Honolulu Immigration Judge Clarence M. Wagner continued the hearing for Shixu Huang, who appeared without a lawyer, after the court advised him of his rights and explained the court proceedings through an interpreter.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiated Shixu Huang’s removal proceedings for being convicted of a crime and thus making him a removable alien from the commonwealth.
Wagner told Shixu Huang, 47, to submit appropriate documents to determine if the charges of the federal government are true.
Shixu Huang told the court he doesn’t have money to hire a lawyer.
He also requested for financial assistance for his daily survival since there’s no refugee center on Saipan.
Shixu Huang was released from federal prison on Sept. 21, 2011.
U.S. District Court for the NMI sentenced Shixu Huang to one year imprisonment and two years of supervised release.
After his sentencing hearing last year, a teary-eyed Shixu Huang said he was “tortured,” “jailed” and was be sent in a “mental hospital” in China.
The then-court-appointed attorney Michael Dotts said Shixu Huang was involved in the student protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Shixu Huang took pictures and witnessed the shooting of students by Chinese troops and was identified by the Chinese government as a “counter-revolutionary.” He was then sent to prison for two years, Dotts said.
When Huang got out of prison, he gave an interview to French and German reporters about being imprisoned after the Tiananmen massacre.
As a result, Dotts said Huang was arrested again for giving the interview and this time imprisoned for four years and sentenced to hard labor. The conditions he was held under violated human rights as they amounted to torture, Dotts said.
After Huang was released the second time, Dotts said his client continued to be harassed by government police and officials and was arrested and imprisoned two more times.
“He decided to try to get out of China and to America and seek political asylum. He saw that the commonwealth was part of the United States and managed to get here,” Dotts said.
Huang arrived on Saipan in April, 2008, seeking freedom and ended up in limbo with an unclear legal status and no ability to support himself, Dotts said. Huang could not seek asylum in the commonwealth.
On the early morning of Jan. 30, 2010, federal authorities arrested the five defendants, including Shixu Huang, on two rubber boats while trying to enter Guam through Rota.
They were found guilty of a single felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Shixu Huang was among the 12 respondents in yesterday’s master calendar for removal proceedings presided over by Wagner through video conference in Hawaii.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security counsel Patricia Beattie represented the federal government.
