NCJ Number
187433
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 90 Issue: 4 Dated: Summer 2000 Pages: 1271-1316
Date Published
2000
Length
46 pages
Annotation
When transnational crime intersects with U.S. immigration law, the result poses serious ethical and normative legal issues; this paper argues that the economic and cultural divide between the United States and China has resulted in misguided American policies that have exacerbated the Chinese migrant smuggling problem.
Abstract
Part II of this paper traces the history of human smuggling from China and summarizes the current state of the problem. Part III discusses current approaches to the Chinese human trade and describes the socioeconomic forces that drive Chinese migration. Part IV explains how American aversion to China's family planning programs resulted in the 1996 Amendment to the United States refugee law that recognizes opposition to "coercive population control programs" as a basis for political asylum. Part V calls for the repeal of this amendment, because it is culturally biased, facilitates human smuggling from China, and contradicts traditional and reformative ideals of asylum law and refugee policy. By focusing on only one country, the 1996 Amendment ignored the plight of millions of victims in need of international protection. In a world continually beset by war and inhumane ethnic conflict, this selective refugee policy is both unwise and unfair. 321 footnotes