Gao Zhan was treated like a hero in 2001 when she was sent from a Chinese prison to her family and freedom in Virginia.
A permanent resident of the United States and a scholar at American University in Washington, Ms. Gao had been arrested at the Beijing airport, tried in secret on seemingly dubious espionage charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. That her son, an American citizen and only 5, was also seized and isolated for 26 days made the case seem all the more outrageous.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell publicly expressed dismay over her case, and members of Congress called for her release. To soothe relations with Washington, the Chinese put Ms. Gao on a plane after she served six months.
But since then, Ms. Gao and her husband have pleaded guilty to federal offenses and have been sentenced to prison terms. Today the family is again in a fix, caught in the grind of the justice and immigration systems, and the custody of the children is again in question.
Now the mother of three children ages 9, 2 and 1, Ms. Gao is being held without bail in an immigration bureau jail in Virginia as she fights the government's effort to deport her to China.
She had already served seven months in federal prison for illegally exporting militarily useful high-tech goods to China. Now, despite the urging of the Justice Department, she is being deported as a felon who endangered national security.
Her husband, Dong Xue, an American citizen, has been ordered to start a 12-month prison sentence on May 23, for evading taxes on the income from her exports. He says he has no idea who will tend the children.
"It's an amazingly heartless thing," said Jerome Cohen, a lawyer and China specialist in New York who advised the family in 2001. "They committed crimes and should be punished, but nobody deserves this kind of total destruction."
A spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dean Boyd, was unapologetic.
"She admitted to a very serious crime, the export of sensitive electronic equipment to entities affiliated with the Chinese military," Mr. Boyd said. "And she is not a citizen of the United States. People with convictions of this type are subject to immediate deportation on completion of their sentences."
Even as the Chinese arrested Ms. Gao in Beijing and accused her of harming Chinese security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was closing in on her for illegal exports to China, through a business she had run while conducting sociology research.
In 2002, confronted with damning evidence, Ms. Gao began cooperating with the F.B.I., helping convict other traders and earning a light sentence of seven months after she pleaded guilty to one export violation and to evading taxes on her export income.
Her husband pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge, but a federal judge in Arlington, Va., said he could remain free until his wife was released so that one parent would be with the children.
But Ms. Gao never returned home. When her term ended on April 5, the immigration authorities took her into custody. Because she had officially been released from prison, her husband was told to begin his own prison term.
The Justice Department, citing Ms. Gao's cooperation, wrote to the immigration bureau urging the agency not to deport her.
"It was just that, a recommendation," Mr. Boyd said. "She will have due process. This is not something that will happen tomorrow."
A permanent resident of the United States and a scholar at American University in Washington, Ms. Gao had been arrested at the Beijing airport, tried in secret on seemingly dubious espionage charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. That her son, an American citizen and only 5, was also seized and isolated for 26 days made the case seem all the more outrageous.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell publicly expressed dismay over her case, and members of Congress called for her release. To soothe relations with Washington, the Chinese put Ms. Gao on a plane after she served six months.
But since then, Ms. Gao and her husband have pleaded guilty to federal offenses and have been sentenced to prison terms. Today the family is again in a fix, caught in the grind of the justice and immigration systems, and the custody of the children is again in question.
Now the mother of three children ages 9, 2 and 1, Ms. Gao is being held without bail in an immigration bureau jail in Virginia as she fights the government's effort to deport her to China.
She had already served seven months in federal prison for illegally exporting militarily useful high-tech goods to China. Now, despite the urging of the Justice Department, she is being deported as a felon who endangered national security.
Her husband, Dong Xue, an American citizen, has been ordered to start a 12-month prison sentence on May 23, for evading taxes on the income from her exports. He says he has no idea who will tend the children.
"It's an amazingly heartless thing," said Jerome Cohen, a lawyer and China specialist in New York who advised the family in 2001. "They committed crimes and should be punished, but nobody deserves this kind of total destruction."
A spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dean Boyd, was unapologetic.
"She admitted to a very serious crime, the export of sensitive electronic equipment to entities affiliated with the Chinese military," Mr. Boyd said. "And she is not a citizen of the United States. People with convictions of this type are subject to immediate deportation on completion of their sentences."
Even as the Chinese arrested Ms. Gao in Beijing and accused her of harming Chinese security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was closing in on her for illegal exports to China, through a business she had run while conducting sociology research.
In 2002, confronted with damning evidence, Ms. Gao began cooperating with the F.B.I., helping convict other traders and earning a light sentence of seven months after she pleaded guilty to one export violation and to evading taxes on her export income.
Her husband pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge, but a federal judge in Arlington, Va., said he could remain free until his wife was released so that one parent would be with the children.
But Ms. Gao never returned home. When her term ended on April 5, the immigration authorities took her into custody. Because she had officially been released from prison, her husband was told to begin his own prison term.
The Justice Department, citing Ms. Gao's cooperation, wrote to the immigration bureau urging the agency not to deport her.
"It was just that, a recommendation," Mr. Boyd said. "She will have due process. This is not something that will happen tomorrow."
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