89 In fact, well before the drowning: Unless otherwise indicated, all material relating to Patrick Devine’s investigation of Sister Ping derives from an interview with Patrick Devine, June 12, 2007.
90 Devine told the Swiftwater investigators: INS memorandum of investigation, “Operation Rounder,” January 25, 1989.
90 “The organization appears”: INS, “Operation Swiftwater.”
90 Then suddenly: Details of Larry Hays undercover operation at the Toronto airport are drawn from an interview with Larry Hay, December 23, 2005, Larry Hays testimony in the Sister Ping trial, and the personal notes that Hay took following the incident at the airport on March 28, 1989, a copy of which he gave to me.
90.Then she and her daughter: United States v. Tommy Kong, CR 89 46 A (WDNY), Memorandum of Law by AUSA Kathleen Mehltretter, November 3, 1989.
91.Several months later: Interview with Larry Hay, December 23, 2005.
91 After she was transferred: Interview with Patrick Devine, June 12, 2007.
91 Sister Ping did not want: Ibid.
91 Finally, on June 27: Defendants proposed statement of admitted facts, United States v. Chui-Ping Cheng, CR 89 46A (Buffalo, NY), June 27, 1990.
91 A few weeks later: Rule 40 affidavit by INS Agent Peter Hoelter, U.S. v. Yick Tak Cheung, aka “Billy,” 89 CR 113, July 11, 1989.
91 Paul and his wife: INS, “Operation Swiftwater.”
91 He was different: Interview with Patrick Devine, June 12, 2007.
91 But many of the investigators: Ibid. Bill McMurry also expressed the view that because Sister Ping almost always ended up being behind whatever criminal activity her husband engaged in, the likelihood that Yick Tak had somehow independently developed his own smuggling route in partnership with Sister Ping’s brother-in-law and that Sister Ping did not play some guiding role in the operation was exceedingly low.
92 In September a Buffalo federal judge: “Alien-Smuggler,” Canadian Press, September 11, 1990.
92 “I knew what I did”: Ibid.
92 She volunteered again: Sentencing hearing, United States v. Chui-Ping Cheng, CR 89 46A, June 20, 1991.
92 She gave Devine: Interview with Patrick Devine, June 12, 2007.
92 Nevertheless, the government: Sentencing hearing, United States v. Chui-Ping Cheng.
92 “I’m either the fourth”: Ibid.
93 Goldenberg pointed to: Defendant’s statement concerning sentence reduction, United States v. Chui-Ping Cheng, CR 89 46A (Buffalo, NY), May 20, 1991.
93 The prosecutor objected: Sentencing hearing, United States v. Chui-Ping Cheng.
93 But the incident wasn’t: Ibid.
93 When her lawyers: Ibid.
93.In March 1991: “Smuggler of Illegal Aliens Sentenced,” Associated Press, March 26, 1991.
94.Even so, Yick Tak somehow: Docket in U.S. v. Cheung Yick Tak, a/k/a “Billy,” 89 CR 113.
94 She hated it: Interview with Special Agent Peter Lee, FBI, January 31, 2006.
94 She was bitter: Sister Ping sentencing remarks.
94 Goldenberg had asked: Defendant’s statement concerning sentence reduction, United States v. Chui-Ping Cheng.
94 She did have one regular: Interview with Peter Lee, January 31, 2006.
95 “Sister Ping had to keep working”: Interview with Patrick Devine, June 12, 2007.
95 Upon her release: Written declaration of Special Agent Peter Lee in a sealed federal criminal complaint against Cheng Chui Ping and Cheng Yick Tak, Southern District of New York, December 1994.
CHAPTER 6: YEAR OF THE SNAKE
This chapter is based on interviews with current and former officials from the FBI, the INS, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as interviews in Fujian and Chinatown with individuals who came illegally to the United States during the years in question or had other encounters with the snakehead trade. On the growth of the human smuggling business, I relied on the records of several congressional investigations, which are cited in the notes. On the partnership between Sister Ping and the Fuk Ching gang, I drew on the testimony during Sister Ping’s trial of Weng Yu Hui and Ah Kay, as well as Ah Kay’s deputies Cho Yee Yeung and Li Xing Hua. Ah Kay’s testimony in another trial, United States v. Zhang Zi Da and Zhang Zi Mei, 96 CR 44 (1996), was also valuable.
