China Tests U.S. Immigration Plan/中国拒绝接受被美遣返移民

After reading the news, feel so sad with these people, and so shame on the government.

The news from wall street journal online.
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In Spat Over Asylum Policy,
Beijing Refuses Return
Of Illegal Entrants

By JUNE KRONHOLZ
July 31, 2006; Page A4

What can the U.S. do if a huge trading partner like China won't take back thousands of illegal immigrants? Not much, apparently.

In a spat over U.S. asylum policy, China is refusing to take back 40,000 deportable immigrants, insisting that asylum-seekers such as Falun Gong members and other political opponents of Beijing be returned as well. That has put the U.S. in a sticky position.

If illegal immigrants "are not accepted back, then, for all intents and purposes, they are free to remain in this country because we have no place to remove them to," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.

Key to the Department of Homeland Security's recent get-tough plan on immigration enforcement, which began last November, is the end of what it calls "catch and release" -- apprehending illegal immigrants and then releasing them into the U.S. population while negotiating their return home with their government. Department officials are awaiting completion of thousands of new prison beds next year -- bringing the total to 30,000 -- so that many of those people can be jailed while awaiting deportation, which they hope will also discourage others from immigrating to the U.S.

But China's refusal to accept returnees by not issuing travel documents undercuts U.S. attempts to discourage illegal entrants. "If the removal process has any deterrent effect, you have to show that people are being removed," says Paul Virtue, former general counsel to the immigration service.

Worse, though, it shows what few options the U.S. has in enforcing its deportation policy when other countries won't cooperate. "If China wants to dig in its heels, we would have real limitations," says Doris Meissner, who was immigration commissioner in the Clinton administration.

Of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., about 550,000 have received final removal orders from an immigration judge but remain at large, says Homeland Security. While Chinese account for only a small share of those ordered deported, they are "the largest population that we've had difficulty in returning," Mr. Chertoff told the AEI audience.

In the fiscal year that ended in September, Homeland Security says it was able to deport just 522 Chinese whose appeals had been exhausted. Even that was a drop from about 600 in each of the two previous years.

International convention holds that countries take back their nationals upon request. China's refusal is "breaking international norms and codes of conduct," Ms. Meissner says. But a handful of countries are routinely slow -- or like Cuba, simply refuse -- to issue the travel documents that allow the U.S. to return their citizens, says Susan Martin, director of Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of International Migration.

Nigeria, among others, has disputed attempts to return its nationals who have been convicted of crimes in the U.S., arguing that they turned to criminality while they were in the U.S. and shouldn't be Nigeria's responsibility. El Salvador has worried about taking back gang members for fear they will aggravate street crime. Somalia doesn't have a central government that can negotiate its citizens' return.

Other countries see no benefit in taking back immigrants who will add to unemployment, housing or political problems. China, meanwhile, has used the deportation issue to pressure the U.S. on its policy of providing political asylum. The U.S. granted political asylum to about 5,000 Chinese in 2001 and again in 2002, although the number has since fallen by half.

Mr. Chertoff argues that China's reluctance to take back deportable immigrants only encourages asylum seekers. People arrive illegally, are caught, then hear about asylum laws while they await deportation and "the wheels are turning in their mind," he said.

But China argues just the opposite: It says the prospect of political asylum attracts illegal immigrants.

Few illegal entrants ever get as far in the system as being ordered deported by a judge. Those caught within 14 days of arriving or within 100 miles of a border or international airport are simply sent home without access to the courts. That accounts for the bulk of returned immigrants. Others, apprehended outside those limits, agree to pay their way home after brief immigration-court hearings. By leaving voluntarily, many can retain the right to return to the U.S. legally at some point.

Those who resist leaving can appeal immigration-court decisions to the federal courts and up through the federal appeals process, which can take as long as five years.

After that, Homeland Security typically can imprison a nonviolent illegal immigrant for only six months while it negotiates his or her return home. But because the agency lacks prison space, many of those ordered deported are simply released while they wait for the two governments to negotiate a return home.

