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Rap Sheet Isn’t Automatic Ticket Home

More news stories on Immigration Law Enforcement

Kevin Amerman, Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania), July 26, 2009

She has 13 felony convictions, a 50-page rap sheet and spent at least 21/2 of her 20 years in the United States behind bars.

While her convictions led to a deportation order last year, Shoumin Chai, a 55-year-old native of China, has been allowed to remain in the country. She is in jail again, this time facing more than 100 charges in an alleged ATM scam at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in which authorities say she stole as much as $10,000 from two dozen patrons last month.

Some, including Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli who is prosecuting the case, wonder how someone with so many convictions and an order to leave the country can be allowed to remain here.

Chai, of New York City, received a deportation order in 2008. In accordance with immigration law, she has remained in the country while appealing the order.

{snip}

Immigration authorities say convictions do factor into immigration proceedings, but committing a crime doesn’t automatically mean deportation.

Mark Medvesky, a public affairs officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said people with green cards have a right to immigration hearings that are separate from their criminal cases. And each is given the opportunity to appeal.

“There’s a certain amount of rights afforded to people, and we’re a country that respects that,” he said. “People who we believe have violated immigration laws have due process. . . . [Chai] has the right to challenge being removed from the country.”

But not everyone thinks immigrants should be able to challenge their status after convictions. Ira Mehlman, spokesman for Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization in Washington, D.C., that lobbies for tougher immigration laws, says green card holders and illegal immigrants should be kicked out of the country as soon as they’re done serving jail time.

{snip}

He said when immigrants obtain green cards, they agree not to commit crimes and a conviction should immediately terminate the visa. His organization’s Web site lists more than 150 “serious crimes of illegal aliens” across the country since May 2004, ranging from drug crimes to rapes to murders.

{snip}

Chai came to the United States in 1989 at the age of 35 and obtained a green card that established her as a legal resident, according to Sharon Clay, an attorney with the Office of Immigration Litigation, which is fighting to deport Chai. Authorities say she was committing crimes within three years of entering the country.

Chai was serving a 31-month prison sentence in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, N.J., for numerous thefts in Atlantic City, N.J., casinos when immigration officials filed a “charging document” on July 7, 2007, to have her deported, according to Susan Eastwood, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

The immigration judge hearing the case sided with Chai, but the decision was reversed by the Board of Immigration Appeals and a deportation order for Chai was issued on July 17, 2008.

{snip}

Chai was arraigned Monday and is jailed under $200,000 bail on 47 felonies and 71 misdemeanors, including fraud, identity theft and receiving stolen property. Police say she stole at least $1,000, but may have taken as much as $10,000. The thefts, which police say occurred over a 13-hour period, went unnoticed by Sands security.

{snip}

Original article

Email Kevin Amerman at kevin.amerman@mcall.com.

(Posted on July 30, 2009)

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Comments

1 — feller wrote at 6:33 PM on July 30:

Really. What would happen to this arrogant little thief if she committed her crimes in China? She’d be freezing in a camp in the mountains, or sweltering in a work camp in the South of China. Her “rights” would be nonexistent.

As tempting as it is to say, ‘put her in our jails and throw away the key’, I don’t want to pay for the housing of this miserable hustler. Keep trying to deport her, and send her back to China.

This is another example of why we need a new Constitution, with limits on rights of immigrants and criminals. But she has “rights” so we have to get around that.

2 — Istvan wrote at 9:26 PM on July 30:

OMG! She should have been deported YEARS ago. The insanity of it all. If you break the law and you are not a natural born American citizen you should be deported. Period. Even if you have citizenship if should be revoked and you should be booted out!

3 — Thomas Jackson wrote at 12:37 AM on July 31:

Amendment 14, Section 1 - “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Whenever a question arises concerning an important issue such as immigration, the best and most reliable source for finding what this nation should do in solving any problem that we face is to look to the Constitution.

While there are only two specific references in the Constitution to immigration , stated in this most important of documents as , “Naturalization, ” there is clear evidence by the Framers as to what they intended concerning the rights of the people who live in this country and how those rights effect immigrants.

The two references in the Constitution that specifically mention , “naturalization, ” are found in Article I, Section 8 in creating the authority of the Congress, “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.” Thus from a Constitutional stand point it is the responsibility of Congress to establish all laws and rules of naturalization or immigration.

