16 Chinese Immigrants Flee; 9 Caught

Immigration agents searched Wednesday for seven Chinese immigrants who slipped out of a low-security facility where they had been held after being arrested last week on a ship carrying 189 illegal immigrants from mainland China.

Sixteen women apparently forced open a patio door and escaped from Casa San Juan, a state-licensed group home run by a Catholic social service agency under contract with the federal government. Designed for women and juveniles awaiting immigration proceedings, the 32-bed home near downtown has locked doors but no guards, officials said.

Authorities recaptured nine of the immigrants early Wednesday, but seven others--including four teen-agers--remained at large, according to Rudy Murillo, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Escapes are infrequent despite minimal security at Casa San Juan, Murillo said, adding that authorities decided to house the Chinese immigrants at the facility because they are not dangerous lawbreakers.

“These are not criminals,” Murillo said. “We try to treat people humanely. . . . They seem to have demonstrated that we need to treat them humanely, but with a little bit more security.”

In the last few weeks the border region has experienced a string of dramatic, sometimes bizarre events generated by increased overseas smuggling of Chinese.

On Friday, about 200 Chinese immigrants awaiting deportation from Mexico bolted past police guards at the Mexicali airport; at least 112 trekked across the border and were caught by the U.S. Border Patrol.

About 30 more of the group--who were first arrested by Mexican police last month after a clandestine landing near Ensenada--eluded capture on both sides of the border, according to Paul Villanueva, assistant chief of the Border Patrol in El Centro.

The mass escape in Mexicali came two days after the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the Golden Dragon, a dilapidated Taiwanese fishing trawler, off the San Diego coast and discovered 189 passengers from mainland China’s coastal Fujian province.

Most of the illegal immigrants apparently made the two-month voyage in hopes of reaching New York or Los Angeles, according to immigration officials. The Coast Guard had tracked the ship since it was turned back from Mexican waters by a Mexican navy vessel a few days earlier.

The Golden Dragon’s crew and suspected smugglers face alien smuggling charges. The male passengers were transported to the INS detention center in El Centro pending court proceedings.

But authorities placed 18 female passengers, ranging in age from 14 to 34, in Casa San Juan, which is operated by Catholic Community Services.

About 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, when detainees were supposed to be in their rooms for the night, 16 of the women opened a sliding patio door, scaled a fence and fled, officials said.

Within the next few hours, police and immigration agents hunted down nine escapees on the streets within a few miles of the home. Officials decided to transfer them to a more secure detention center in the Los Angeles area, Murillo said.

The other seven were being sought by INS agents, who can only speculate about their destinations and whether they have sought outside help, Murillo said, noting that the immigrants had access to a telephone during their stay.

“I would assume they would go to wherever their destination was,” Murillo said. “I am not sure whether they would try to do it without an accomplished guide.”