[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5767-5770]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FROM CHINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity to speak to one 
issue which is of some national significance because it evidences a 
pattern that is occurring, and that is illegal immigration from China.
  I would like to point out that, Madam Speaker, that Guam is a very 
isolated community from Washington, DC. It is some 9,000 miles away and 
it is the closest U.S. soil to China.
  During the past year, there has been an inordinate amount of illegal 
immigration into Guam from China, and we assumed that it was from 
perhaps nearby the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, but as it has 
turned out these are illegal immigrants who come in on fishing boats 
directly from the Province of Fuqing inside China.
  This kind of illegal immigration is not the kind of illegal 
immigration that we normally assume exists, which is that people are 
fleeing either for political reasons or looking for an economic better 
way of life.
  All of those might be part of this, but usually when we watch the 
kinds of

[[Page 5768]]

things that occur on our southern border or perhaps some of the illegal 
immigration which is coming from Haiti or in the Caribbean Sea, other 
parts of the Caribbean Sea, we witness people who are risking life and 
limb in order to better themselves economically. If they are 
successful, they go on and live their lives as members of individual 
families and indeed frequently find a better way of life.
  In this case, what we have is an illegal stream of immigrants that is 
primarily orchestrated by criminal organizations inside China commonly 
referred to as ``snakeheads.'' Last year, and Guam last a very small 
population, it is estimated that over 700 arrived through this manner 
and since the beginning of this year alone there has already been 254, 
and some 97 were simply apprehended off the coast of Guam, in Agat, 
last weekend.
  What these people undergo is that they pay anywhere from $10,000 to 
$30,000 for the privilege of being put in a fishing boat usually under 
a hundred feet and there may be as many as 200 or 300 of them inside 
this fishing boat. Then they are taken out in the open ocean and they 
arrive on Guam, and they usually try to come in on small boats so we do 
not know what exactly the dynamics of the stream is like. If they are 
caught, they immediately ask for political asylum.
  If they are successful in this, and they invariably are, they then 
enter a period of what can only be termed as indentured servitude for 
these snakehead organizations for the next 10 to 20 years, probably 
working below the minimum wage in some underground economy inside this 
country.
  So this problem, and the use of political asylum on Guam, and claims 
to political asylum by these illegal immigrants, do not necessarily 
benefit the immigrants themselves but is part of a well constructed, 
well organized criminal activity that is orchestrated from inside China 
in the Fuqing province.
  The People's Republic of China themselves are embarrassed by this, as 
I understand it. These are criminal organizations that are acting on 
their own.
  The way to solve this problem is to eliminate or narrow the gap for 
claims of political asylum on Guam. This in no way means that I myself 
or the people of Guam are not in favor of political asylum, but in this 
instance what has happened is that these snakehead organizations have 
used the political asylum mechanism in order to benefit their criminal 
activities, which are well documented in these articles by Brad Wong, 
Hiroshi Hiyama and Frieda Bush, and to create and to prey on the hopes 
of these people inside China and then to continue to prey upon them 
once they are successfully brought into this country.
  I have introduced legislation for this purpose, to give latitude to 
INS officers in Guam, and this is possible under the Immigration and 
Naturalization Act, to carve out special laws and regulations for 
insular jurisdictions of the United States.
  I hope that there is widespread support for this. This is an 
important issue not only for us but it is a good way to stop illegal 
immigration and to benefit criminal organizations inside China.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to submit for the Record six articles of 
the Pacific Daily News. These articles point out in great detail the 
dynamics of this.

95 Apprehended in Agat--6 Women, 12 Children Among Group in INS Custody

                (By Hiroshi Hiyama.--Pacific Daily News)

