The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream (61 page)

237
The church helped the women:
Chang, “Freedom Dreams.”

237
There was one last option:
Interview with Craig Trebilcock, October 28, 2005; the case was Yang You Yi, et al. v. Janet Reno, 852 F.Supp.316 (1994).

238
“You want a Chinese guy?”:
Interview with Joan Maruskin, July 17, 2008.

238
Several of the passengers went:
“Hunger Strike in York,”
Golden Vision Newsletter
, May 18, 1994.

238
A prison guard caught one:
Melissa Robinson, “Jailed Chinese Aliens Fear Deportation,” Associated Press, January 8, 1994.

238
The inmates were given:
Undated letter from Dong Xu Zhi to Joan Maruskin.

238.
One man developed a tumor:
Julia Duin, “Chinese Waste Away in U.S. Jails After Fleeing Population Control,”
Washington Times
, December 17, 1996; Caryl Clarke, “Friends Say Detainee Complained of Stomach Pains for Two Year,”
York Daily Record
, February 28, 1996.

239.
As seemed so often:
Interview with Sean Chen, June 5, 2008; Robin son, “Jailed Chinese Aliens Fear Deportation.”

239
One of the passengers:
Caryl Clarke, “Even in Freedom, There Is Fear for Many Chinese Immigrants,”
York Daily Record
, December 27, 1996.

240
One of the York detainees:
The judge was Clarease Rankin, a Philadelphia immigration judge. Dele Olojede, “America—At Any Cost,”
Newsday
, July 19, 1998.

240
While Wang was being held:
Ibid.

240
Wang was devastated:
Ibid.

240
Wang had been home:
Ibid.; William Branigin, “Officials Seize ‘Mother Ship’ Used to Smuggle Chinese Men,”
Washington Post
, June 12, 1998.

240
Some days later:
Celia Dugger, “Sent Back to China, Man Washes Up Again,”
New York Times
, June 4, 1998.

241
The INS immediately moved:
David W. Chen, “INS Moves to Deport Persistent Illegal Immigrant a 2d Time,”
New York Times
, June 12, 1998.

241
But in one final:
David W. Chen, “Chinese Mans Release Ends a Five-Year Tale of Misfortune,”
New York Times
, September 10, 1998.

241
This was nowhere:
Interview with Joan Maruskin, July 17, 2008.

241
One day in York County Prison:
Unless otherwise indicated, details about Yang You Yi and the paper-folding in York County Prison are drawn from an interview with Yang You Yi, July 23, 2008.

242
They presented Bev Church:
Interview with Beverly Church, December 11, 2005.

242
Before long the detainees:
Interview with Cindy Lobach, July 22, 2008.

242
As word spread:
Interview with Joan Maruskin, July 17, 2008; interview with Cindy Lobach, July 22, 2008.

243
Soon the proprietor:
It was the Frank J. Miele gallery. Caryl Clarke, “‘I Really Wish I Could Have Art for Everybody,’”
York Daily Record
, February 20, 1997.

243
Life
ran an article:
Charles Hirsh-berg, “Folded Dreams,”
Life
, July 1996.

243
“There’s some intelligent people here”:
Duin, “Hopes Frustrated, Refugees from China Languish in Jail.”

243
The detainees at York:
Interview with Cindy Lobach, July 22, 2008.

243
Pieces ended up:
Fisher, “A Towns Strange Bedfellows.”

243
A traveling exhibit:
“Fly to Freedom: The Art of the
Golden Venture
Refugees,” an exhibit in the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, June 8–September 30, 2001.

243.
Several of the most talented sculptors:
See Isabelle de Pommereau, “For One Refugee, Sculpture Paves the Way to Freedom,”
Christian Science Monitor
, October 21, 1996; and Clarke, “I Really Wish I Could Have Art for Everybody.’” Yang You Yi was given a visa for his artistic ability, but it was later rescinded by the INS on the grounds that after being released from prison he had not continued to enjoy the kind of media acclaim for his art work that he did while he was in the prison at York. Interview with Yang You Yi, July 23, 2008.

