We are talking about real people who are suffering real abuses. who are being subject every day to threats and intimidation and the tactics of terror. Let me tell my colleagues about the case of Jin Han Chang. 33 years old. father of two. who escaped from China and applied for asylum in the United States. At his deportation hearing Chang testified one of the reasons he fled China was he feared government retribution because of his refusal to be sterilized after the birth of his second child. The Board of Immigration Appeals. in a unanimous ruling issued on May 12 of last year. denied Changs appeal and ordered him deported. In its ruling the BIA said that policy guidelines issued by the Attorney General in August 1988. which directed asylum adjudicators to give "careful consideration" to asylum claims from Chinese nationals fleeing their governments coercive population control policy. "were directed to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. rather than to immigration judges and to this Board." Thus the Board found it need not grant asylum. The Board then went on to determine that Chinas "one couple. one child" policy was not "on its face persecutive" and that it could not grant Mr. Chang asylum. Fear of reprisals for violating Chinas population control policy. which can include forced abortions. coerced sterilizations. loss of job. housing. health care and income does not constitute a "wellfounded fear of persecution" as defined in the Immigration and Naturalization Act. the BIA said. The matter of Chang is a precedent. It is a precedent which we seek to overturn with the passage of H.R.
Keywords matched
Immigration Naturalization immigration asylum claims deported deportation