U.S. District Court Judge Alex Munson has granted the motion of a mother and her children to stay in the CNMI pending a decision on their asylum applications.
In a preliminary injunction issued yesterday afternoon, Munson ordered the CNMI and federal governments not to serve a deportation order against Xiu Ying Jiang and her two children, Dong Wending and Dong Xingyou.
“This preliminary injunction is based upon the allegations in the complaint and the first amended complaint that plaintiffs have a reasonable belief that they will suffer irreparable harm, political and personal persecution and pain, torture, imprisonment and denial of their civil and human rights in their homeland,” Munson said.
But Munson did not decide on Xiu’s request to be allowed to seek employment, saying it will be considered after the parties have met and reached an agreement.
The judge also granted Xiu’s motion to allow the children to go to school.
Yesterday morning, human rights lawyer Bruce Jorgensen filed a civil suit against U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell and two local officials to prevent the deportation of Xiu and her children.
Also included in the lawsuit filed in federal court are U.S. Attorney General John Aschroft, CNMI Attorney General Robert Torres and CNMI Labor and Immigration Secretary Joaquin A. Tenorio. All were sued in their official capacities.
Jorgensen said Xiu and her children should be allowed to seek asylum in the CNMI for humanitarian reasons.
He said Xiu should also be allowed to work while her children should be allowed to go to school.
Xiu, according to court documents, was drugged and subjected to “involuntary tubal ligation” in China.
In China, a couple is only allowed to have one child, Jorgensen said.
“(Xiu) when in (China) before traveling to the CNMI, was in fact persecuted and harmed by…inhumane (Chinese government) policies—including but not limited to the involuntary tubal ligation to which (Chinese) officials forcibly subjected plaintiff after plaintiff had been drugged by (these) officials. The children suffered associated persecution,” Jorgensen said.
The children’s father is currently a refugee in New York where he applied for asylum.
Jorgensen is also seeking monetary damages in an amount to be proven at trial.
Likewise, he is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions enjoining Torres and Tenorio from deporting the plaintiffs at any time before their eligibility for refugee/asylum/torture protection is finally determined under due process of law.
Jorgensen said the forced tubal ligation incident “clearly manifests that (Xiu) and her children would be subjected to personal and political persecution, including torture and inhumane treatment, once they are sent back to China.”
He added that the plaintiffs would also suffer from loss of liberty, physical and emotional pain and suffering, as well as involuntary separation from each other if they are deported.
The lawyer said his clients should be allowed to stay in the CNMI since the commonwealth recognizes that the asylum treaty applies here.
He added that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that people seeking asylum assistance are protected from inhumane condition or torture.
“Both the U.S. and the CNMI are under mandatory duties to ensure that plaintiffs are not subject to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or inhuman or degrading punishment…or deported to a country where they might be subject to such treatment,” Jorgensen said.
More than 20 other Chinese nationals are seeking asylum in the CNMI. Jorgensen is also representing them.