97 The most widely reproduced: See Dana Calvo, “Profile in Courage,” Smithsonian Magazine, January 19, 2004.
97 On June 5: Secretary of States Morning Summary for June 5, 1989, declassified and released by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
98 Bush had assumed: Unless otherwise noted, material on George H. W. Bush’s experience in China and his reaction to the events at Tiananmen Square is drawn from George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Vintage, 1998), pp. 90–99.
99 Bush’s commitment to harboring: Executive Order 12711, “Policy Implementation with Respect to Nationals of the People’s Republic of China,” April 11, 1990. The text of the order reads:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, the Attorney General and the Secretary of State are hereby ordered to exercise their authority, including that under the Immigration and Nationality Act), as follows:
Section 1. The Attorney General is directed to take any steps necessary to defer until January 1, 1994, the enforced departure of all nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and their dependents who were in the United States on or after June 5, 1989, up to and including the date of this order (hereinafter “such PRC nationals”).
Sec. 2. The Secretary of State and the Attorney General are directed to take all steps necessary with respect to such PRC nationals (a) to waive through January 1, 1994, the requirement of a valid passport and (b) to process and provide necessary documents, both within the United States and at U.S. consulates overseas, to facilitate travel across the borders of other nations and reentry into the United States in the same status such PRC nationals had upon departure.
Sec. 3. The Secretary of State and the Attorney General are directed to provide the following protections:
(a).irrevocable waiver of the 2-year home country residence requirement that may be exercised until January 1, 1994, for such PRC nationals;
(b).maintenance of lawful status for purposes of adjustment of status or change of nonimmigrant status for such PRC nationals who were in lawful status at any time on or after June 5, 1989, up to and including the date of this order;
(c) authorization for employment of such PRC nationals through January 1, 1994; and
(d) notice of expiration of nonimmigrant status (if applicable) rather than the institution of deportation proceedings, and explanation of options available for such PRC nationals eligible for deferral of enforced departure whose nonimmigrant status has expired.
Sec. 4. The Secretary of State and the Attorney General are directed to provide for enhanced consideration under the immigration laws for individuals from any country who express a fear of persecution upon return to their country related to that country’s policy of forced abortion or coerced sterilization, as implemented by the Attorney Generals regulation effective January 29, 1990.
Sec. 5. The Attorney General is directed to ensure that the Immigration and Naturalization Service finalizes and makes public its position on the issue of training for individuals in F-1 visa status and on the issue of reinstatement into lawful nonimmigrant status of such PRC nationals who have withdrawn their applications for asylum.
Sec. 6. The Departments of Justice and State are directed to consider other steps to assist such PRC nationals in their efforts to utilize the protections that I have extended pursuant to this order.
Sec. 7. This order shall be effective immediately.
George Bush
The White House,
April 11, 1990
99 There were roughly: John Pomfret, “Smuggled Chinese Enrich Homeland, Gangs,” Washington Post, January 24, 1999.
99.Reports f
rom inside: See Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 339–60. For further material on the history of China’s one-child policy, see Susan Greenhalgh and Edwin A. Winckler, Governing China’s Population: From Leninist to Neoliberal Biopolitics (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005); and Tyrene White, China’s Longest Campaign: Birth Planning in the People’s Republic, 1949–2005 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006).
100.The effects of the order: Malcolm Gladwell and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger, “U.S. Policy Seen Encouraging Wave of Chinese Immigration,” Washington Post, June 13, 1993.
100 “The Fujianese thank two people”: Interview with Philip Lam, November 9, 2005.
101 It was said in New York’s Chinatown: Interview with Dr. Tang Xiao Xiong in Fuzhou, China, February 21, 2008. Dr. Tang lived in New York’s Chinatown during the years in question and ran a medical practice that catered to the city’s undocumented Fujianese.
101 The number of Chinese nationals: “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 418.
101 “Everybody went crazy”: Sing Tao Daily, December 2, 1996, as quoted in Chin, Smuggled Chinese, p. 9.
