Prc Is A Big Sinkhole
This is more evidence that China is a big sinkhole. It is also evidence of the stupidity of those who defend the communist party.
CHINESE TEENAGER CAN LEAVE WORLD OF ABUSE
Miami Herald, The (FL)
August 13, 2004
Author: ASHLEY FANTZ AND GILLIAN WEE,
afantz@herald.com
An emotional Miami juvenile judge gently touched the arm of 17-year-old Xi Mei Chen, reassuring the Chinese girl that she would never again have to face the parents who she said beat her and tried to force her into marriage with an older man.
``I know how scared she is,'' Judge Sue Ellen Venzer said, through a Mandarin translator in her courtroom Wednesday. ``But she doesn't have to be afraid anymore.''
Xi Mei, five feet tall and 70 pounds, was granted eligibility for an immigrant visa, which allows her to stay in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security must approve the judge's order, but it's likely that will happen.
After a three-month odyssey through at least five countries and a year at Miami-Dade County's Boys Town, Xi Mei could move this week to Covenant House, a Broward County shelter for homeless and runaway youths.
Eventually, she hopes to join relatives in New York.
Even after the judge's soothing comments, Xi Mei did not stop crying. She smiled only once.
Dressed in a Florida Marlins World Championship T-shirt, blue jeans and blue Keds, Xi Mei clutched a stuffed teddy bear and launched into her story.
Guided by a smuggler she called ``Uncle Ah Liu,'' Xi Mei traversed a zigzag path through several countries before boarding a plane for New York. The guide was hired by her aunt in their rural Fujian Province. The circuitous route is a trademark of human traffickers. Xi Mei said she did not know her final destination was the United States.
``My aunt told me I would be taken to a place that is free,'' she said through a translator.
Ah Liu, she said, abandoned her at the airport, where she was detained by Homeland Security, then sent to Boys Town, a dormitory-style juvenile facility in Miami.
Xi Mei's attorneys offered an affidavit they said was signed by the teenager's parents relinquishing custodial rights.
``Her parents have expressed that she has brought shame on the family for not marrying and they do not want her back,'' said Carolyn Salisbury, a longtime children's advocate and associate director of the University of Miami's Children & Youth Law Clinic.
Xi Mei also claimed the Chinese police were after her for belonging to an antigovernment organization, The Iron Fan.
Her older sisters also ran away from home when her parents tried to force them to marry, court documents state. Xi Mei claims not to know their whereabouts.
Xi Mei will turn 18 on Saturday. Had Venzer denied her eligibility for visa status, she would have been taken to an adult lockup or she could have been deported.
``It's a very unusual petition and, at the very least, a disturbing one,'' said Venzer.
``We value you here and I will facilitate your transition here,'' the judge promised Xi Mei. ``My heart breaks for you. I wish you the best of luck. I'm terribly impressed with your strength.''
At those words, Xi Mei nodded and knelt to bow in gratitude and respect.
``There's no reason for you to bow in America,'' Venzer said.
The teen's attorneys from the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center succeeded in court on Wednesday, but they have additional goals, including finding a therapist for the traumatized girl. She got no counseling at Boys Town and, court documents state, her parents forced her to drop out of school when she was 15.
Surrounded by the media, lawyers and Department of Children & Families officials, she seemed overwhelmed, but was able to say this much, through translator Jonathan Wang: ``I want to thank everybody who helped me.''