In the early morning of April 5, 22 Chinese stowaways pried their way out of a shipping container in the Port of Seattle. As they were trying to find their way out of the fenced shipping yard, they were spotted by security guards and turned over to U.S.. Border Security .
Had these stoways been Mexican, they likley would have been subject to relatively rapid deportation, with no immigration hearing, through a procedure called " Expedited Removal " , however illegal Chinese immigration is far more complicated .
According to the Department of Homeland Security , 39,000 Chinese immigrants remain in the U.S., though they have been issued final deportation orders. Under U.S. Law, they can only be held for 180 days. After that, they are released back into the workforce.
So why are they still here ? The reason is that China won't take them back.
One of the reasons is that China cited uncertainty about the immigrants identities. Documents have been forged and names have been changed, especialy if they entered the U.S. through another country .
And to futher complicate matters, the Chinese use many different methods to enter the U.S. illegaly.
They put up a small down payment to a " Snakehead " smuggler who then uses a very organized network to arrange for the Chinese immigrants to get to the U.S. illegaly. The remainder of the debt, which ranges from $35,000.00 to $60.000.00 depending on the mode of transportation the immigrant chooses , has to be worked off once they get here.
Once they arrive here, they are sent to Sweatshops, Chinese restaurants and even more horribley to brothels and massage parlors to work off their debt to the " Snakehead " as prostitutes .
No matter how you color this situation, this is Human Trafficking , plain and simple .And since these Chinese immigrants are here illegaly, they have no recourse to file a complaint if they are abused.
Though I do have some sympathy for victims of Human Trafficking, I still have to wonder why these Chinese will voyage across the ocean in a shipping container enduring inhumane conditions along the way, only to have a life of slavery waiting for them once they arrive here.
For " pro illegal immigrant " activists such as Jackie Beltran and Senobia T, I have to wonder why you think that these people are better off in our country. Jackie actually commented in one of her posts that the immigrants are better off in a brothel here in the U.S. than they would be if they were in their own country, not the exact words that she used, however that was her message.
The problems that I have written about in this article are just a few reasons why illegal immigration to the U.S. has to be stopped!
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Comments: 11
It seems to me that this is more of a money issue than the conditions that these people endure in their own country. People are getting rich from Human Trafficking, and from what I read, there is a lot of pressure in China for people to immigrate here to the U.S. Again. it's all about money .
It's not that we get to treat them differently , it's the fact that CHINA won't take them back . As I wrote in this article , China cited that ther were uncertain about the immigrant's identities . If the truth were to be known, they probably won't take them back because China has an overpopulation problem.
So what do we do with them ? I did read that appx 1600 were deported back in June. But just like the Mexicans, many of the Chinese make their way back here after they are deported . Many of the Golden Venture victims came back after they were deported.
I also read that only about 1% of shipping containers are searched at U.S. ports. Now there's a start. How about searching more of them ?
Funny, we have the same problem for many detainees in Gitmo that we want to release, but their countries of record won't take them back either. What to do?
Very interesting. What you say does make sense. I also have contact with international students from Taiwan, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. All of them want to go back home soon. It's a different story with the mainland Chinese students. They don't want to go back to China, they would rather stay here, and they often overstay their student visa or skip school all together. I know one Chinese man who went to school for 2 years, and then quit school to go to work as the manager of a Chinese restaurant. I'm not sure of his legal status, but I once asked him what would happen if ICE raided his restaurant, and he said that he could handle it.
Good question though, what do we do with illegals when their country of origin won't take them back ?
Oh yeah, I forgot about this one. I met one Chinese girl who was working in of all places a Thai restaurant. She was a graduate student at the local university. She told me that she had no plans of returning to China once she finished school. She is now back in New York's Chinatown.
Maybe the second step should be to educate the Chinese in China that what awaits them when they get here is sweatshop labor, or working in a Chinese restaurant 14 hours per day for 7 days per week, and that is the only future that they have here unless they just happened to come here on a student visa and get an education.
Some thoughts ?