The Snakehead

by Patrick Radden Keefe

  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.”

  260 The following day: Ibid.

  260 Beverly Church was at the prison: Interview with Beverly Church, December 11, 2005.

  260 Joan Maruskin received a call: Interview with Joan Maruskin, July 17, 2008.

  260 When the news reached Craig: Interview with Craig Trebilcock, October 5, 2005.

  261 On February 26, 1997: Unless otherwise noted, these details are drawn from a long videotape of the events in question, filmed by Joan Maruskin on February 26, 1997.

  261 There had been a run: Interview with Cindy Lobach, July 22, 2008.

  261 Someone had brought: Ying Chan, “Refugees’ Golden Day,” New York Daily News, February 27, 1997.

  262 The whole community: Interview with Margo Einsig, July 22, 2008.

  263 A local woman named Ann Wolcott: Interviews with Ann Wolcott, July 22 and 23, 2008.

  263 For many of the most ambitious: Interview with Golden Venture passenger Chen Guilin, November 22, 2005. For a fascinating look at Guilin’s life as a delivery guy in suburban Pennsylvania, see Peter Cohn’s 2006 film, Golden Venture.

  264 “If I can leave here”: Ted Anthony, “Chinese Detainees Hounded by Government and Gangs,” Associated Press, December 11, 1994.

  264 Toward the end of the 1990s: The precise origins of the Chinatown buses are somewhat murky, inasmuch as there were no companies operating in 1997 and at least three by the end of 1998, but there is general agreement that Fung Wah was the first company. The founder of Fung Wah, Pei Lin Liang, is not Fujianese; he is a former music teacher who came to America from Guangdong Province in 1988.

  265 The Fujianese are great imitators: For an extraordinary article on the microeconomy that emerged around the intersection in Lower Manhattan where many of the buses take on passengers, see Saki Knafo, “Dreams and Desperation on Forsyth Street,” New York Times, June 8, 2008.

  265 A price war: Michael Luo, “In Chinatown, a $10 Trip Means War,” New York Times, February 21, 2004.

  265 As word spread: In 1999, during my last year as an undergraduate at Columbia, I was one of those college kids.

  265 Some pointed out: See, for instance, Fiona Ng, “A Crash in Pennsylvania, and a Cloud over Mott Street,” New York Times, June 10, 2007; “34 Hurt, Driver Cited for Fung Wah Bus Rollover in Auburn,” Associated Press, September 6, 2006; Casey Ross, “Flames Engulf Fung Wah Bus in Connecticut,” Boston Herald, August 17, 2005; Michael Wilson and Al Baker, “Cheap Buses from Chinatown Get Riders, and Concerns,” New York Times, February 16, 2003.

  265 There were other reasons: See, for instance, William Rashbaum, “Man Shot Dead in Chinatown Was Involved in Bus Rivalry,” New York Times, May 11, 2003; Michael Wilson, “Fatal Stabbing Linked to Chinatown Bus Business,” New York Times, November 1, 2003.

  265 Eventually mighty Greyhound: By 2006 Greyhound had cut its prices by more than 50 percent to $15 one way from New York to Boston, which happened to match the Fung Wah price during the same period. Greyhound denied that it was worried about competition from Chinatown buses, though it seems worth noting that in 2003 the bus line also introduced a free round-trip shuttle between Port Authority and Chinatown. See Steve Kurutz, “Urban Tactics: Enter the Dragon Coach,” New York Times, January 12, 2003.

  266 They ended up: Bill Cahir, “Congress Leaves Refugees in Limbo,” New-house News Service, November 29, 2002.

  266 They went to work: Michael Chen works in Dublin, Ohio. For Normal, Illinois, see Lara Jakes Jordan, “After H
orror and Hardship, Chinese Refugees Still Waiting for Permission to Stay,” Associated Press, February 1, 2003.

  266 Michael Chen, one of the most: Interview with Michael Chen, December 17, 2005; Patrick Radden Keefe, “The Snakehead,” The New Yorker, April 24, 2006.

  266 Less successful was Dong Xu Zhi: Interview with Dong Xu Zhi, December 18, 2005.

  266.Yang You Yi, the detainee: Unless otherwise noted, details regarding Yang You Yi are drawn from an interview with Yang You Yi and David Kline, July 23, 2008.

  267 Yang worked sixty hours: Julia Duin, “Quests for Freedom Yield Only Limbo,” Washington Times, February 1, 2000.

  268 Clinton had used his power: Interview with Craig Trebilcock, October 28, 2005.

  268 When Yang You Yi’s wife: Interview with Yang You Yi, July 23, 2008; Caryl Clarke, “Spending Ten Years Apart from Their Family, a Chinese Family Now Adapts to Living in Red Lion,” York Daily Record, June 30, 2002.