       Six women and a dozen children are among 95 Chinese 
     nationals who were apprehended early yesterday morning after 
     their ship ran aground on a reef off Agat.
       It was the largest number of suspected illegal immigrants 
     and smugglers caught at one time, followed by the 79 
     apprehended in January.
       Yesterday's apprehension brings the tally to about 235 
     suspected illegal immigrants caught on and around Guam this 
     year.
       It began when 32 people were spotted on the beach by police 
     Officer Frank Cepeda, who was patrolling near the old Agat 
     cemetery around 2 a.m., according to police spokesman Marc 
     Howard.
       Their ship had run aground earlier on the reef off Agat, 
     according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The rusty, 120-foot 
     fishing vessel had no identifying markings.
       After the accident, the ship's six-member crew jumped on a 
     smaller boat, telling their passengers that they would go 
     ashore to get help.
       Shortly afterward, 32 passengers jumped off the fishing 
     vessel, suspecting that the crew members wouldn't come back 
     to rescue them, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer John Howk 
     said.
       They were the group approached by Cepeda at the Agat beach. 
     They offered no resistance, and a handful of police officers 
     marched the group to the Agat precinct, Howard said.
       At the same time, police contacted the Immigration and 
     Naturalization Service. Guam police and fire officials 
     launched their own boats to check the fishing vessel. The 
     Coast Guard also launched the cutter Galveston Island and a 
     Navy HC-5 helicopter to tend the vessel.
       On the ship, local and federal officers found 57 people 
     huddled together, waiting for assistance, Howk said.
       Officials later caught the six crew members on an Agat 
     shoreline, bringing the total number of apprehensions to 95, 
     Howk said.
       The Chinese nationals hadn't had food or water for the past 
     few days, said Joe Galoski, INS supervisory special agent.
       None showed signs of illness, and they were fed and cleaned 
     by federal and local officials.
       They spent roughly 11 days at sea traveling from the Fujian 
     province in southern China to Guam, Galoski said.
       They were taken to the Department of Corrections yesterday, 
     where they spent the night with dozens of other suspected 
     Chinese illegal immigrants who had been apprehended in 
     previous incidents.
       A few who have been here awhile have picked up a few 
     English words and helped local prison officials to clean the 
     newcomers' belongings.
       The investigation into yesterday's apprehension will 
     continue today, officials said.
       The fishing vessel was towed to Victor Wharf, where the 
     Coast Guard office is located.
       Coast Guard officials said they haven't noticed any obvious 
     signs of oil leaks, or other contaminants in the environment 
     in the waters off Agat.
                                  ____


                      Chinese Dream of Life Abroad

                             (By Brad Wong)

       FUQING, China--In an alleyway off a main shopping street in 
     this coastal city of Fujian province, a group of peasants 
     leaned against their rusty bicycles and chatted with one 
     another in an open-air market one day last month.
       With people buying food and milling about among pig heads, 
     pile of leafy vegetables and mounds of oranges, one farmer 
     stood next to his produce, spread on a plastic tarp on the 
     ground. How much, he wondered would his cabbage cost in the 
     United States?
       In a black sedan with tinted windows that normally shuttles 
     Taiwanese and Hong Kong business executives around town, a 
     driver with thinning gray hair and a tan, weathered 
     complexion offered a visitor $24,000 for help to immigrate to 
     the United States, a place the Chinese call ``beautiful 
     country.'' He boasted how his daughter could speak English, 
     and called her on his cellular phone to prove it.
       The man talked about a friend in the United States who 
     gives him regular reports about living abroad. ``The homes 
     are very good and there are a lot of vehicles,'' he said.
       In the streets and alleys of this city, with its shiny new 
     hotels and tiny brick huts, residents don't disclose it 
     initially, but the dream is tucked in minds and hearts, never 
     far from thought.
       The desire: to go abroad, seek wealth and give their 
     children better opportunities than they've had. And clerks, 
     restaurant owners and others from all walks of life all say 
     the same thing: They want to earn money in the United States. 
     Some even cite a saying popular in the new market-oriented 
     China to describe those who take risks in pursuing profits 
     and opportunities.
       They call it, ``Jumping in the sea.''
       According to Chief Petty Officer John Howk, in charge of 
     operations at the Coast Guard's Guam center, since April 
     1998, more than 500 smugglers and fortune seekers from this 
     city and province have jumped and landed illegally on Guam or 
     have been apprehended trying to make it to Guam's shores.
       On Sunday, the Immigration and Naturalization Service took 
     97 Chinese nationals into custody after a fishing vessel from 
     Fujian province hit the reef off Agat. It was the largest 
     number of suspected illegal immigrants caught entering the 
     United States' westernmost territory at any one time, but 
     Howk said the Coast Guard believes that practice will either 
     continue at its present rate of increase.
       The immigrants are typically poor peasants from a country 
     of 1.2 billion people, where such residents make up 70 
     percent of the population. Many Fujian residents say it's 
     difficult to obtain a legal visa to live and work in the 
     United States.
       So they look to the sea as a way out and for new 
     opportunities.


                               snakeheads

       After a two-week boat trip from China, the immigrants often 
     arrive on Guam wet, hungry and sometimes ill or carrying 
     contagious diseases. They lack English language skills, 
     Chinese passports and U.S. visas.

