Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 45
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and
Crimes - An Examination of The American
Experience
By Yumin R. Wang∗
This paper examines how illegal Chinese immigrants are being
smuggled into the U.S. and how they are involved in crimes. Three
data sets of different levels-- nationwide, state, and county--were
collected and analyzed. Findings indicate that national population
growth is associated with the increase in the number of undocumented
Chinese. Social security has worsened because more Chinese illegal
aliens are found engaging in various kinds of criminal activity. The
problem is likely to deteriorate in the future because an inclining trend
of change is observed, which indicates that more and more Chinese
are being smuggled into the country.
Key Words: human smuggling, illegal Chinese immigrants, crimes,
Chinese triads.
Crime in America has been decreasing since 1994, and
∗ Dr. Yumin R. Wang (王玉民) is Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of China
Studies and Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University. He received
his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from State University of New York at Albany, and
specialized in Research Methods, The Futures Across the Straits, Issues of Crime,
Futures Studies. His e-mail address is [email protected]
46
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
immigration violations have been increasing concurrently. It seems
absurd arguing that illegal immigrants have been helping America
rebuild its social order. A more reasonable assumption should be that
crime would have been less if there had not been so many undocumented residents.
About ten years after Deng Xiaoping’s reform that was initiated
in 1978, more Chinese are seen everywhere in the world. Chinese
citizens, a total of nearly1.3 billion, generally believe that they can
enjoy a better chance in all countries other than their own, so they
seek to emigrate and resort to illegal means when legal ones are not
present. The land of opportunity naturally has become one of their
favorite destinations, and they are being smuggled into the U.S.
This paper explores why Chinese triads are attracted by the
illegal business of human smuggling and how they carry out their
operations. How these undocumented Chinese are involved in crimes
and thus damage the social order of the U.S. is the next issue
examined. A prediction of the trend of change of the association
between Chinese illegal aliens and crimes is made in the end.
The Issue Across the Globe
The opening of the former socialist countries and rapid
technological developments have led to globalization, and population
mobilization across countries seems inevitable. Political instability
and arms conflict, rapid population growth, environmental
degradation, widening economic disparities between countries, and a
worsening unemployment crisis have led to migration pressure.
People living in the Asia Pacific region who perceive the pressure
manage to move abroad to secure their lives, families, friends, and
property. A significant number of them who fail to immigrate to their
desired destinations via legal channels consequently become clients of
migrant traffickers. Asia Pacific thus is the region where illegal
immigration and organized crime are most active. Crime groups
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 47
organize ten to fifty percent of human smuggling around the world,
which has become the major source of their income. The annual total
profit the business generates worldwide amounts to a total between
US$3.5 billion and US$10 billion.1
Chinese, illegal immigrants, and organized crime syndicates take
part in the trafficking. It seems as if China has been leaking her people,
for approximately 60 million Chinese are now living outside the
country. They are scattered all over the world.
Chinese gangs are becoming more active in almost all countries
over the past decade, ten years after Deng’s reform. Wherever these
migrants place themselves, triad societies follow. The U.N. warns that
Chinese triads gradually have become the greatest criminal threat the
world has ever known.2 “With a population of 1 billion, it is not
surprising that Chinese organized crime groups are a controlling
influence in a great deal of the organized criminal activity around the
world.”3
Chinese gangs have successfully penetrated Japanese society. In
addition to committing frequently detected crimes such as robbery and
burglary, they have begun to engage in more sophisticated criminal
activities such as forging credit cards and rigging pachinko machines.
In 2001, forty percent of all foreigners arrested for immigration
violations were Chinese.4 Sintaro Ishihara, the Tokyo governor argues:
“Atrocious crimes have been committed again and again by sangokujn
1
Andreas Schloenhardt, “Migrant Trafficking and Regional Security,” Forum 16,
no. 2, (Summer, 2001): 83-88.
2
Martin Booth, The Dragon Syndicates: The Global Phenomenon of the Triads
(New York: Carroll and Graf, 2001).
3
“Understanding Asian Organized Crime.”
<http://www.rcmp-learning.org/docs/ecdd0054.htm>
4
Gordon G. Chang, “The Greatest Resource in the World, Part II,” China Brief 2,
no. 25, December 20, 2002.
