Chinese clients of New York ‘asylum mill’ lawyers face deportation threat
Fear and confusion as US cracks down on thousands who may have heeded advice to exaggerate or fabricate their asylum claims
A crackdown by US immigration authorities on thousands of potentially fraudulent asylum applications is reverberating throughout the Chinese immigrant community in New York, causing anxiety and confusion as applicants rush to find legal strategies to avoid possible deportation.
The US is reviewing more than 13,000 cases handled by immigration lawyers, agents and others convicted after a 2012 investigation called Operation Fiction Writer. Those who were found guilty helped more than 3,500 immigrants, mostly Chinese, win asylum status, US authorities said.
The current inquiry was first reported by National Public Radio’s Planet Money on September 28.
The 2012 investigation involved about 3,500 asylum grants, and the number of “derivative applications” submitted by family members now exceeds 10,000, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the South China Morning Post.
The agency said that some 13,500 Chinese immigrants who were granted asylum before December 2012 could lose their status and potentially face deportation. Immigration judges have the authority to terminate grants of asylum, ICE said.
The reviews – which are being conducted by the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security – began in 2014 during the Obama administration, according to the agency.