[[Page 5769]]

       Behind the arrivals on Guam's shores are smugglers from 
     this city and province. Called ``snakeheads'' in Chinese, 
     these organized criminals orchestrate human-cargo shipments, 
     charging as much as $15,000 per person for passage to Guam, 
     $20,000 to Mexico and $30,000 to the continental United 
     States, observers here say.
       In return, the immigrants enter into modern-day contracts 
     of indentured servitude, working in underground economies 
     earning substandard U.S. wages to repay their transportation 
     debts.
       Still, the money they earn illegally in the United States--
     even if it's $1 an hour--is more than they can earn here as 
     farmers.
       The smugglers control almost every aspect of the 
     immigrants' lives once they arrive at their destination.
       They also wield enormous power in the immigrants' hometowns 
     in case someone rebels, tries to flee or fails to pay back 
     the debt, according to Chinese and U.S. observers.


                            destination guam

       While residents of Fujian have followed family members and 
     friends to New York City's Chinatown since the 1980s and to 
     work in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands' 
     garment industry, observers say it's only recently that 
     immigrants have started washing ashore in large numbers on 
     Guam.
       One reason Guam has become a gateway is because immigration 
     officials in larger, more desirable destinations have clamped 
     down on those entry points, according to a writer in Fuzhou, 
     the provincial capital.
       Lin Yan, who has written about emigration for Chinese 
     newspapers, said smugglers are eyeing lightly protected areas 
     where they can slip in unnoticed.
       ``Now, it's not easy to go to Japan and New York. So many 
     Fujianese will go to Pacific Islands. But they don't know 
     where they're going,'' he said through a translator. ``Their 
     main purpose is to leave.''
       Since last summer, Lin said, U.S. and Japanese authorities 
     have repatriated between 20 and 30 groups of Fujian 
     residents.
       A chinese citizen is fined, but not heavily, after 
     returning from an immigration attempt, he said.

              [From the Pacific Daily News, Mar. 23, 1999]

                Chinese Nationals Wait for Day in Court

                            (By Frieda Bush)

       It could be weeks before 97 Chinese nationals apprehended 
     early Sunday morning will get their day in court.
       Included in the group of suspected illegal immigrants are 
     six women and 12 young males, said Robert Johnson, acting 
     officer in charge of the Immigration and Naturalization 
     Service on Guam.
       The boys, who said they are minors, will visit a dentist 
     today to help determine their age, Johnson said, but it is 
     thought they are in their late teens.
       INS and police officials initially reported 95 were 
     apprehended Sunday. Officials were unavailable last night to 
     resolve the discrepancy.
       This latest group is the largest number of suspected 
     illegal immigrants captured on Guam at one time, Johnson 
     said. And it's the sheer volume of interviews the INS is 
     required to conduct that will keep them from getting a rapid 
     trial. Each person must be interviewed through an 
     interpreter, Johnson said. As of yesterday, there were only 
     three people on island qualified to do the interviews. Two of 
     those interpreters flew in from Hawaii yesterday.
       The suspected illegal immigrants are from Fujian province 
     in southern China, said Joe Galoski, INS supervisory agent. 
     Their rusty, 120-foot ship ran aground on a reef off Agat 
     early Sunday morning. They were apprehended after a police 
     officer found 32 people who had left the ship and come 
     ashore.
       In the meantime, the Chinese nationals will continue to 
     cool their heels at the Department of Corrections facility in 
     Mangilao. The $97-per-person per day cost of boarding the men 
     and women there ultimately will be borne by the U.S. 
     Immigration service, Galoski said.
       All of the 97 people in custody are expected to ask for 
     asylum, Johnson said.
       That means asylum interviews must be flown in from 
     California to determine whether the men and women have a 
     ``credible fear'' of being harmed if they return to China.
       ``The initial level is easily met,'' Johnson said. After 
     clearing the initial hurdle, immigrants must go before an 
     immigration judge and prove they need to stay in the United 
     States. The process, Johnson said, is long and complicated. 
     ``But it's been my experience that most will (eventually) be 
     ineligible.''
                                  ____


              [From the Pacific Daily News, Mar. 24, 1999]

                    Underground Trip Starts on Guam

                             (By Brad Wong)