101 Over the past half-century: United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR Resettlement Handbook. Available at UNHCR.org.
101 In the past thirty-five years alone: Ellen R. Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, “Providing Help and Hope Around the World,” Foreign Policy Agenda 12, no. 2 (February 2007): 51.
101 In fact, of the top thirteen countries: United Nations High Commission for Refugees, “Refugees by Numbers, 2006 Edition” (pamphlet). The United States accepted 53,813 refugees in 2006. The next twelve countries—in order, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Brazil, and Chile—accepted a total of 26,889.
102 The United Nations established: United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951; United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1967.
102 More people were seeking: Christopher Dickey, “Carter Seeking Major Revision of Refugee Laws,” Washington Post, March 8, 1979.
102 With the Refugee Act of 1980: See 8 U.S.C. §1101(a)(42) and 8 U.S.C. §1157 (a)(1).
102 They were less concerned: David M. Riemers, Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), p. 201.
102 The law envisioned: The 5,000 figure technically refers not to the anticipated number of people who will be granted asylum each year but to the number of asylees who will be granted permanent citizenship. For a full account of the legislative history of the act, see Edward M. Kennedy, “Refugee Act of 1980,” International Migration Review (Spring/Summer, 1981): 141–56.
102 Almost immediately: Riemers, Still the Golden Door, p. 201.
102 By the time the Bush executive order: Ira H. Mehlman, “The New Jet Set,” National Review, March 15, 1993.
103 If you showed up: Ibid.
103 Immigration officials didn’t have: Gladwell and Stassen-Berger, “U.S. Policy Seen Encouraging Wave of Chinese Immigration.”
103 The INS had historically: Confidential interview with a former INS official.
Gene McNary, who ran: Joel Brinkley, “At Immigration, Disarray and Defeat,” New York Times, September 11, 1994.
Bill Slattery, the INS’s district director: Unless otherwise noted, material on Slattery is drawn from an interview with Bill Slattery, July 7, 2008.
104 When he took the job: Vivienne Walt, “Aliens at the Gate; New York’s INS Director Cracks Down,” Newsday, November 29, 1993.
104 “The aliens have taken control”: Tim Weiner, “Pleas for Asylum Inundate Immigration System,” New York Times, April 25, 1993.
104 Slattery thought of the aliens: George E. Curry, “Masses Find JFK Airport Is Passageway to Illegal Entry,” Chicago Tribune, February 23, 1992.
104 “If I have someone from China”: Mehlman, “The New Jet Set.”
104 Twelve million people: “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 195.
And by 1992: Mehlman, “The New Jet Set.” “Prove to us that they’re Chinese”: Confidential interview with an immigration official.
105 Each time an arrival: Mehlman, “The New Jet Set.”
105 The airport had a small: Ted Conover, “The United States of Asylum,” New York Times Magazine, September 19, 1993.
105 “It’s not like they’re trying”: Bill Slattery, quoted in CBS News transcript, “Move to Call for a Moratorium on Immigration in America,” July 4, 1993.
105 Someone could arrive at JFK: “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 195.
105 The snakeheads knew this: Mehlman, “The New Jet Set;” Ah Kay testimony, Zhang Zi trial.
106 One Hong Kong triad: Greg Torode, “Triads Use HK Agency for Illegals,” South China Morning Post, March 15,.1993. See also “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 190.
106 One reason for this: Interview with Neville Cramer, a former INS official, June 1, 2007.
106 In the midnineties, a federal working group: Presidential Initiative to Deter Alien Smuggling, “Report of the Interagency Working Group,” 1995.
106 But James Woolsey: Paul J. Smith, “Illegal Chinese Immigrants Everywhere,” International Herald Tribune, June 28, 1996. Another article, Jim Mann, Christine Courtney, and Susan Essoyan, “Chinese Refugees Take to High Seas,” Los Angeles Times, March 16,.1993, cites “INS and State Department officials” who also estimated the number at 100,000 a year.
106 One senior immigration official: Gwen Kinkead, Chinatown: Portrait of a Closed Society (New York: Perennial, 1993), p. 160.
