Tag: illegal immigration

Here is an unexpected benefit of the coronavirus, the self deportation of illegal immigrant inside of South Korea:

An exodus of undocumented foreigners here has begun as the coronavirus epidemic continues. Hundreds of illegal sojourners come to the immigration office on Jeju Island each day asking for quick deportation, according to Yonhap News Agency. 

On Tuesday alone, nearly 200 people gave themselves up to Jeju Immigration Office ― nearly as many as the 230 who surrendered throughout last month. Most were Chinese.

“The virus is spreading so fast,” Yonhap quoted an undocumented Chinese working at a restaurant on Jeju as saying. “My family in China worries about me so much, so I decided to return home.” 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how vigorously this crackdown is enforced:

Police and the justice ministry have launched a rare joint crackdown on undocumented foreign workers and their Korean employers. 

The crackdown will last for one month during which officials will scrutinize workplaces known for having many illegal foreign workers. Primary targets include construction sites, massage parlors, bars and other night entertainment facilities. 

Illegal foreign workers will be subject to deportation and banned from entering Korea for 10 years. Employers caught hiring them will be prosecuted. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t see any angle on how this rise of illegal immigration into South Korea during the Moon administration gives him any political advantage, unlike in the US.  Does anyone have any ideas why the Moon administration is allowing a rise in illegal immigration?:

The number of foreign nationals staying in South Korea illegally increased by nearly 100,000 on-year to surpass 330,000 this year, government data showed Sunday.

According to the data by the Ministry of Justice, 330,005 foreigners were staying in the country without a valid visa as of July, up 97,834 from 232,171 logged July of last year.

The data — which showed the number of illegal aliens over the past 10 years — was submitted to the National Assembly.

The annual average number of reported crimes committed by foreigners came to 43,635 over the past five years, the data showed.

The number came to 34,460 in 2013 and steadily increased to peak at 53,151 in 2016 and slightly down to 45,671 in 2017.  [Yonhap]

I would not be surprised if there is more to this story then what is being reported:

The U.S. government deported a Mexican woman on Friday who had lived in the country illegally for nearly two decades despite efforts by lawmakers to keep her in Florida with her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, and her two American children.

Alejandra Juarez, 38, was joined by her family and her congressman, Darren Soto, at Orlando International Airport for tearful farewells before her flight back to Mexico.

Juarez sought to illegally enter the United States in 1998 and was ordered to be removed, precluding her future chances at getting a visa or becoming a citizen, according to Soto and media interviews Juarez has given.

She illegally re-entered the country in 2000, the same year she married Temo Juarez, a Mexico native who went on to serve in the war in Iraq with the U.S. Marines and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.

After being discovered in the country during a 2013 traffic stop, she had been required to check in every six months with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.  [Reuters]

You can read the rest at the link if you want to read all the anti-Trump stuff even though her deportation process began under the Obama administration.

I feel bad for the kids, but their parents had nearly 20 years to work on her immigration status which leads me to believe there is more to this story.  With that said should illegal immigrant wives of US military servicemembers receive special immigration status?  That is basically the argument being made here.

Here is the latest crackdown by the ROK government on illegal immigrant workers in South Korea:

The Korean government is cracking down on undocumented migrant workers across the country.

The Ministry of Justice said Friday its main target is foreigners who work here illegally after entering the country through visa-waiver programs ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

According to the ministry, the number of undocumented migrant workers surged to 312,346 in May from 251,041 in December 2017.

More than 14,600 undocumented migrant workers have been caught this year, up 7.3 percent from the same period last year; many were Thai women who took advantage of the visa-waiver programs to work at massage parlors and bars here.

Illegal immigrants, if caught, are deported immediately and their employers could face a maximum of three years in prison or a fine of 20 million won ($18,000).

The ministry said the crackdown will continue throughout the year.  [Korea Times]

ROK Heads may remember that South Korea launched an immigration reform measure two years ago that caused many illegal immigrants to self deport, but it appears the need for more prostitutes prior to the Winter Olympics caused a surge in illegal immigration again.

Here is yet another example of why President Trump calls them the “fake news” media:

Donald Trump threatened Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe he would ship 25 million Mexicans to his country, one of a series of bizarre missives that jarred fellow leaders at last week’s acrimonious G7 meet, according to a report on Friday.

The Group of Seven summit gathering of top industrialized democracies finished in disarray after the US president abruptly rejected its consensus statement and bitterly attacked Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Behind the scenes, Trump’s counterparts were dismayed by verbal jabs on topics ranging from trade to terrorism and migration, The Wall Street Journal said, quoting European officials who were present.

