INS Arrests 30 People Hidden on Cargo Ships

Revealing two of the latest attempts to smuggle Chinese nationals to the West Coast, federal authorities on Wednesday announced the arrests of 30 suspected illegal immigrants hidden aboard cargo ships bound for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles from Hong Kong.

Agents of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said they detained 21 Chinese immigrants inside a Long Beach terminal late Tuesday, hours after they rounded up nine other mainland Chinese at a berth in Los Angeles.

Both groups crossed the Pacific Ocean inside 40-foot cargo containers that were stocked with ladders, lights, plenty of provisions, containers to hold human waste and, in one case, a cellular telephone.

“This is a sophisticated level of smuggling,” said Rosemary Melville, deputy district director of the INS office in Los Angeles. “The two incidents are part of a growing trend involving Chinese nationals. The people arrested were in good health and they were well equipped.”

Investigators said they believe the Chinese travelers each agreed to pay smugglers as much as $50,000 for their 11-day passage from Hong Kong. At least two of them, they said, made down payments of $5,000.

The first arrests were made at dawn Tuesday after a Los Angeles harbor patrol officer stopped one of the immigrants who was wandering around the port. Authorities said the young man led the officer to the Netherland, a container vessel docked at the Yusen Terminal.

Police and INS agents later removed six Chinese men and two juveniles from a canvas-topped shipping container. Authorities suspect that as many as 14 other people may have left the port undetected.

Tip From Dockworker

About 12 hours later, federal agents and Long Beach police apprehended 21 more Chinese nationals inside the Maersk facility at Pier J in Long Beach. A dockworker had tipped off law enforcement after he saw one of the immigrants walking around the terminal.

INS agents said the second group arrived in a cargo container aboard the Sine Maersk, a freighter like the Netherland that had sailed directly to the United States from Hong Kong.

The human cargo consisted of 14 men and seven women. Officers described them as well dressed, wearing ski parkas and expensive running shoes.

“They had nice clothes and nice tote bags,” said Jennifer Eisner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs Service, which assisted in the arrests. “If they were walking down the street they could have blended right in as college students.”

Melville said the Chinese nationals have the right to apply for political asylum and that the INS will try to determine whether their lives will be endangered if they are repatriated to the People’s Republic of China. If not, those arrested will be deported.

INS officials estimate that about 1,000 mainland Chinese have been deported to the People’s Republic so far this year from the United States.

Consul Xue Bing, who is assigned to the Los Angeles Consulate of the People’s Republic of China, declined to discuss Tuesday’s arrests because the consulate had not yet received any information.

Consulate Opposes Illegal Immigration

If those arrested are in fact Chinese nationals, Xue said, consular officials might help identify them for U.S. officials. The consulate also monitors deportation proceedings and checks on the well-being of Chinese citizens in INS detention.

In general, Xue said, “the Chinese government is opposed to illegal immigration and does all it can to prevent it. It’s a complicated situation that involves other nations. China cannot possibly solve the problem by itself.”

About 150 illegal immigrants have been arrested in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 1999. The vast majority have been from the People’s Republic of China.

Although immigration officials say that the two recent incidents are sophisticated ship-based smuggling operations, the cases are not nearly has large as some other schemes uncovered during the last 10 years.

In the early 1990s, the INS handled several local cases that involved vessels carrying more than 100 illegal immigrants each. Three months ago, federal authorities detained 54 Chinese and arrested the captain and crew of the Pu Progress, a 500-foot freighter bound for Long Beach from Hong Kong.

The skipper and seven crew members are facing criminal charges in federal court. Their trial is set for March. A charge of smuggling illegal immigrants carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.