Homeland Security's enforcement arm, the Immigration and Customs Service, says it has only 730 of the 40,000 illegal Chinese immigrants in jail. Spokesmen for ICE and for Mr. Chertoff declined to say whether they know where to locate the other 39,000 deportable Chinese if their departure could be arranged.

Mr. Chertoff raised the removal issue during a visit to China in April and came to "an agreement in principle," says his spokesman, Russ Knocke, who declined to provide details of the agreement. China says it recently took back about 100 deportees. Still, Mr. Chertoff told the American Enterprise Institute audience that "we have a ways to go" in implementing the agreement.

The U.S. has few ways to force immigrants' return, and almost none with a huge trading partner such as China. Congress allows the immigration service to pressure a reluctant country by withholding visas to its tourists, students and business travelers. But that leverage is "so disproportionate that it's not used," says Ms. Meissner, the former immigration commissioner. Particularly with big trading partners, where back-and-forth business travel is essential for both sides, "it hurts you more than it hurts them," she adds.

Small countries often can be pressured or offered incentives to take back their nationals. But a strategically important country -- particularly a petroleum supplier or a country willing to lend its troops to tough peacekeeping operations -- has more leverage, immigration experts say. "Other diplomatic issues are at stake," says Georgetown's Ms. Martin.

But allowing deportable immigrants to stay is costly, says Mr. Virtue, the former immigration-service lawyer. The service generally has devoted years of effort to a case before a removal order is issued, he says. And word travels quickly among immigrant groups about flukes or changes in enforcement. "The deterrent is gone," he adds.

Write to June Kronholz at june.kronholz@wsj.com

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Chinese Version
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当中国这样一个举足轻重的贸易伙伴拒绝接回数千非法移民的时候，美国能做些什么？显然，办法不多。

在围绕美国庇护政策产生的一场口角中，中国拒绝接回被美国驱逐出境的40,000名移民，它坚持要求美国将在美寻求庇护的法轮功成员和其他政治异议人士一并遣返。这使美国陷入了窘境。

美 国国土安全部部长迈克•切特夫(Michael Chertoff)最近对华盛顿的保守智库美国企业研究所(American Enterprise Institute)发表讲话时说，如果非法移民“没有被接回，那么，无论他们出于何种意图和目的，他们都可自由留在美国，因为我们没有地方将他们遣 返。”

对于美国国土安全部(Department of Homeland Security)从去年11月开始在移民管治方面推行的强硬计划，目前最关键的问题是，如何应对“抓了又放”政策结束后的局面。以往在“抓了又放”的政 策下，美国先将非法移民逮捕，之后在与其所在国磋商遣返事宜的过程中将其放出。国土安全部官员表示，明年将有几千张监狱床位安排就绪──总数将达到 30,000张──以便在等待驱逐的过程中将非法移民关押在监狱里，他们希望这样做可以使其他准备偷渡到美国的人打消念头。

但中国拒绝接受被遣返移民让美国打击非法移民入境的努力遭遇严重挫折。“要想让遣返产生威慑作用，你必须表明，这些人正在遭到驱逐，”移民局前顾问保罗•比鲁埃(Paul Virtue)说。

更糟糕的是，这恰好显示出，在缺乏其他国家合作的情况下美国在执行遣返政策方面束手无策。“如果中国坚持自己的立场，我们将受到很多真正的限制，”曾担任克林顿(Clinton)政府移民官员的多丽斯•迈斯纳(Doris Meissner)表示。

据美国国土安全部称，在美国估计为1,200万的非法移民中，大约有55万人已被移民法官责令遣返但却未能执行。虽然中国非法移民在这个被驱逐人群中只占很小一部分，但他们是“我们在遣返过程中遇到障碍最大的一批人，”切特夫在AEI发表讲话时称。