<http:://China.Jamestown.org/pubs/view/cwe_002_025_002.htm>
48
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
(a derogatory term for ethnic Chinese and Koreans living in Japan)
who have entered the country illegally.” Atsuyuki Sassa, a security
advisor to Ishihara, adds that while Koreans may have adjusted to
Japan, undocumented Chinese and Middle Eastern immigrants are
“carrying out terrible crimes”.5
Chinese “snakeheads” and Japanese yakuza (a well-organized
crime syndicate) gangsters have established a partnership and have
been smuggling Chinese into Japan, charging US$25,000 per head.
These illegal Chinese immigrants commit all kinds of crime in order
to pay off their smuggling fee upon arrival. A 1996 statistic indicates
that Chinese nationals occupy 16 percent of the overall alien
population in Japan. They are accountable for 41 percent of the crimes
committed by foreigners. From January to February 1997, police
arrested as many illegal Chinese nationals as in all of 1996. Japanese
officials were so astonished that they visited Chinese authorities to
discuss how the two governments could work in partnership to
improve the situation.6
News in Australia reports that the local Chinese crime gang “Big
Circle”, which originated in China, was involved in victimizing at
least 300 Chinese Australians who advertised rooms to rent. Other
crimes of which the gang’s members are accused involve a murder, the
rape of a teenage girl, and the theft of more than 100 passports and
thousands of dollars. The gang leader is an illegal immigrant, who
commands 400 to 600 members and engages in human smuggling and
heroin trafficking.7
5
James Conachy, “Tokyo Governor Uses Earthquake Drill to Push Rightwing,
Militarist Agenda,” World Socialist Website.
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/sep2000/jap-s18.shtml>
6
“Japan: Chinese Boat People”, Australian Visas.
<http://www.migrationint.com.au/news/frankfurt/apr_1997-13mn.html>
7
U.S Department of State.
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 49
In Italy, individuals from the P.R.C. make up the largest Chinese
community. The one comprising citizens from Taiwan is about twenty
times smaller, and the third Chinese community made up of citizens
from Hong Kong and Macao is the tiniest. Domenico Di Petrillo, chief
of D.I.A. operative station of Rome, points out that members of
Chinese organized crime syndicates are found to exploit their
compatriots who are honest and hard-working immigrants. They are
also found involved in international drug trafficking and clandestine
immigration that penetrate all European countries. Among others,
“Tiger Head” was the strongest crime group found in Rome in 1991.
Human smuggling is an “industry” because each illegal Chinese
immigrant pays 20 to 30 million liras for the tour. They are forced to
work long hours without being paid every day for two to three years
upon arrival. Many young immigrants are sent by Chinese Mafias to
commit all types of crime. A gloomy future is foreseeable, however,
in that evidence suggests that illegal Chinese immigrants always will
be on their way to Western countries.8
Plywaczewski has found that Chinese organized crime groups are
involved in people-smuggling operations in Austria, Hungary, Poland,
and other European countries. Smugglers usually charge a higher fee
and provide their customers a guarantee of effectiveness. They will
eventually get their clients to the countries they desire no matter how
many times they might fail.9
U. Savona and Goglio have studied the relationship between
migration and crime in certain Council of Europe member states. They
<http://usinfo.gov/regional/ea/chinaaliens/innewsjan02.htm>
8
Domenico di Petrillo, “The Chinese Mafia.”
<http://www.susde.it/Sito/Supplemento.nsf/ServNavig/26>
9
Emil W. Plywaczewski, “Chinese Organized Crime in Western and Eastern
Europe,” paper presented at the 3rd Annual Symposium “Crime and Its Control in
Greater China,” held by University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PRC. June 21-22,
2002.
50
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
have found that foreigners are over-represented in the prison
population. In Switzerland and Luxemburg, for instances, foreigners
account for nearly half of the overall prison population. The increase
in the foreigner inmate population is related neither to changes in
Eastern Europe nor to inter-European migration flows. Additionally,
the fastest growth was observed in the late 1980s. Although the
authors did not investigate further to determine whether or not
Chinese nationals played an important role in the dramatic increase,
they looked into the human smuggling issue.