244.
The men clipped the “Made in America” stamps:
Isabelle de Pommereau, “Chinese Refugees Turn Waiting into an Art Form,”
Christian Science Monitor
, May 30, 1996.

244
After one of the men:
June Shih, “Immigration Papers,”
Washington City Paper
, May 10, 2001.

CHAPTER 14: THE GOLDFISH AND THE GREAT WALL

The account of Mr. Charlie’s capture is based primarily on interviews with Mark Riordan, Karen Pace, and Mona Foreman. The descriptions of Changle, of Sister Ping’s village, and of the impunity with which Sister Ping was able to operate in China are based on a research trip to Fujian Province and interviews with acquaintances of Sister Ping’s and local Chinese officials. The story of the Goldfish Case draws extensively on Judge Orrick’s opinion in the case, as cited in the notes. The Hong Kong meeting between Ah Kay and the prosecutors was described for me by four of the participants: Luke Rettler, Chauncey Parker, Tom Trautman, and Gerry Shargel.

245
By 1995, only two figures:
Interview with Karen Pace and Mona Foreman, June 19, 2007.

245
The other was Mr. Charlie:
Interview with Mark Riordan, June 7, 2007.

245.
Mark Riordan, the Bangkok-based:
Unless otherwise noted, details of Mark Riordan’s efforts to track down Mr. Charlie are drawn from interviews with Mark Riordan, June 7, 2007, and May 20, 2008.

246
It was beginning to seem:
Philip Shenon, “Suspect in
Golden Venture
Case Was Leading a Life of Luxury,”
New York Times
, November 19, 1995.

247
On a muggy day:
David Stout, “Suspected Organizer of
Golden Venture
Operation Is Arrested,”
New York Times
, November 18, 1995; Shenon, “Suspect in
Golden Venture
Case Was Leading a Life of Luxury.”

247
Mr. Charlie was eventually extradited:
Brief for the defendant appellant, Lee Peng Fei, in United States v. Fei, 225 F.3d 167, before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, October 1, 1999.

247
He was sentenced:
Interview with Jodi Avergun, May 24, 2007; Mae Cheng, “Mastermind in Smuggling Plot Gets Twenty-Year Term,”
Newsday
, December 2, 1998.

248
“This case demonstrates”:
Stout, “Suspected Organizer of
Golden Venture
Operation Is Arrested.”

248
“He is not a general”:
Ibid.

248
Sister Ping’s movements:
Barnes, “Two-Faced Woman;” Ying Chan,

“Smuggler ‘Queen’ Is Out of Biz,”
New York Daily News
, January 19, 1995; interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

248
During the thirteen years:
Burdman, “Back Home in China.” Burdman visited Shengmei in the fall of 1993.

249
Eventually the village saw:
Author visit to Shengmei.

249
In the wake:
Kwong,
Forbidden Workers
, p. 60.

249
In Sister Ping’s village:
Burdman, “Back Home in China.”

249
At a major intersection:
Author visit to Changle.

250
Everyone knew where she was:
Confidential interview, Changle, China, March 2008.

250
At the FBI in New York:
Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005.

251
In the spring of 1988:
Unless otherwise indicated, details related to the Goldfish Case and the subsequent fallout are drawn from the comprehensive summary of the facts in Judge William Orrick’s opinion in Wang Zong Xiao v. Janet Reno, 837 F.Supp. 1506 (1993).

252
A mistrial was declared:
Harriet Chiang, “Officials Tied to Drug Case Return to China,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, February 13, 1990.

252.
The Justice Department’s Office:
Jim McGee, “Perils of International Partnerships,”
Washington Post
, May 28, 1996.

253.
In his application for asylum:
Pamela MacLean, “Chinese Drug Smuggling Witness Defects,” United Press International, February 6, 1990.

253
Officials in Beijing were irate:
Harriet Chiang, “China Assails U.S. for Allowing Drug Witness to Seek Asylum,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, February 9, 1990.

253
Wang remained in the United States:
Robert Gearty, “Life and Death in Fishbowl; Chinese Connection to Jan. Slaying Here,”
New York Daily News
, July 7, 2003; Robert Gearty, “170 Learn Agony of Ecstasy Bust,”
New York Daily News
, April 1, 2004.