  268 Beverly Church remained close: Interviews with Beverly Church, December 11, 2005, and June 5, 2007; Caryl Clarke, “No Admittance?” York Daily Record, October 3, 1993; Anna Dubrovsky and Barbara Barrett, “The Search for Asylum Endures,” York Daily Record, February 13, 1998; Allison Klein, “Recovered Gun Believed Used in Killing,” Washington Post, September 22, 2005; Shepherd Pittman, “Mother Mourning Girl’s Slaying May Return to China,” Washington Times, October 5, 2005; Allison Klein, “A Gruesome Year Leaves Scores of Sad Mysteries,” Washington Post, January 12, 2006.

  271 Sean Chen had been luckier: Unless otherwise indicated, details of Sean Chens release and his experiences after prison are drawn from interviews with Sean Chen on February 6, 2008, and June 5, 2008.

  271 He had walked out: Order from Judge Sylvia H. Rambo in Sing Chou Chung v. Janet Reno, 1:CV-93-1702, June 6, 1995; order of release on conditional bond for Sing Chow Chung, August 25, 1995; Caryl Clarke, “Detainee Argues for Bail,” York Daily Record, July 20, 1995.

  272 When he wanted: This is true not just of the Fujianese but of the Chinese in general. See Sowell, Migrations and Cultures, p. 229.

  CHAPTER 16: SNAKEHEADS INTERNATIONAL

  This chapter draws on interviews with current and former immigration officials who worked with Jerry Stuchiner; the testimony at Sister Ping’s trial of Kenny Feng, her Guatemalan associate; an interview with Jerry Stuchiner; and several comprehensive articles about Stuchiner and his investigation of Canales, most notably Larmer and Liu’s Newsweek piece and Anthony DeStefano’s “Destination: Queens.”

  274 One summer day in 1995: Details of Jerry Stuchiner’s investigation into Gloria Canales are drawn from Larmer and Liu, “Smuggling People;” and Anthony DeStefano, “Destination: Queens,” Newsday, June 2, 1996.

  275 He was not happy with the move: Larmer and Liu, “Smuggling People.”

  275 Still, Stuchiner did his best: Ibid.

  275 Just as Stuchiner was arriving: For a good summary of the scandal, see Geraldo Reyes and Juan O. Tamayo, “Honduras Gave Passports to China Refugees for Cash,” Knight-Ridder, March 17, 1997.

  276 In 1995 alone: William Branigin, “Immigrant Trafficking Dealt Blow; Arrested Costa Rican Allegedly Smuggled Thousands into U.S.,” Washington Post, December 26, 1995.

  277.That year a federal working group: William Branigin, “Report to Clinton Urges Global Attack on Growing Trade in Alien-Smuggling,” Washington Post, December 28, 1995.

  277 When Stuchiner cracked: For a useful overview of the Canales case and its significance, see Anthony M. De-Stefano, “Immigrant Smuggling Through Central America and the Caribbean,” in Smith, Human Smuggling. 277 At that time Honduras: Branigin, “Immigrant Trafficking Dealt Blow.”

  277.When Canales arrived: Ibid.

  278.“If this isthmus”: DeStefano, “Destination: Queens.”

  278 “These new international criminals”: Pamela Burdman, “Inside the Chinese Smuggling Rings,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 23, 1993.

  278 By the late nineties: Pomfret, “Smuggled Chinese Enrich Homeland, Gangs.”

  278 Many of these people: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2005.

  278.It was no longer feasible: Ashley Dunn, “After Crackdown, Smugglers of Chinese Find New Routes,” New York Times, November 1, 1994.

  279.Throughout the 1990s: These routes are included in “Asian Organized Crime,” p. 490.

  279 When snakeheads discovered: Hannah Beech, “Trafficking in Human Dreams,” Time, April 20, 2007.

  279 After sanctions were imposed: Misha Glenny, McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (New York: Knopf, 2008), p. 322.

  279 All the snakeheads needed: Moisés Naím, Illicit (New York: Doubleday, 2005), p. 27.

  279 A handful of snakeheads: Prepared remarks of Attorney General John Ashcroft, U.S. Border Patrol—Native American Border Security Conference, January 17, 2002; Department of Justice press release, “U.S. Cripples Major International Chinese Alien Smuggling Operation,” December 10, 1998.

  280 Snakeheads started sending: See, for example, Kim Murphy, “Smuggling of Chinese Ends in a Box of Death,” Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2000; “L.A. Port Officials Find 32 People from China in Containers,” Associated Press, January 16, 2005.

  280 Throughout the late 1990s: Virginia Kice, a Los Angeles–based spokeswoman for ICE, quoted in Lornet Turnbull, Kristi Heim, Sara Jean Green, and Sanjay Bhatt, “Fifteen Days in a Metal Box, to Be Locked Up,” Seattle Times, April 6, 2006.