       (Editor's note. Pacific Daily News reporter Brad Wong has 
     reported from China on the conditions that have led hundreds 
     of residents of Fujian province to immigrate illegally to 
     Guam. In this second of three parts, he describes the 
     underground economies that support the immigrants. Look for 
     the third and final installment of the story in Thursday, 
     Pacific Daily News.)
       Fuqing, China--Peter Kwong, an Asian-American Studies 
     professor at Hunter College in New York City, is the author 
     of ``Forbidden Workers,'' a book about illegal immigration, 
     such as Guam has experienced in the past year.
       No matter the entry point, established underground 
     economies absorb the workers once they land, he said.
       ``Smugglers wouldn't send people there if they don't think 
     they can get jobs and pay them back,'' Kwong said in a 
     telephone interview from New York City.
       It's not an idea,'' he said. ``It's something that already 
     has been worked out.''
       In its apparent status as a new gateway, Guam joins Mexico 
     and the Caribbean as smaller entry points for Chinese 
     immigrants en route to larger U.S. mainland cities, where 
     there are more opportunities and better support networks.


                       fueling a growing economy

       The money the immigrant generate for smugglers, Chinese 
     banks and all parties involved help buttress Fujian's 
     rapidly-growing economy, Kwong said. In New York alone, he 
     said Fujianese immigrants who work in small businesses, 
     restaurants and the garment industry, paid smugglers $200 
     million in transportation debt in 1998--five times what Hong 
     Kong, Taiwanese, Japanese, U.S. and European companies 
     invested in the province during the same year, according to 
     Professor Sun Shaozhen of the Fujian Teachers' University.
       The underground economies that keep the immigrants working 
     once they arrive in the United States have sprouted up in 
     Atlanta, Los Angeles and in cities along the East Coast 
     according to Kwong.
       ``It's spreading very far and very wide,'' he said.
       The Fujianese immigrants arriving illegally by boat on Guam 
     illustrate a philosophical dilemma; people trying to improve 
     their standing in life--but contracting with organized 
     criminals and breaking U.S. law to do so.
       Provincial characteristics, geography and history all have 
     combined to fuel this phenomenon, Sun said. Fujianese 
     historically have been courageous, adventurous and daring, he 
     said, referring to the lyrics of a local folk song that he 
     says many have taken to heart: ``If you love the struggle, 
     you will be the winner.''
       According to Sun, acceptance of struggle as a way to 
     economic salvation best explains why so many Fujianese risk 
     their lives and attempt to emigrate over seas, often in 
     crowded and unsafe boats.
       Lin Yan, who has written about emigration for Chinese 
     newspapers, tells of a Fujianese woman who traveled about 900 
     miles to China's southwest Yumnan province and crossed the 
     borders into Burma.
       After making her way to Cambodia, she departed from Laos by 
     boat to Mexico. She lived with Mexican Indians and eventually 
     climbed through the mountains into the United States, where 
     authorities apprehended her.


                   circumstances, dreams and history

       A shortage of arable land in Fujian also plays a part in 
     the emigration. Mountains cover 90 percent of the densely 
     populated province, leaving little room for farmers to grow 
     crops.
       And even if they are able to grow produce, many peasants 
     are hard-pressed to earn enough.
       The average Fujianese farmer's salary is about $33 per 
     month, an increase from the $2 per month that a peasant 
     earned in the early 1980s, but still too little to support 
     families on, some growers said.
       Western movies and television programs, like the popular 
     beach show ``Baywatch,'' also influence residents' 
     perceptions of life in the United States.
       ``They think America is so free and rich,'' Sun said. ``The 
     cities are modern and the lifestyle is so relaxed.''
       Emigration has been part of Fujianese history since the 
     Ming and Qing dynasties and dates back at least 300 years, 
     Sun and Lin said.
       Famine and poor living conditions historically have 
     prompted the Fujianese to leave the province, and many former 
     residents of the province have helped develop Taiwan, 
     Singapore, Southeast Asia and the United States. Some 
     Fujianese have moved as far away as Hungary, Poland and 
     Cyprus, according to Sun.
       Those who have struck it rich in the United States and 
     return for visits are seen as success stories that others 
     want to emulate. And while some residents realize that life 
     abroad can be difficult, others focus on the money--without 
     examining how it was earned.
       ``Nobody tells them that they had a miserable life,'' Lin 
     said. ``(Locals just) say, `Oh, you've earned a lot of 
     money.' ''
                                  ____


                  [Pacific Daily News, Mar. 25, 1999]

                 `They Just Want To Change Their Life'

                             (By Brad Wong)

       Fuqing, China.--From this province, there are three main 
     departure points along 300 miles of jagged shoreline nicked 
     by inlets and peppered with tiny islands; Fuqing, Changle and 
     Pingtan, on an island with many boats.

