News Bytes

According to a Pentagon report, two Chinese students studying in the U.S. supplied the Chinese military with American defense technology that allowed Beijing to produce a special metal used in sensors and weapons. The metal, known as Terfenol-D, cost the U.S. Navy millions of dollars to create. The Navy uses Terfenol-D in an advanced sonar system designed to track enemy submarines. Officials say the Chinese could use the substance in a multiple warhead missile stage and in “smart” aircraft wings.

One of the two students attended Pennsylvania State University. The other attended Iowa State University, where he worked closely with the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory on the school’s campus. The lab developed the substance created by the Navy in the 1970s. Terfenol-D data was stolen in the past three years through computer hacking.

Gansu Tianxing Rare Earth Functional Materials Co., Ltd. (TXRE), a Chinese company directly connected to the Chinese military, was set up by a Chinese official who studied with one of the two Chinese students. One of the two Chinese students admitted sending information on Terfenol-D to the Chinese military, according to a report by the Pentagon.

The Pentagon report also said that China is using students and scientists to develop its military technologies. The Chinese government uses people who study advanced technology in the U.S. to infiltrate U.S. companies to gain access to sensitive information. These students and scientists then return to China and either set up their own companies or pass on the information to the military.

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On July 3, 2002, President Bush passed the “Executive Order to Expedite Naturalization of Aliens and Noncitizen Nationals Serving in Active Duty Status During the War on Terrorism.” As a result, on August 8, over 200 U.S. Navy sailors, many who served in “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, were sworn in as U.S. citizens aboard the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.

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In 2000, Yun Kyeong Sung accused Celine Dion’s husband, Rene Angelil, of fondling her as a Las Vegas resort, but did not inform the police. Angelil paid Sung $2 million in a confidential settlement. In 2002, after Las Vegas authorities threatened to charge Sung with fraud for not paying off markers from a Las Vegas casino, Sung claimed that Angelil had raped her. Sung and her husband, Ae Hoe Kwon, sought $20 million from Angelil, which prompted Las Vegas police to lodge extortion charges against them. Sung and her husband have lost their attorneys, because Sung lost her money in casinos and cannot afford lawyer fees. Sung faces charges that she failed to pay about $950,000 in markers issued by Las Vegas casinos. She is also charged with trying to extort Angelil with allegations that he sexually assaulted her. Sung is also about to face deportation proceedings because she does not have the correct paperwork to be in the U.S.

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An immigration judge in Boston was placed on administrative leave on August 4 after complaints about his conduct in the courtroom. In June, a Ugandan woman named Jane who was seeking political asylum went before Judge Thomas Ragno to testify that government soldiers killed her husband and raped her. According to Jane’s doctor, Ragno said: “Jane, come here. Me Tarzan!” Ragno also dialed the weather number on his speakerphone in order to listen to the forecast and talked in open court about looking for a condominium, according to the doctor.

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Walther Velasquez, an Ex-Social Security worker in Florida, was sentenced to twenty-seven months in federal prison for issuing fake Social Security cards to undocumented immigrants. According to court records, Velasquez made at least a dozen fake Social Security cards. Documents also associate him to a counterfeiting ring stretching from Boston to Texas that produced 1700 fake Social Security cards. Authorities estimate that the ring made $4.3 million after charging $2500 for each card.

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Schools Superintendent Wilfredo T. Laboy has failed the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure three times. By law, Laboy must pass the tests in order to be certified as a Massachusetts educator. Laboy blames his failing scores on the fact that English is his second language.

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According to a lawsuit filed against the City of Los Angeles, some 400,000 people of Mexican descent were deported to Mexico during the Great Depression. From 1929 to 1933, these people were forced to leave the U.S. in order to save jobs for “whites”. According to the Los Angeles Times, some 60 percent of those sent back to Mexico were U.S. citizens.


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The Arkansas Office of Emergency Management Director, W.R. “Bud” Harper, was forced to resign after sending a racially charged e-mail to his employees. The e-mail, titled “Illegal Poem” described poor immigrants becoming rich on the U.S. welfare system. Harper, a former judge, stated that the poem does not reflect his own opinions about immigrants. His intentions were just to forward a humorous e-mail.

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As of August 19, 2003, the National Passport Information Center (NPIC) will change its telephone number from a 1-900 fee-for-service to toll free service. The new telephone number will be 1-877-4USA-PPT (or 1-877-487-2778). For TDD/TTY users, the number will be 1-888-874-7793. In addition, live operator service will be expanded so that operators will be available on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Automated service will still be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Callers who use the 1-900 number will be directed to the new number at no charge. NPIC is also adding e-mail access to the NPIC at npic@state.gov. E-mail inquiries will be answered within twenty-four hours during normal business days. NPIC is currently working on adding inquiry-by-fax service.

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In January 2003, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) proposed to establish a new system of records known as “Passenger and Aviation Security Screening Records” in order to support the development of a new version of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II. TSA intends to use the CAPPS II system to conduct risk assessments to ensure passenger and aviation security for passengers traveling to, from and within the U.S.

Under the proposed system, TSA will obtain electronically passengers’ Passenger Name Records (PNRs). A PNR may include each passenger’s full name, home address, home telephone number, date of birth and information about the passenger’s itinerary. The system will access this information prior to flight. The obtained information will be used to authenticate passenger identity only. Once CAPPS II has authenticated a passenger’s identity, it will conduct risk assessment in order to determine whether a passenger is a known terrorist or has identifiable links to known terrorists or terrorist organizations. Information regarding persons with outstanding state or Federal arrest warrants for crimes of violence may also be analyzed.

Based upon the collected information, passengers will be identified with a “risk score,” indicating whether that passenger’s information leads to a determination of low, high or unknown risk to other passengers and aviation safety. Most passengers will be identified as “low risk,” and will proceed as normal through airport security screening. Those passengers identified as “high risk” or “uncertain risk” will be subject to heightened security screening procedures.

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The California Consortium for Agricultural Export (CCAE), a BCIS-designated Regional Center for the Immigrant Investor Pilot Program, has announced that BCIS has approved the I-526 Petition for Alien Entrepreneur for CCAE’s first immigrant investor applicant. The applicant will begin an almond-growing business in the San Joaquin Valley.