According to their investigation, “snakeheads” get their name
from acting like amphibious reptiles. They send undocumented
Chinese to their desired destinations via land and water routes. An
estimate of 60,000 Chinese who sneaked into Russia with the
assistance of smugglers are waiting in Moscow to be transported to
the Netherlands. Moscow snakeheads lead them to Prague by train.
The two-year long journey continues from there:
“[They] are brought by car from Prague to the German border where
another snakehead brings them across the green border into Bavaria.
From there they proceed by train, and sometimes by taxi to the
Netherlands. … At the Dutch port of Vlissingen the Marechaussee
(military police) regularly arrest Chinese who try to get on a boat on
their way to England and the U.S. with false or stolen Dutch
passports.”10
The American Experience
A 1996 statistic indicates that about 5 million undocumented
immigrants resided in the United States. They made up about 1.9
10
Ernesto U. Savona and Silvio Goglio, “Migration and Crime,” paper presented at
the International Conference on “Youth and Racism in Europe,” held by Trento
University, Trento, Italy, Oct. 6-7, 1995, pp. 7-8.
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 51
percent of the total population and grew by 275,000 each year.11 On
January 31, 2003, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
released its latest estimate, and the number has increased to a total of 7
million.
During the 1990s, an average of 700,000 illegal immigrants
entered the U.S. each year. The rate increased to 817,000 by 1998 and
1 million in 1999. The foreign-born of the country amounts to a total
of 33.1million up to now, which equals 11.5 percent of the overall
population. However, the Census Bureau estimates that 8 to 9 million
of the foreign-born are illegal immigrants.12
The seven states with the largest number of illegal immigrants
account for 83 percent of the total population. They involve California
(2 million), Texas (700,000), New York (540,000), Florida (350,000),
Illinois (290,000), New Jersey (135,000), and Arizona (115,000). In
the remaining top twenty states, undocumented residents encompass
less than 1 percent of their total population.
Illegal immigrants come from different parts of the world. Eighty
percent of them are from countries in the Western Hemisphere. About
2.1 million (41 percent of the total) are nonimmigrant overstays. They
are the individuals that legally enter the country on a temporary basis
and fail to depart. The rest of the population is composed of EWIs
(Entry Without Inspection), who illegally sneak into the country.
Mexico is the leading country of origin with an estimate of 2.7 million,
which comprises 54 percent of the population. The other four of the
top five countries include El Salvador (335,000), Guatemala (165,000),
Canada (120,000), and Haiti (105,000).13
11
Immigration and Naturalization Service,
<http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/aboutus/statistics/illegalalien/index.htm>
12
Center for Immigration Studies.
<http://www.cis.org/articles/2003/illegalsrelease.html>
13
Immigration and Naturalization Service, ibid.
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Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
Mexico is the largest source of legal immigrants as well, which
accounts for more than five times as many immigrants as the second
one—the combined total for China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The
number of the former from 1970 to 2000 was 7,858,000 and 1,391,000
for the latter.14 Among the one million aliens who illegally enter the
U.S. each year, Chinese occupy a relatively smaller portion, compared
with Mexicans. Most of the Mexican illegal aliens end up working in
the strawberry fields; they are the most exploited and the poorest
agricultural workers.15
According to an estimate done by the United Nations, human
trafficking has become a thriving business that generates a total of
US$9 billion in profits each year. The Office of International Criminal
Justice estimates that from 1995 to 1996 alone, as many as 100,000
illegal Chinese immigrants were smuggled into the U.S.16 Camarota
argues that emigration pressure dramatically increased in the 1990s
because the speed of modernization of China accelerated. The figure
is underestimated if one infers the number of Chinese EWIs in the
1990s based on the number in the 1980s.17 Results of approximation
vary. For example, Chin and Massey give a total of 50,000 per year,18
14
Steven A. Camarota, “Immigration in the United States—2000: A Snapshot of
America’s Foreign-born Population,” Center for Immigration Studies.
<http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back101.html>.
15
Eric Schlosser, Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American
Black Market. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin: 2003).