At one point he described migration as a big problem for Europe then said to Abe: “Shinzo, you don’t have this problem, but I can send you 25 million Mexicans and you’ll be out of office very soon,” creating a sense of irritation in the room, according to an EU official.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but Trump did not “threaten” Shinzo Abe as this article claims.  He was clearly using sarcasm to make a point to the people in the room.  Any journalist publishing articles insinuating that Trump literally meant to round up 25 million illegal immigrants and ship them to Japan are clearly dishonest and part of the fake news problem.

Just think that if this anchor baby business was going on in a far off US commonwealth like Saipan, how many more of these operations must be going on back on the US mainland?:

A Chinese man, living on Saipan illegally for several years after overstaying his tourist visa, opened a tourist birthing business, using dozens of illegal workers from China as caretakers, according to federal court documents.

The unlicensed business, run out of an apartment complex, catered to as many as a dozen pregnant women at a time, each paying at least $15,000 so their children could be born on U.S. soil, documents state.

Sen “Sam” Sun operates a birthing-tourism network on Saipan that caters primarily to Chinese tourists, according to a criminal complaint filed against him this month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Sun, who allegedly has been in the CNMI illegally since 2014, after overstaying his tourist visa, was indicted on charges of harboring illegal aliens, unlawfully employing aliens, and money laundering.

He was arrested Nov. 3 on Saipan, the day the indictment was filed, according to an arrest warrant.  [Guam PDN]

You can read more at the link, but some how I doubt the founding fathers intended for anchor babies to be the reason for US citizenship if born on US territory.

It appears the illegal immigration reform South Korea has implemented has had some success in reducing the number of illegal immigrants:

One out of 10 foreigners living in South Korea are illegal aliens, government data showed Tuesday.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Justice, 211,320, or 10.5 percent of the total number of foreigners living here as of end-January, are staying without a valid visa.

The number is up 1.1 percent from what was tallied the previous month, which stood at 208,971, it said.

The total shot up to 223,464 in 2007 and dropped to 177,955 in 2009. Since 2014, the number has hovered around 200,000.

The percentage of illegal aliens, meanwhile, has been declining from 12.3 percent in 2012 to 11.3 percent in 2015 and 10.2 percent in 2016 with the overall rise in the number of foreigners living here.  [Korea Times]

The South Korean government implemented a program where if illegal immigrants self deported, after six months they could apply for a work visa for the prior job they were working.  It seems a program like this could be something that could work in the United States as well.

I hope the Korean consulate and advocacy groups are recommending to the illegal immigrants calling them to go back to Korea instead of remaining as criminals in the US:

Park Sang-ok, a consul responsible for immigration affairs at the South Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles, was inundated with telephone calls all day long on Friday.

Many Koreans who are not legally in the United States called him for inquiries, as they were becoming aware that the anti-immigration polices of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration were imminent and are scared of possibly being deported.

According to Park, the callers, including one from Boston, Massachusetts, were responding to the consulate general’s posting of a notice about the U.S. administration’s measures to toughen immigration polices and related information.

Advocacy groups supporting the rights of Korean immigrants, such as the Los Angeles-based Korean Resource Center (KRC), have been dealing with an increasing number of callers seeking more information about the administration’s campaign to crack down on illegal immigration. The center, founded in 1983, was created to educate, serve and organize the Korean-American community in Los Angeles.

One of the officials at the KRC, Chung Sang-hyuk, said, “We received an average of 20 calls a day last week. There were calls from Ohio State and New York as well as Los Angeles.”

The Korean-American community has been gripped by fear since the Trump administration on Tuesday announced new guidelines that could lead to more aggressive deportations of undocumented immigrants inside the country and at the border.  [Yonhap]

The new immigration policy deports illegal immigrants arrested for crimes.  Such as this guy here quoted in the article:

A Korean-American in his 20s living in Georgia State said to Yonhap News Agency, “I have been fined for drunk driving in the past and my visa has expired. I am so worried about agents coming after me.”

If an illegal immigrant is driving around drunk, putting people at risk, why should American citizens be expected to let this person stay?

Here is the other effect from President Trump’s new immigration policy, it is forcing people to apply for residency and citizenship:

Against the backdrop, lawyers specializing in immigration law are cashing in on many Koreans’ needs to obtain permanent residence rights and citizenships earlier.

A 49-year-old Korean resident near Los Angeles said on the condition of anonymity that he hurriedly applied for citizenship right after President Trump’s inauguration. “But it remains to be seen whether I will get it in due time,” he said.

I have little sympathy for illegal immigrants that have had years to apply for residency and did not do it.