Immigrants with Prior Criminal Record Risk Removal from the United States – Impact on Asian Immigrants

Lawful permanent residents in the United States with a criminal record can face double jeopardy, jail time, and removal from the United States. The case of Qing Wu underscores this dilemma. At the age of five, Qing Wu emigrated from China to the United States with his parents as a lawful permanent resident.' Growing up in a crowded tenement building in Manhattan's Chinatown, Wu-like many low-income Asian male teenagers living there-began hanging out with the wrong people and got in trouble with the law. After accepting a plea bargain, Wu was convicted of robbery in October of 1996 and sentenced to three-to-nine years of imprisonment. Intent on turning his life around, Wu earned his General Education Degree (GED) in prison. After three years in a juvenile detention facility, he worked as a systems administrator with the Police Benevolent Association, obtained his Associate's Degree in Technology at New York City College of Technology, and worked his way up from a junior network administrator to Vice President of Technology at a major real estate asset management firm. He applied to become a U.S. citizen on his own, and, at age twentynine, was engaged to Anna Ng, a U.S. citizen. This is a classic example of someone who turned his life around and pursued the American Dream. Why, then, does his story not end on a happy note? Many immigrants, including Asians, are now targets of aggressive immigration policies enforced after the September 11, 2001 terrorist