16
Office of International Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State, Bureau for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
<http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/oicjw96.txt>
17
Steven A. Camarota, “5 Million Illegal Immigrants: An Analysis of New INS
numbers,” Center for Immigration Studies.
<http://www.cis.org/articles/1997/IR28/5million.html>
18
Ko-Lin Chin and Douglas S. Massey, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine
Immigration to the United States.( Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999).
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 53
which is half the number Wilbanks estimates.19
Supplying prostitutes is a major motive for human smugglers. In
2000, the U.S. State Department reported that more than one million
women and girls were being smuggled across international borders
and forced into prostitution. About 20% of these females ended up
becoming prostitutes in the U.S.20
Frank points out that as early as the middle to late 1800s when
Chinese labor arrived in the U.S to work on the railroads, Asian
criminal enterprises, tongs, and triads began to engage in the control
of prostitution activities and the trafficking of Chinese women. Over
the past twenty years, the influx of illegal Chinese immigrants has
significantly increased the demand for Asian prostitutes. A great
number of “massage parlors”, a prostitution business old in Asia and
new in America, have been set up. Triads have been found involved in
the business, and China has become the major source of prostitutes.21
Nowadays, Asian organized crime or street gang syndicates control
over 80 percent of the Asian brothels in California. In Southern
California, these crime groups include the Black Dragons, Orange
Boys, Kool Boys, Wah Ching, Red Door, United Bamboo, Mongolian
Boy Society, and V Boys. In New York City, the Fuk Ching crime
group smuggles Asian girls at a cost of US$20,000 to US$35,000 each
and sells them to prostitution houses operated by Asian organized
crime syndicates at about the same price.
Other Chinese illegal aliens enter the U.S. in search of a better
19
Charles Wilbanks, “Fear and Bondage in America: How Dreams Turn into
Nightmares for Chinese Illegals,” ASIAWEEK.
<http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/98/0619/feat6.html>
20
Marcus Frank, “Asian Criminal Enterprises and Prostitution,” paper deliverd to
the 24th International Asian Organized Crime Conference held in Chicago, Illinois,
March 25-39, 2002.
21
“Chinese Triads.” op.cit.
54
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
life. On June 6,1993, the Golden Venture brought 286 Chinese to New
York at Far Rockaway, Queens. Ten of them drowned when they
jumped into the water, attempting to swim ashore. The American
public became aware of the fact that illegal Chinese immigrants were
coming by sea.
Kwong interviewed the survivors and visited their families in the
villages of Fujian Province where most of them had come from. In
New York, these undocumented immigrants sleep in the restaurants
and garment factories where they work overtime every day. They
constantly live in fear because gangs enforce obedience and silence.
Zhen, a figure that Kwong profiles, was a schoolteacher in
Fuzhou. He was brought to New York by a snakehead at a cost of
US$30,000 and was required to pay back his fee in three years. He
works fourteen hours a day in Chinese restaurants or sweatshops,
shares an apartment with over a dozen illegal aliens, and eats cheap
food. Gang members threaten to take retribution against him or his
family in China whenever he fails to meet his payments.
The life back home is desperate, however. One farmer makes
only US$20 a year after taxes and has to provide for the family’s
needs. Most of the villagers believe that going to America is still
better than staying at home. They are so determined that they do not
care how much it costs to get there and how hard the life is after
arrival.22
In May 1998, 22 Chinese were arrested at Bay Head, a popular
summer resort in New Jersey. Each of them had paid $40,000 for the
trip.23 Snakeheads received a $15,000 commission per head.24
22
Peter Kwong, Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American
Labor. (New York: The New Press, 1998).
23
Australian Visas.
<http://www.migrationint.com.au/news/rome/jun_1998_07mm.html>
24
Richard C. Lindberg, “Spotlight on Asian Organized Crime,” Search
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 55
Chin and Massey interviewed 300 Chinese who were smuggled
into the country between 1988 and 1993. They found that the voyage
was hard and dangerous; food was never enough, conditions were
dirty and crowded, and women constantly risked the danger of being
physically and sexually abused. Many of those who survived the
journey ended up living a miserable life in New York’s Chinatown.