国土安全部称，在截至去年9月的财政年度，中国接受了522名遣返移民，但低于前两年每年600人的水平。

国 际社会一直主张各国在被要求的情况下应接收被遣返移民。迈斯纳称，中国拒绝接受非法移民“违背了国际惯例。”不过乔治城大学(Georgetown University)国际移民研究院主任苏珊•马丁(Susan Martin)表示，在发放允许美国遣返其公民的通行证方面，很多国家行动迟缓──或者像古巴这样，干脆拒绝发放。

与很多国家一样，尼日利亚拒绝接受在美国犯罪的遣返移民，该国声称，他们是在美国犯了罪，不该由尼日利亚负责。萨尔瓦多也在想方设法拒绝接受乌合之众，他们担心这些人可能会增加街头犯罪。而索马里甚至没有一个能够就移民遣返问题与之进行谈判的中央政府。

其 他很多国家也认为接受非法移民毫无益处，他们只会带来更多的失业、住房或政治问题。与此同时，中国还把遣返问题当成了对美国政治庇护政策施压的筹码。 2001年和2002年，美国分别对5,000名中国人提供了政治庇护，不过自那以来每年在美国获得政治庇护的中国人已经较这一数字减少了一半。

切特夫称，中国不愿接受非法移民只会鼓励更多的人寻求政治庇护。人们非法入境，之后被捕，然后在等待遣返的过程中听说政治庇护法，“他们的脑子自然会转一转，”他说。

而中国的观点恰恰相反：这说明政治庇护的存在吸引了非法移民。

在 移民遣返体系中，被法官责令遣返的移民并不多。那些在入境14天内或距离边境或国际机场100英里之内被逮捕的非法移民不经过法院就被遣送回家。这类人占 据了被遣返移民的大部分。而在此范围以外被逮捕的其他非法移民多半在经过简短的移民法院听证会后同意尽可能寻找机会回国。自愿回国的人很多都获准保留了在 某个时刻合法回到美国的权利。

拒绝离开的人可以就移民法院的决定向联邦法院提起上述，联邦法院的审理程序经常会持续5年之久。

之后，国土安全部可以将一名非暴力的非法移民监禁6个月，同时与他（她）的母国磋商遣返问题。但由于监狱空间有限，很多被责令遣返的人在政府间商讨遣返事宜的过程中只能被释放。

国 土安全部执行部门入境与海关服务部(Immigration and Customs Service)表示，40,000名中国非法移民中只有730人被关押。而如果这些人的遣返问题被提上议事日程，另外那39,000人将被安置在哪里， 对此问题该部门以及切特夫的发言人均拒绝表态。

切特夫曾经在4月份访华时提出遣返问题，并且据他的发言人鲁斯•诺克(Russ Knocke)称，“已经在原则上与中国达成了协议。”诺克拒绝透露协议的细节。中国方面表示，最近接收了100名被遣移民。不过切特夫在美国企业研究所 发表讲话时表示，在执行协议方面我们有办法让事情进行下去。

不过美国在移民遣返方面的办法实在少之又少，面对像中国这样的重要贸易伙伴， 它几乎束手无策。国会允许移民局对不愿接受遣返移民的国家施加压力，可对其游客、学生和商务旅行者拒发签证。但这一手段“在数量上很难对称，因此并不常 用，”前移民官员迈斯纳说。她表示，特别是对于重要的贸易伙伴国，人员往来是双方贸易的基本条件，这样做只会搬石头砸了自己的脚。

小国很容易屈从压力，或者给点甜头就会答应接受被遣移民。但移民专家称，一个对美国具有重要战略影响的国家──特别是作为一个石油供给国和一个随时愿意派遣军队参加维和行动的国家──它掌握著更多筹码。“其他外交问题也十分关键，”乔治城大学的马丁说。

不过比鲁埃说，收留这些非法移民成本巨大。入境与海关服务部通常要花费数年时间才能使一位非法移民被移民法庭下令遣返。而且这种侥幸被收留或者遣返失败的事情将很快在移民群体中传播开来。“威慑作用已经不在，”他补充说。

June Kronholz