Chinese Woman’s Political Asylum Case Delayed Again

After a Chinese woman’s political asylum hearing was again postponed because a crucial State Department letter failed to arrive, her attorney on Friday warned that more delays could hurt her client as witnesses on her behalf leave town and become unavailable.

Meanwhile, the Immigration and Naturalization Service refused to release Chen Yiwei on bond pending a hearing, citing what officials describe as inconsistencies between her travel documents and statements she made to authorities.

Saw Name on Wanted List

Chen, 22, told authorities she is a pro-democracy protester who fled China in June after seeing her name on a wanted list in her hometown newspaper in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen. She has been held by the INS for nearly two months. She was returned to an INS detention center in Inglewood Friday.

She was taken into custody June 24 when immigration officials at Los Angeles International Airport detected her forged passport, which she said had allowed her to escape from China.

On Aug. 11, Immigration Judge Ingrid K. Hrycenko continued Chen’s hearing for a week, saying she could not rule on Chen’s asylum application until she receives a State Department letter stating whether asylum should be granted.

Dorothy Harper, Chen’s attorney, said she was disappointed by the State Department’s failure to provide the letter, adding that the government “may have tacitly declined to submit an opinion letter in the case by not submitting one in a timely manner.”

David Denny, a State Department spokesman, declined to respond, saying, “It is State Department policy not to comment on cases once they go to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.”

Even if the letter arrives by early next week, Harper said, she must arrange for a new judge to hear the case because Hrycenko is going on vacation. No hearing date has been set.

“It was my opinion that Ms. Chen was entitled to a hearing,” Harper said. “However, (the judge) did not agree with me.” Harper had hoped that Chen would be released on bond to await her hearing, but Ernest Gustafson, INS district director in Los Angeles, denied the parole request Thursday afternoon, she said.

‘Credibility Issue’

“There is a credibility issue,” said John Bartos, an INS district counsel. “Basically, to boil it down, some of the statements she makes do not coincide with some of her documents.”

Bartos said that, based on Chen’s statements, the immigration service also has reason to believe that “there is family somewhere with a great deal of money. That would suggest she would travel very rapidly and we would lose track of her” if she were paroled.

“Those things put together make us uneasy paroling her on bond,” Bartos said. But he added, “We could get something on Monday that would make us change our minds.”

Harper, who said there are glaring errors in some of the INS allegations, said it would be inappropriate to “fight out the facts in the papers.” She said she is considering challenging the parole denial in U.S. District Court.

“I do have a good-faith belief in this girl’s case,” Harper said.

In political asylum cases, applicants must prove they would be subject to government persecution if they return to their own country, said J Craig Fong, an immigration attorney for the Downtown Legalization Project.

On Friday, half a dozen witnesses, including USC Prof. Stanley Rosen, were ready to testify on Chen’s behalf but never got the chance.

“I’ve already lost some of the witnesses,” Harper said. For example, UCLA student Ding Jian, who was in Beijing during the bloody June 4 crackdown, has a great deal of information about the subsequent manhunt in China, but he will soon be leaving town, she said.

“I can get an affidavit, but I consider affidavits lukewarm evidence,” Harper said.