Traffickers, upon arrival, detained them in “safe houses”—tiny
basements or rooms that are poorly maintained, until their families
and friends paid the smuggling fees. In 1993, New York police
estimated that there might have been around two or three hundred safe
houses in Queens alone. Chin and Massey anticipate that newcomers
will always be arriving by sea as long as Chinese citizens are deprived
of fundamental human rights and economic security.25
Zhang and Chin have examined the inner function of Chinese
human smuggling organizations and concluded that human trafficking
is not necessarily a well-organized operation. Contrary to the general
perceptions, they have found that alien smuggling rings are loosely
structured. Members come from various backgrounds, who form
temporary alliances to set up smuggling operations for profit— the
only commitment they commonly have.26
Fujian and Zhejiang are the two provinces where most of today’s
illegal Chinese immigrants come from. In the past, it was Guangdong.
These three provinces are on the east coast of China where ports of
departure are readily accessible.27 As a result of cultural solidarity
International.
<http://www.search-international.com/WhatsNew/Wnasiangangs.htm>
25
Ko-Lin Chin and Douglas S. Massey, ibid.
26
Sheldon Zhang and Ko-Lin Chin, “Enter the Dragon: Inside Chinese Human
Smuggling Organizations,” Criminology 40, no. 4, (2002): 737-768.
27
U.S. Department of State.
<http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/ea/chinaaliens/where.htm>
56
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
among people who come from the same villages and towns, those who
successfully arrive in the U.S. usually help their fellow villagers and
townsmen make the same trip. Three rural towns in Fujian have
become villages of women because all males who are capable of
working are trafficked to New York.28
Similar to those immigrants who arrived earlier, many Asians,
although they have legally entered the country, have difficulties
adapting to life in the U.S. Racial prejudices against Asians, including
the belief that they take away jobs from Americans and that they are
more loyal to their country of origin than America, have historically
been an issue of debate.29 The institutional barriers ahead of them
frustrate those who endeavor to attain the American dream through
conventional approaches. Some of them eventually resort to
unconventional methods in an attempt to fulfill their goals in life.
They often meet apathetic friends down the road, and gangs are thus
formed on the basis of establishing a mutually supportive system.30
Illegal immigrants encounter more obstacles, which
consequentially drive them to commit crimes. Undocumented
residents have increasingly populated prison systems in California and
throughout the Southwest. In many prisons, they even occupy more
than 25 percent of the total inmate population.31
A number of researchers argue that immigrants as a whole are not
crime-prone because they commit proportionately fewer crimes than
28
Paul J. Smith (ed.), Human Smuggling: Migrant Trafficking And The Challenges
to America’s Immigration Tradition. Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and
International Studies, 1997.
29
Frank H. Wu, Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White. New York, NY:
Basic Books, 2001.
30
C.N. Lin, “Asian American Gangs,” Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian
America. <http://ww.asian-nation.org/issues8.html>
31
Thomas W. Murphy, “Mexico’s Newest State,” USA In Review, May 27, 2002.
<http://usainreview.com/5_27_mexico.htm>
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 57
native-born citizens. A study found that foreign-born individuals
accounted for about 19 percent of the total arrests made in six major
American cities in 1985. Several studies also concluded that in the age
group of 18-40, there is a smaller percentage of immigrants than
native-born citizens in prison. Those who arrived earlier are more
likely to be incarcerated than those who are newcomers. Youths born
abroad are less likely than their native-born counterparts to engage in
criminal activities. Moreover, new immigrants have no influence on
crime rates over time. 32
However, Horowitz argues that immigrants have been perceived
to be associated with crimes in America. California and New York, for
instances, are two states with huge immigrant populations. Their
police departments and criminal justice organizations have devoted a
large amount of their budgets to dealing with criminals of migrant
background. Furthermore, the federal government has subsidized all
states in their combat against these offenses. Unfortunately, it has been
difficult attempting to identify and fight crimes committed by legal
immigrants, letting alone the cases committed by their undocumented
counterparts. The latter incidents are likely to grow in the future
because the influx of illegal immigration shows no sign of slowing
down.
Immigrant-related crimes are by and large underreported. Police
in Memphis estimate that hundreds of robberies are not reported each
year, and most of these offenses occurred between immigrants.