106 Sources within China’s own Public Security Bureau: Marlowe Hood, “The Taiwan Connection,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, October 9, 1994.
106 The NYPD estimated: Kwong, Forbidden Workers, p. 82.
107 One expert on the snakehead trade: Willard Myers, “Transnational Ethnic Chinese Organized Crime: A Global Challenge to the Security of the United States, Analysis and Recommendations,” testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations, April 24, 1994.
107 That would make it roughly comparable: Pamela Burdman, “How Gangsters Cash In on Human Smuggling,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 1993.
107 Other estimates place: Dele Olojede, “America at Any Cost,” Newsday, July 19, 1998.
107 According to Peter Kwong: Kwong, Forbidden Workers, p. 33.
107 After he was deported: Ah Kay testimony, Sister Ping trial.
107 On his journey back to America: Ah Kay testimony, Zhang Zi trial.
107 Most people in New York’s Chinatown: Ashley Dunn, “After Crackdown, Smugglers of Chinese Find New Routes,” New York Times, November 1, 1994. The year 1991 also tended to be the consensus date that emerged in conversations I had with people over three years of research in Chinatown about the advent of boat smuggling.
107 But an INS Anti-Smuggling Unit memo: INS, “Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal.”
108 In some cases: Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.
108 What is clear: Mann, Courtney, and Essoyan, “Chinese Refugees Take to High Seas;” Pamela Burden, “Human Smuggling Ships Linked to One Huge Ring,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 1993; Hood, “The Taiwan Connection.”
108 Some have connected: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, “Background Briefing by Senior Administration Officials” (Rand Beers and Donsia Strong), June 18, 1993; Seth Faison, “Crackdown Fails to Stem Smuggling of Chinese to U.S.,” New York Times, August 23, 1993.
108 The snakeheads called the boats: Blatt, “Recent Trends in the Smuggling of Chinese.”
109 Thailand is extravagantly corrupt: Interview with Colonel Jaruvat Vasaya of the Royal Thai Police, March 13, 2007; interview with Colonel Ponsraser Ganjanarintr of the Royal Thai Police, March 13, 2007; interview with Mark Riordan, form
erly of the INS, June 7, 2007.
109 By 1992, U.S. authorities: Interview with Mark Riordan, June 7, 2007.
109 American document experts: Confidential interview with a former INS investigator.
109 Until that point, Bangkok had been: See James Dao and Ying Chan, “Thai City Hub on Smuggle Route to U.S.,” New York Daily News, September 24, 1990.
109.But when authorities: Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.
110.Between August 1991: Chin, Smuggled Chinese, p. 4.
110 Dating back to 1989: Interview with Luke Rettler, May 30, 2008.
110 But Ah Kay had watched: Ah Kay testimony, Zhang Zi trial.
110.Ah Kay called the process: Ah Kay testimony, Sister Ping trial.
111.Occasionally a passenger would jump: Testimony of Cho Yee Yeung in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Cho Yee Yeung testimony, Sister Ping trial).
111 By the summer of 1992: Ibid.
111 Ah Kay was ferociously: Confidential source.
111 One day in August 1992: Testimony of Li Xing Hua in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Li Xing Hua testimony, Sister Ping trial).
111 A month after the raft: Chan and Dao, “Merchants of Misery.”
112 In 1990 a Chinatown journalist: Ibid.
112 Sister Ping was angered: Sister Ping sentencing remarks.
112 By 1991 a Senate subcommittee: “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 189.
112 Shortly after Ah Kay: The account of Sister Ping’s meeting with Ah Kay is drawn from the testimony at Sister Ping’s trial of Ah Kay, Cho Yee Yeung, and Li Xing Hua.
113 On the night of September 21: Cho Yee Yeung testimony, Sister Ping trial.
113 The night after the pickup: Unless otherwise noted, the account of John Marcelinos observation of the New Bedford smuggling operation is drawn from testimony of John Q. Marcelino III in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter John Marcelino testimony, Sister Ping trial).
114 The U-Hauls proceeded: Li Xing Hua testimony, Sister Ping trial.
114 She sent Yick Tak: Cho Yee Yeung testimony, Sister Ping trial.
The Snakehead Page 41