The second reference is located in the 14th Amendment shown above stating that , “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” are, “citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The key thought in the 14th Amendment which along with several other provisions established in the Constitution shows that the intent of the Framers was that citizens of the United States whether born or naturalized are granted the rights and privileges that are available in America.

While Congress has the Constitutional authority to establish laws of naturalization or immigration they do not have the power create blanket legislation that allows non - citizens the rights of born or naturalized Americans.

The beginning of the Preamble of the Constitution states clearly who gives authority to the government and in whom the rights established in the Constitution belong to and they are,” We the People of the United States.”

The Framers clearly show that the laws governing this country as established in the Constitution and the rights that are available are for citizens of this land. Even the very Representation in our government from the President to the Congress are established that eligibility to hold public office is reserved for citizens only with the President required to be a natural born citizen of The United States and not a naturalized citizen.

Throughout the Constitution our rights are continually shown to be for citizens of the country, even when the word citizen is not specifically mention. The Preamble calling the establishment of the Constitution by, “We the people, ” clearly indicates that each of the rights and privileges as recorded by the Framers are for the citizenry of this country.

This does not mean that those who immigrate to The United States are treated as second class people or that the laws that protect our citizens whether civil or criminal do not afford the same protections and freedoms to all whether citizen or immigrant.

But the rights that we have to vote, to speak freely, to worship as we will, to keep and bear arms, protection from illegal search and seizure, all are rights given by authority of the people for the people, the citizens of the land.

It then is also established that any of these rights that are afforded to non-citizens is also given by the authority of the people of The United States. Anyone who enters in or resides in this country has the privilege given by the authority of the people to share in our freedoms and rights. Citizenship though is not a right that is given nor the privileges of citizenship to any immigrant whether legal or illegal until they have been established by the laws of naturalization as Americans.

Birth gives Americans the right of citizenship but to those who immigrate citizenship must be given by the rule of law. The Framers made it very clear that the law must first be satisfied before the rights of citizenship are available. Each Constitutional reference to our rights and privileges are for the people who are the citizens only.

The Framers realized that once the freedoms and liberties that we have in this country became known to the world that The United States would become a melting pot of cultures and nationalities from all over the world. But they also understood the necessity of keeping our identity as Americans and in establishing a uniform rule of law for gaining citizenship in America and having as born and naturalized citizens the rights and privileges as an American.

The Constitution never mentions immigration, so how is it that the rules for immigrants, and quotas from countries, are set by the federal government and not be the state governments? After all, as the 10th Amendment states, are the powers not delegated to the United States held by the states, or the people?
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Congressional power to regulate naturalization, in Article 1, Section 8, includes the power to regulate immigration. It would not make sense to allow Congress to pass laws to determine how an immigrant becomes a naturalized resident if the Congress cannot determine how that immigrant can come into the country in the first place.
There is also an argument that immigration is an implied power of any sovereign nation, and as such, the federal government has the power to regulate immigration because the United States is a sovereign nation. While it is true that the United States is a sovereign nation, and it may be true that all sovereign nations have some powers inherent in that status, it is not necessary to determine if immigration is such a power that does not even require constitutional mention, because the Naturalization Clause handles the power.

4 — Awakened wrote at 1:05 AM on July 31:

Be kind. Remember we all know that the Asian crime rate is lower than the White crime rate.

Oh wait a minute, that might be because the Hispanics are included in the crime statistics as White. Oh well. There goes that theory!

5 — Superman wrote at 9:47 AM on July 31:

Seems to me that Constitutional rights were designed for American citizens, NOT criminal alien visitors.
She should be deported and allowed to follow her appeal from china.

6 — Chan Marino wrote at 3:51 PM on July 31:

4 Awakened: Most Oriental crime is among their own people, or involves evading taxes or regulations. The victims of fraud, home invasion robberies, and kidnap for ransom do not go to the police. The cops know about this stuff through unofficial means, unlawful surveilence of gang members and so on, but they can’t act on it because the witnesses are afraid of being murdered.

7 — MadMac wrote at 4:11 PM on July 31:

This begs in particular the question” Has this helped Allentown become the Paradise it truly is Today?”

8 — SKIP wrote at 7:10 AM on August 1:

His organization’s Web site lists more than 150 “serious crimes of illegal aliens” across the country since May 2004

I may have missed it, what/where is this website so I can look. Another place to see this is “gates of vienna”


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