Victims were afraid of retaliation, especially when crime rings were
involved. Undocumented residents, in particular, are unwilling to go
to the police in the fear that they may get arrested and deported. In
addition, according to their culture and tradition, offenses such as
32
Carl F. Horowitz, “An Examination of U.S. Immigration Policy and Serious
Crime,” Center for Immigration Studies.
<http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/crime/toc.html>
58
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
domestic violence are often considered as “family matters” rather than
crimes. Finally, the local police organizations usually do not keep
records on the national origins of the offender.33
Mahlmann typologizes Chinese criminal enterprises that the FBI
has investigated over the years into traditional and nontraditional
groups.34 The prior involves the triad families that have a hierarchical
internal structure, a ritual performed by members in certain occasions,
and an origin of more than one hundred years. They are based in Hong
Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Nowadays, however, their affiliates simply
take advantage of the network function of the organization to make
fast money and loosely couple its norms and value system.
Although nontraditional Chinese syndicates in the U.S. have ties
to criminal groups either in China or in other countries, they are
essentially independent organizations. The dramatic increase in
Chinese immigrants has led to the growth in the number and size of
Chinese communities, and new criminal enterprises have appeared as
a result. Gangs originated in China, Big Circle Boys and Fu Ching, for
instance, are challenging the dominant position of old triads. They
have worldwide contacts and are capable of carrying out sophisticated
crimes.
According to the FBI’s investigation in 1998, a total of 37
Chinese enterprises are located in 29 American large cities. Their
criminal activities are more diverse and multifaceted than other Asian
gangs. The public generally perceives the impact they bring. “No
longer is it the days of La Cosa Nostra, otherwise known as the Italian
Mafia. Now it is the epoch of the Sun Yee On and various other Triad
33
34
Ibid.
Ning-Ning Mahlmann, “Chinese Criminal Enterprises,” in Asian Criminal
Enterprise Program Overview: A Study of Current FBI Asian Criminal Enterprise
Investigations in the United States. FBI.
<http://uninfo.state.gov/regional/ea/chinaaliens/ningning.htm>
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 59
groups.” 35
In Chicago, Chinese and Vietnamese have organized street gangs
that “in some ways, constitute a greater danger to the public safety
than Larry Hoover’s army of drug runners who peddle dime bags in
the projects.” Two renowned gangs are active in the city: the Hip Sing
in the uptown community along the lakefront and the On Leong, a
South Side group in the more evolved Chinatown at 22nd Street and
Wentworth Avenue. In other cities, Lindberg points out, during the
1970s and 1980s, the Wah Ching came into power and controlled most
of the criminal activities in the Chinatowns of Los Angeles, New York,
and San Francisco.36
Chinese triads are frequently found involved in drug dealing,
gambling, money laundering, home robberies, prostitution, and alien
smuggling. Chinese crime lords are observed to operate a “new slave
trade” in the U.S, and a number of them recruit and smuggle in their
foot soldiers from overseas.37
Bolz concludes that human smuggling is attractive to triads
because it promises multimillion-dollar profits and less severe
penalties. Seven major organized crime syndicates in the U.S. are
frequently found involved in the trade, including the Sun Yee On
Triad, the Wo Group, the 14K Triad, the Luen Group, the Big Circle
Gang, the United Bamboo Gang, and the Four Seas Gang. Those
illegal immigrants who fail to pay the triads are very likely to be
forced to work at sweatshops, to perform illegal activities, or are
executed.38 Nevertheless, the demand for illegal entry into the U.S. is
constantly increasing and the human smuggling business operated by
35
“Chinese Triads.” <http://www.geovities.com/leixiaojie/Traids2>
36
Richard C. Lindberg, ibid.
37
Carl F. Horowitz, ibid.
38
Jennifer Bolz, “Chinese Organized Crime and Illegal Alien Trafficking: Humans
As A Commodity,” Asian Affairs 22, no. 3 ( 1995): 147-158.
60
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
organized crime syndicates has become more and more active.
Examining The American Experience
Three sets of data at different levels—nationwide, state, and
county—were gathered from the official sources available on the
Internet. They are longitudinal in essence, encompassing an elevenyear time period, ranging from 1992 to 2002. The first year of data
collection is set at 1992, because it was when illegal Chinese
immigrants started to become a worldwide problem.