253
But the most damaging legacy:
Constance Hays, “Drug Case Derails U.S.-China Law Tie,”
New York Times
, February 20, 1994.

253
When Judge Orrick declared:
Bob Egelko, “Judge Orders Mistrial After Witness Says He Lied,” Associated Press, February 15, 1990.

253
During a blizzard:
Unless otherwise indicated, details of Rettler’s experience on the trip to Hong Kong are drawn from interviews with Luke Rettler, December 5, 2005, July 26, 2007, and May 30, 2008.

254
There was an expression:
Confidential source.

254
“I feel like a failure”:
Ibid.

254
For his meeting:
Interview with Gerald Shargel, July 14, 2008. For a terrific profile of Shargel, see Frederic Dannen, “Defending the Mafia,”
The New Yorker
, February 21, 1994.

255
Rettler was impressed:
Interview with Luke Rettler, July 26, 2007.

255
Shargel had insisted:
Interview with Gerald Shargel, July 14, 2008.

255
Rettler found it telling:
Shargel confirmed to me that he did indeed visit his tailor during the trip to be fitted for a suit. (“I never go to Hong Kong and come back without a suit,” he said.)

256
Perhaps most significantly:
Letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Brown to Judge Michael B. Mukasey, re: United States v. Qui Liang Qi, aka “Ah Kay,” S3 93 CR. 783, August 2, 2005.

CHAPTER 15: PAROLE

This chapter is based primarily on interviews with numerous
Golden Venture
passengers who were detained in York,
as cited in the notes, and with members of the community in York who were involved in securing and facilitating the release in 1997. Much of the description of the celebration at the church following the passengers’ release is drawn from videotaped footage that was taken during the festivities.

257
On September 30, 1996:
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Public Law No. 104-208. For a discussion of the legislative maneuvering between 1994 and 1996 that culminated in the act, see Philip G. Schrag,
A Well-Founded Fear: The Congressional Battle to Save Political Asylum in America
(New York: Rout-ledge, 2000). While some critics believe that the law was excessively draconian, others argue that despite some measures designed to curb the snakehead business, the one-child provision in the law would nevertheless continue to serve as an inducement to Chinese to come illegally. See Cleo J. Kung, “Supporting the Snakeheads: Human Smuggling from China and the 1996 Amendment to the U.S. Statutory Definition of ‘Refugee,’
” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
(Summer 2000).

257
Bill Clinton had been forced:
Eric Schmitt, “Milestones and Missteps on Immigration,”
New York Times
, October 26, 1996.

258
Before the bill was passed:
Section 601 of the IIRIRA amended the Immigration and Nationality Act by adding the following language: “[A] person who has been forced to abort a pregnancy or to undergo involuntary sterilization, or who has been persecuted for failure or refusal to undergo such a procedure as for other resistance to a coercive population control program, shall be deemed to have been persecuted on account of political opinion, and a person who has a well founded fear that he or she will be forced to undergo such a procedure or subject to persecution for such failure, refusal, or resistance shall be deemed to have a well founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion.”

258
An attorney for the Lawyers:
Celia Dugger, “Dozens of Chinese from 1993 Voyage Still in Jail,”
New York Times
, February 3, 1997.

259
“Dear President Clinton”:
Undated letter,
Golden Venture
detainees to President Bill Clinton.

259
When their lawyers:
Interview with Craig Trebilcock, July 23, 2008; interview with Jeff Lobach, July 24, 2008.

259.
At a certain point:
Interview with Joan Maruskin, July 22, 2008.

260.
After the speech:
Julia Duin, “Goodling’s Efforts Led to Freedom for Chinese Refugees,”
Washington Times
, March 2, 1997.

260
“Mr. President”:
Celia Dugger, “Chinese Immigrants from Stranded Ship Are to Be Released,”
New York Times
, February 15, 1997.

260
Just over a week later:
Ibid.

260
“Four years is an awfully long time”:
Duin, “Goodling’s Efforts Led to Freedom.”