[[Page 5770]]

       Peasants with little education and few opportunities to 
     work in rural factories and small businesses are most likely 
     to leave, according to Sun Shaozhen, a professor at Fujian 
     Teachers' University. They sometimes think a Pacific island 
     is part of the continental United States, he said.
       Would-be emigrants can contract through an employment 
     office that recruits people for overseas work or talk 
     directly to the smugglers, said Lin Yan, who has written 
     about emigration for Chinese newspapers.
       Because family members often rely on the same network of 
     contacts, residents often follow one another to the same 
     destination. Families and entire villages have gone to 
     California, Hawaii and New York. That pattern also may 
     explain why so many people from Fuqing and Fujian show up on 
     Guam.
       The long and ragged shoreline makes it easy for smugglers 
     to hide boats and people without being noticed, Sun and Lin 
     said. The government doesn't have enough patrol boats to stop 
     them, Sun said.


                               no way out

       Once a Chinese citizen enters into a contract with 
     smugglers, it initiates a cycle that is difficult to escape 
     according to Peter Kwong, an Asian-American studies professor 
     at Hunter College in New York and author of ``Forbidden 
     Workers,'' a book about illegal immigration.
       If the peasants don't repay the transportation debt, the 
     smugglers may intimidate them or their family members with 
     threats of burning their homes or kidnapping their children, 
     Sun and Lin said.
       Many immigrants believe they can eventually pay off their 
     contracts and earn their freedom, Kwong said. But the reality 
     is different.
       ``It's simply you're making money mainly for the smugglers 
     and these greedy employers,'' he said. ``If you pay off all 
     your debt, you're still in the same trap. You're not going to 
     be able to learn the language. You won't be assimilated into 
     the mainstream.''
       Smugglers and employers know that immigrants want freedom 
     in the United States. So smugglers will raise transportation 
     fees and employers will lower an immigrant's wages to keep 
     the cycle working to their advantage, Kwong said.
       Kwong, Coast Guard and Immigration and Naturalization 
     Service officials said they don't know how many people from 
     Fujian province might succeed in entering the United States 
     illegally through Guam or what happens to those who do.
       Kwong said such immigrants often succeeded in the past by 
     working hard, saving money and buying restaurants or garment 
     factories. But the explosive increase in the number of people 
     attempting illegal immigration and the high costs of passage 
     to the United States or elsewhere--$15,000 to Guam, $20,000 
     to Mexico or $30,000 to the continental United States--
     combine to keep many immigrants in underground service-
     sector, restaurant and construction jobs that pay less than 
     minimum wage, Kwong said.
       Even if law enforcement officials arrest the immigrants and 
     repatriate them, they are still bound to pay off the contract 
     for the overseas passage. And the debt, crushing especially 
     by Chinese standards, essentially bars an individual from 
     returning to earn an average salary. So they often look to 
     the sea again for escape.
       ``It's impossible to earn that amount of money in China, so 
     they try again,'' Lin said.
       While repatriated immigrants used to face prison time 
     during the 1960s and 1970s, today the Chinese government 
     fines them for trying to leave the country, Lin and Sun said. 
     Sun estimates the fine at between $300 and $500. The Chinese 
     government has sentenced smugglers to prison, he said.


                            A growing china

       Ironically, the immigrants' arrival on Guam comes in the 
     midst of an aggressive push by China to modernize and grow 
     economically.
       Before the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the country 
     experienced double-digit economic growth this decade, 
     surpassing the United States' growth rate and dazzling 
     business and Wall Street analysts.
       China also has weathered the Asian economic turmoil better 
     than South Korea, Japan and Thailand, though it has felt the 
     sting and residents say business has fallen off.
       Since China opened its doors to the West in the late 1970s, 
     international investors have poured billions of dollars into 
     the country, particularly into small- and medium-sized 
     factories in Fujian.
       Since the 1980s, Taiwanese business executives--including 
     many whose families came from Fujian--have funneled $224 
     billion in investments in this coastal province, according to 
     Sun.
       U.S. fast-food giant McDonald's has planted its golden 
     arches in this coastal area of about 200,000 people, and 
     gleaming new hotels clad in marble and glass cater to the 
     business classes from Hong Kong and Taiwan. New concrete 
     apartments house residents, and modern buses shuttle them 
     between cities.
       But as new buildings continue to go up, peasants from this 
     area and poorer neighboring provinces line Fuqing's streets, 
     sitting on stools and waiting to shine shoes for 12 to 24 
     cents a pair.
       While this coastal city develops, the surrounding 
     countryside and the region's mountainous inland are still 
     waiting for infusions of wealth.
       In many inland areas, peasants live in wooden huts with 
     single light bulbs hanging from the ceilings. Their narrow 
     rows of crops are crowded in between railroad tracks and 
     rocky, unfarmable mountains.


