53 Chinese Held by INS Are Freed

Fifty-three Chinese nationals jailed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service since 1993 are being released, the Clinton administration announced. The 53 had been awaiting decisions on their requests for political asylum since the freighter trying to smuggle them into the United States ran aground off New York City in June 1993. Ten of the 277 passengers aboard the Golden Venture died trying to swim ashore. Many of the survivors asked for political asylum from China’s policy of one child per family after being taken into custody by the INS. They claimed their opposition to forced abortion and forced sterilization as grounds for permission to stay in the United States.