. "It's like a subcontractor," Kwong said.
For years, Chinese and fellow "other than Mexican" illegal immigrants were processed and released with a date to return for a court hearing. The process was known as "catch and release."
Only about one-third of those released showed up in court, according to a 2005 report prepared for Congress.
That began changing in late 2005 and early 2006, with a policy that sought to close that loophole.
Non-Mexicans caught trying to enter the U.S. now are steered into a streamlined process for "expedited removal."
....interesting article...
...maybe Texas needs more chinese food restaurants anyway ?
et tu Chin Lee ?
