INS DECIDES TO DETAIN CHINESE ASYLUM SEEKERS

In April there was a wave of Chinese refugees trying to get to the U.S. Over 400 people were detained by U.S. officials and taken to Tinian Island, one of the Northern Marianas Islands, a U.S. commonwealth territory. They were detained there while officials determined who had viable asylum claims. Eighty-eight people were flown to Los Angeles, where they were allowed to present their claims.

INS officials had planned to release them into privately run shelters. That plan was scrapped, however, after officials became aware of the possibility that the asylum seekers might be threatened with forced labor in sweatshops and restaurants to pay the smugglers who got them out of China. The 88 detainees are currently being held in a facility in Illinois, where the INS plans to keeps them until they present their asylum claims.

Immigrant advocates worry that there will not be adequate legal resources in the small Illinois town of Ullin to ensure adequate representation for all of the asylum seekers.

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