                            why so crowded?

       In part, Guam and the other Pacific Islands that are among 
     the new destinations for these modern-day Chinese immigrants 
     are feeling the impact of the large work force envisioned by 
     former Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Mao, a peasant himself, pushed 
     for a large population during the Cultural Revolution from 
     1966 to 1970 so he could have a formidable work force to 
     build his socialist state.
       Sun believes that if peasants can pool enough money 
     together to send a family member overseas or anticipate that 
     they can raise the necessary amount, they should invest it in 
     a growing China.
       ``It's foolish, because if you have $30,000, you can do 
     some business here,'' he said.
       Still, emigrating to the United States in search of a 
     better life remains a goal for many.
       Many peasants, especially in Fujian's mountainous regions, 
     live in brick huts that are constantly cold during the 
     winter. They dream about having a warm room--and they'll do 
     anything to get more money.
       ``It's hard to imagine,'' Lin said.
       ``The poorest try their best to become rich, so they do 
     their best to become a foreigner,'' Sun said. ``They just 
     want to change their life conditions.''
       That quest for wealth and a better life consumes even the 
     better off among Fuqing's residents. Even the sedan driver, 
     the one with the thinning hair and the daughter who can speak 
     English, hands out a business card with a phone number where 
     he can be reached.
       On the card next to his name in Chinese characters is a 
     picture of a shiny new sports car.
                                  ____


              [From the Pacific Daily News, Mar. 24, 1999]

                 Chinese Detainees Start Asylum Process

                            (Hiroshi Hiyama)

       Dozens of suspected illegal Chinese immigrants caught on a 
     boat off Agat last weekend will go through expedited 
     immigration proceedings because they hadn't entered the 
     United States when they were apprehended.
       Immigration officials apprehended a total of 97 suspected 
     illegal Chinese immigrants and smugglers Sunday. They caught 
     95 in the morning, and Guam police apprehended two others in 
     the afternoon.
       Dental examinations conducted yesterday indicated that nine 
     of the suspected illegal immigrants are minors. The youths 
     will be sent to a juvenile detention facility on the U.S. 
     mainland, said Robert Johnson, acting officer in charge of 
     the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Guam office. A 
     dozen people originally claimed they were minors, Johnson 
     said.
       All 88 adults will continue to stay at the Department of 
     Corrections in Mangilao, where federal officials are 
     interviewing them for possible indictment. Six are suspected 
     smugglers. Six women have been housed in the women's facility 
     at the Department of Corrections, Johnson said.
       The suspected illegal immigrants were apprehended after 
     their rusty fishing boat ran aground on a reef off Agat 
     sometime between Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Of 
     the 97 people on the ship, 40 left the ship to come ashore, 
     while 50 remained on board.
       Those who arrived on shore are suspected of having made 
     illegal entry into the United States and will face regular 
     deportation and asylum processes, Johnson said.
       The other 57 people, whom U.S. law enforcement officials 
     apprehended while they were still on the boat, will go 
     through expedited removal procedure, Johnson said. They will 
     see federal asylum officers before they appear before an 
     immigration judge for further proceedings.
       The overwhelming majority of the immigrants are expected to 
     apply for asylum, Johnson said.
       It's not clear how long the suspects will stay at the 
     Department of Corrections.
       It costs $97.71 per person to house people at the 
     department's detention center, but the federal government 
     doesn't have the money to move them to mainland federal 
     facilities or to pay for them to stay on Guam, Johnson said.
       The government of Guam has made a commitment not to release 
     the suspected illegal immigrants. Gov. Carl Gutierrez is 
     working with federal attorneys and immigration officials to 
     come up with ways to pay the costs of caring for the 
     detainees, said Ginger Cruz, Gutierrez's spokeswoman.
       As of yesterday morning, the INS had 166 illegal immigrants 
     stayed at the Department of Corrections, Johnson said. The 
     detainees include some who have overstayed their visas, 
     Johnson said.
       Angel Sablan, director of corrections, said his facility 
     already is crowded with local inmates and it doesn't have 
     space to hold additional federal detainees.




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