  280 A young Fujianese woman: Tony Thompson, “Snakehead Empress Who Made Millions Trafficking in Misery,” Observer (UK), July 6, 2003; Kim Sengupta, “On the Trail of the Chinese Snakeheads,” Independent (UK), May 10, 2004.

  280 In 2000 she was responsible: J.F.O. McAllister, “Snaking Toward Death,” Time, July 3, 2000.

  280 Big Sister believed Ping was: Barnes, “Two-Faced Woman.”

  280 But as she continued her boat smuggling: Interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005.

  281 With stretches of coastline: Ginger Thompson, “Mexico Worries About Its Own Southern Border,” New York Times, June 18, 2006; N. C. Aizenman, “Meeting Danger Well South of the Border,” Washington Post, July 8, 2006.

  281 Sister Ping was hardly: Jim Rutenberg and Marc Lacey, “In Guatemala, Bush Takes Heat for Raid in U.S.,” International Herald Tribune, March 14, 2007.

  281 During the period: Guillermo Vuletin, “Measuring the Informal Economy in Latin American and the Caribbean,” IMF Working Paper, International Monetary Fund, 2008, p. 27; Friedrich Schneider, “Size and Measurement of the Informal Economy in 110 Countries Around the World,” World Bank, 2002, p. 11.

  281 In some ways Sister Ping’s organization: For more on the emergence of transnational criminal organizations of this sort, see Phil Williams, “Transnational Criminal Organizations and International Security,” Survival 36, no. 1 (Spring 1994).

  281 Just as the state of Delaware: On the particular history and role of the Taiwanese community in Guatemala, see Willard Myers III, “Transnational Ethnic Chinese Organized Crime: A Global Challenge to the Security of the United States,” testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, April 24, 1994.

  281 On top of everything else: Testimony of Kenny Feng in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Kenny Feng testimony, Sister Ping trial).

  281 She had connections: INS document, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester,’” by Special Agent Edmund Bourke, ASU NY.

  281 Sister Ping’s man in Guatemala City: Closing arguments of Leslie Brown, Sister Ping trial; Kenny Feng testimony, Sister Ping trial; interview with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, December 15, 2006, and October 19, 2007.

  282 Like so many others: Kenny Feng testimony, Sister Ping trial.

  282 In 1991 Guatemala’s consul general: Pamela Burdman, “Web of Corruption Ensnares Officials Around the World,” San Francisco Chronicle, A
pril 28, 1993.

  282 Occasionally Sister Ping: Confidential interview with a former INS agent.

  282 One morning in May 1998: Testimony of Octavio Urrutia Vidal, of Zacapa, Guatemala, in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953.

  282.Sister Ping was in China: Kenny Feng testimony, Sister Ping trial; testimony of Special Agent Bill McMurry in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Bill McMurry testimony, Sister Ping trial).

  283.A woman she had smuggled: Kenny Feng testimony, Sister Ping trial; testimony of “Sandy” in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Sandy testimony, Sister Ping trial). Also “Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Hold Chinese National Hostage,” Associated Press, September 19, 2001; John Malcomb, assistant attorney general, Criminal Division, Department of Justice, “Alien Smuggling/Human Trafficking: Sending a Meaningful Message of Deterrence,” testimony before the Judiciary Commit tee of the United States Senate, July 25, 2003.

  283 Jerry Stuchiner knew: Interview with Jerry Stuchiner, May 23, 2007.

  283.But by the time the ship went down: Larmer and Liu, “Smuggling People.”

  284.Stuchiner and his girlfriend: Glenn Schloss, “Fake Passport Flight of Fancy Ends in Grief,” South China Morning Post, August 17, 1996.

  284 He had not realized: Larmer and Liu, “Smuggling People.”

  284 The Fat Man was standing: Immigration and Naturalization Service Office of the Inspector General, “Inspector General Announces Arrest of INS Official in Alien Smuggling Ring,” press release, July 16, 1996.

  284 Herby Weizenblut, the friend: Glenn Schloss, “Diplomat’s Immunity ‘Lifted Too Late,’” South China Morning Post, August 17, 1996.

  284 As details emerged: Glenn Schloss, “Investigator from Honduras to Probe Scam,” South China Morning Post, May 22, 1997.

  284 “I am very sad”: Anthony DeStefano, “Black Eye for the INS,” Newsday, July 18, 1996.

  284 She was subsequently suspended: Glenn Schloss, “Envoy Axed After Scam Claim,” South China Morning Post, July 24, 1996; “Honduran Passport Case Leads to Suspensions,” Orlando Sentinel, July 23, 1996.