acquaintaince asking about divorce

[justashooter 430]

My wife got a phone call from a chinese woman last night asking for advice. The details are fuzzy, because she is going thru a hard time and really may not know the answers to some important questions. Either way, her lifestyle is at stake.

Apparently she and her family entered illegal via New York 10-15 years ago when she was 15-18 or so, coming from mainland china. They may have entered on some working visa, but not maintained status. She married a taiwanese who also apparently entered illegal (this is fuzzy), and they are living in south central Pa, 10 miles from us. The balance of her family is in New York. Her husband's family is local, and their house is occupied by the woman, her 3 children (3-5-8), her mother-in-law, her sister-in-law, and her brother-in-law. The husband works for a restaraunt in New Jersey and comes home on the weekends. The woman has worked at a chinese restaraunt on and off, and does not have functional english language.

The mother-in-law is on 180 day visitor's visa, and apparently has been caretaker to the children for a significant part of the past several years. The children have even traveled to taiwan for extended periods with her. The children are American born US citizens. The taiwanese family now want the sole mainlander out of the picture, but she has poor english language, not much education or job skills beyond a chinese restaraunt, and not much cash.

The husband claims to have a green card. The woman claims that her father has a green card. How this could be acheived after entry without inspection baffles me, unless it fell under an amnesty, the last of which was when? The entire family could be living on falsified documents, AFAIK. The only one in the picture that seems legit, other than the fruits of the poisoned tree, is the grandmother, with her 180 day papers.

I have asked for more detail on the actual methods of entry for all parties involved, and how they acheived whatever status they claim to have. My wife is translating for her at a local atty tomorrow, so I have helped them outline the situation on paper in 20 relevant points. I have reccomended that she contact Catholic Charities for assistance, as well.

The family lives in a $130K house and had a car, but I don't think there could be much money in the entire system. WAG, the guy works in NJ as a restaraunt manager for about $40k/annum. He does not seem to be He Shehui or it's equivalent, or she wouldn't be talking.

The husband has robbed the marital assets within the last month, even selling the car and renting one. He thinks he can get a "chinese divorce" in America. He sounds like a real #######, and the grandmother is a piece of work, alienating the children from their mother in classic old world chinese style, but we have only heard one side of the story.

I have told my wife that she does not have time to become this woman's divorce manager, translator, personal driver, but advised that she could do well to give her a start in the right direction. I have remarked upon the precarious situation this woman's illegal status has put her in. Your thoughts?

Edited July 7, 2009 by justashooter

[john_and_marlene 162]

You can contact ICE via email at Immigration.Reply@dhs.gov or you can telephone ICE at 1-866-347-2423.

[TBoneTX 45,288]

You can contact ICE via email at Immigration.Reply@dhs.gov or you can telephone ICE at 1-866-347-2423.

Si, man.

[justashooter 430]

update after further discussion. this is what she is telling my wife, and everybody else:

the woman's father arrived on H1b and now has GC. she used another person's passport to enter a plane in shanghai and on arrival tried to sneak thru security after trashing the passport. she was caught and remanded to father, and is claiming refugee status due to the china "one child policy".

how could this be? how could the one child policy be used to claim refugee status? it's not like they are going to retroactively abort her, and she wasn't pregnant with second child at the time. she had no children.

my wife is the oldest of 3. her mother was chased across 2 provinces by the PSB in the 80's during the second and third pregnancies. she had a case for refugee status.

relevant article and editorial:

http://www.asylumlaw.org/docs/china/CHI_1/...201%20child.pdf

http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/pub/Imm...ehChinaSFX.html

well, it's clinton's fault:

Fake Refugees Cite China's One-Child Rule

The San Francisco Examiner Op-Ed

December 21, 1994

Yeh Ling-Ling

A naturalized citizen of Chinese ancestry

...A case in point is the Clinton administration's recent decision to grant safe haven to Chinese nationals in the United States, including those smuggled in by organized crime syndicates in China, who claim that China's "one-child" policy is cruel. That uninformed decision is shortsighted and irresponsible, both toward residents in China and United States citizens...

Granting asylum based on China's one-child policy is certainly not within the intent of the Refugee Act of 1980. That legislation intends to protect people who are persecuted or have well-founded fear of persecution on account of their political opinions, race, nationality, religion or membership in a particular social organization. None of these allows a carte blanche extension of asylum protection to millions of residents of China...

[justashooter 430]

https://repository.unm.edu/dspace/bitstream...IselaMolina.pdf

a well constructed paper written in 1999 examining the issue of whether the one child policy is persecution and qualifies a chinese for asylum under US immigration laws.

