wfn.org | Chinese Immigrants to Be Freed

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3442 notes).

Note 3437 by UMNS on Feb. 18, 1997 at 09:03 Eastern (3282 characters).

SEARCH: Golden Venture, Golden Vision, Chinese, immigrants       
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                       83(10-21-33-71B){3437}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    Feb. 17, 1997

Advocates for Chinese detainees
celebrate news of their release

                 by United Methodist News Service

     After a vigil of 182 weeks, advocates for 53 Chinese
immigrants detained in U.S. prisons were able to celebrate their
coming release in a Feb. 16 service.
     Cartwheels and joyous songs highlighted the regular weekly
service across the road from the York (Pa.) County Prison, where
38 of the prisoners are held, according to the Rev. Joan Maruskin.
A United Methodist pastor, she helped form People of the Golden
Vision, an interfaith coalition for immigrants' rights.
     Rod Merrill -- a member of First Spanish United Methodist 
Church in York and the coalition's "resident troubadour" -- wrote
a special "hallelujah song," she said.
     The Clinton Administration made a decision on Feb. 14 to
release the remaining detainees from the Golden Venture, a
smuggling ship that ran aground in June, 1993. The release will
come by March 1.
     People of the Golden Vision began daily vigils at York County
Prison when many of the more than 200 passengers were sent there
for detention.
     Most detainees requested asylum because of persecution from
resistance to China's restrictive population control policies. In
September, Congress had approved such resistance as a ground for
political asylum, but only two Golden Venture passengers had been
released since then.
     According to the New York Times, an article in the Feb. 3
issue and appeals by Pennsylvania Congressman Bill Gooding spurred
the administration's decision. At a Feb. 12 meeting with the
President, Gooding presented him with artwork -- an eagle and tree
-- made by the prisoners. "We're told President Clinton was really
moved by the artwork," Maruskin said.
     Noting that the detainees "were pretty much at an all-time
low" before they heard the news, she called the Feb. 14
announcement "God's divine timing."
     People of the Golden Vision will act as a resettlement agency
once the men are freed. Some can go to families or friends, while
others can find sanctuary with "dozens of people who have offered
homes for them," she said. "Many have befriended them over the
course of time."
     The immigrants will be given working papers as the legal
process continues, according to Maruskin. "Their appeals will be
heard and each case will be considered individually," she
explained.
     Those not granted asylum will not be deported to China but
offered resettlement in a third country, she added.
     People of the Golden Vision will continue its expanded goal
of freeing all asylum seekers from detention. York prison, for
example, holds 250 illegal immigrants from 50 countries.
     The advocacy group also is renovating a house in York as an
International Friendship House, offering transitional housing for
immigrants granted asylum.
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