[justashooter 430]

so further discussion reveals that the woman's father filed a refugee claim for her that was denied. she was ordered deported in 2004, but has an appeal to reopen that will be heard in october 2009. i see no basis for the original claim, much less the appeal, but am not surprised she has been able to extend the process nearly 10 years. such is the American legal system. of note, during that time she has not been legally employable.

the woman holds a joint custody order from the local court for teh USA born children, but this will be trumped by the INS order of deportation in october. looks like there is no legal way for this person to stay in USA, having EWI and overstayed by years. too bad these kids are going to have to grow up without their mother, but she knew she was entering illegally, and is personally responsible for all subsequent consequence. we have no more interest in dicsussing the issues with her.

it has been interesting to consider the case and learn about the method of entry and the logic behind it. this also raises question in regard to the legislative process that has enabled it. consider the facts and the questions they raise:

1.) in the early 90's a few chinese fellows snuck into America and cited the chinese govt's refusal to allow them to have more children in mainland as reason to run here 10 years after the fact and abandon their wife and children to china (logic?).

2.) they were awarded green cards because it wasn't fair for china to impose this restriction, despite the fact that it was applied to the entire population universally. this in direct contradiction to all other rationale for refugee status previously established.

3.) some congressmen proposed an amendment to the IRA '80 to specifically enable this kind of claim and klinton signed it.

4.) 14,000 chinese (mostly young married men) tried to use this loophole between 1995 and 1999 (no record of what has happened since immediately available) after paying upward of $40,000 each to be smuggled into the USA. 30-40% of them were successful and were awarded green cards. presumably they got citizenship 5 years later and petitioned for wives and children.

5.) 95% of the candidates were fujianese

6.) fujian province is the home of He Shi Hui, the chinese "black society" organised crime group that traffics in illegal money from various criminal activities. they are not particularly violent as a whole, preferring to set up restaraunts and other legitimate businesses for purpose of money laundering.

7.) $40,000 is a hell of a lot of money in china now and was 3-4X as much back in 1995, so we have to wonder if He Shihui is the source, and if these guys are now part of a He Shihui syndicate in America.

8.) we have to wonder if the black society bribed certain congresspersons to create this special exception to immigration law that resulted in the green carding of a certain group of young chinese men. we have to wonder if klinton's related chinese business scandals in the mid 90's related to campaign finance and declassification of US nuclear technology to chinese businessmen was fostered by He Shihui and if this loophole created in immigration law specifically for their benefit was crumbs falling from the table.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

It was my understanding that the legislation originally behind this avenue to asylum was originally given to Bush 41, who refused to sign it, but then decided to implement parts of it in response to the Chinese government response to the Tiananmen Square protests. I realize that the definition of "refugee" wasn't amended in the INA until 1996, under Clinton, to officially recognize this route to asylum, but it would seem that Congress directed the INS to give "special consideration" to these asylum seekers before Clinton took office.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110481,00.html

This woman your wife knows is a real piece of... work. So is the rest of her family. I sincerely hope they are all deported, and kicked in the a$$ on their way out.

[Old Dominion 26]

Something suggests that your wife could be accused of aiding and abetting violation of the laws, if she gets involved in any way at all -- except suggesting to those folks that they turn to a lawyer for advice. Catholic Charities in their community is a good place for them to start. There, they will be treated respectfully as God's children no matter what their immigration situation.

[justashooter 430]

Something suggests that your wife could be accused of aiding and abetting violation of the laws, if she gets involved in any way at all -- except suggesting to those folks that they turn to a lawyer for advice. Catholic Charities in their community is a good place for them to start. There, they will be treated respectfully as God's children no matter what their immigration situation.

i have given this question a fair investigation, and have advised my wife not to give further assistance. there appears to be no way the woman can remain even quasi-legally after her deportation appeal is denied. i am also a bit concerned with the possibility of offending the husband's family, as they may be tied to organised crime.

my wife translated yesterday at a meeting with the woman's family law atty, who is taking money for the ongoing custody dispute. the atty indicates that the deportation could be stayed by the ongoing custody dispute. i would expect not, and think that the atty is just bankrolling.

either way, the story is at an end. there are about 50 educated chinese in York (mostly H1b), and about 100 fujianese "restaraunt people" of undetermined status. they normally don't mix, but a chinese will help another chinese in this town no matter what "hua" they speak. the help only extends to a certain point, though.