Although the reliability of official data is generally high, its
validity is problematic. For example, the Uniform Crime Report at
nationwide, state, and county levels only indicates serious crimes, and
minor offenses are usually ignored. Furthermore, such data do not
allow one to calculate the number of crimes solely committed by
undocumented Chinese immigrants. Similarly, it seems impossible to
attempt to individually estimate the number of Chinese offenders
convicted for immigration violation based on the data gathered from
the INS. Data purporting to attain such computation purposes might
have been available somewhere else, but they are not accessible on the
Internet, however.
Utilizing data that suffer from such pitfalls risks the danger of
reaching biased findings. The justification for employing such data,
however, is the fact that Chinese lawbreakers took a part in
committing these offenses and thus added to the overall statistics.
Such an assumption is numerically reasonable because when the total
fluctuates, the individual components simultaneously change.
A series of analysis begins at the nationwide level, which offers a
general overview of the impacts caused by the influx of illegal
Chinese immigrants. State-level analyses present a more accurate
estimate. California, Texas, New York, and Florida are selected
because they have more undocumented residents than other states.
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 61
Moreover, illegal Chinese residents comprise a significant portion of
the total population of the four states. County-level analyses make the
association between illegal Chinese immigrants and crimes clearer.
Counties in Los Angeles and New York have the largest
undocumented population,39 and Chinese form a significant part.
Convictions for immigration violation is the variable
operationalized to indicate how the number of illegal Chinese
immigrants changed from 1992 to 2002. It was used as a predictor and
was subsequently regressed on the set of crime variables of the three
data sets. Comparisons of influence were made across different levels
and within the same level. Its impact on population was also examined.
Table 1 presents nationwide influence caused by immigration
violation. Illegal immigrants significantly contribute to the increase in
national population. However, they do not seem to damage social
order in that the overall crime index shows a declining trend.
Associations between immigration violation and all crimes are
estimated. The impact that immigration violation has on violent crime
is stronger than its impact on property crime. The magnitude of
correlation between the predictor and the set of dependent variables
appears in this descending order: motor vehicle theft, robbery,
aggravated assault, homicide, larceny-theft, and rape. Burglary is the
only type of crime not associated with immigration violation.
39
China Forum. <http://www.china-forum.org>
62
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
Table 1. Results of analysis at the national level.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Predictor: Convictions for Immigration Violation ( b / R2 )
Dependent
Variables / Region
USA
Population
1811.95**/.75**
Index Crime
-218.96**/.88**
Violent Crime
-41.22**/.88**
Property Crime
-117.75**/.87**
Homicide
-.71**/.85**
Rape
-1.27**/.75**
Robbery
-20.79**/.88**
Aggrav ated Assault
-18.46**/.86**
Burglary
-14.79/.06
Larceny-theft
-81.11**/.80**
Motor Vehicle Theft
-34.58**/.89**
N=11
**: p(t)<.01 / p(F)<.01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table 2 indicates that illegal immigrants significantly contribute
to the increase in population across three of the four states, the
exception being New York. The magnitude of influence is ranked in
the order of Texas, Florida, and California.
The impact that immigration violation has on the overall index
crime of California is the strongest, followed by that of New York,
Florida, and Texas. The same holds for its influence on violent crime
and property crime of the four states. In Texas, property crime is not
associated with immigration violation. Compared with its counterparts,
California suffers most seriously from the influx of illegal immigrants.
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 63
The influence that immigration violation has on homicide in the
four states is greatest in California, then New York, Florida, and Texas.
The same holds for its influence on robbery, aggravated assault,
burglary, and larceny-theft across the four states.
Immigration violation has the strongest influence on the rate of
rape of California, compared with its impact on that of Texas and New
York. The predictor does not influence the type of crime in Florida,
however. Its impact on the rate of motor vehicle theft is greatest in
Texas, followed by Florida, New York, and California. California is in
first place in almost all crimes influenced by immigration violation
except this one.
In California, immigration violation has a stronger association
with property crime than its relationship with violent offenses. The
magnitude of the correlation between the predictor and all crimes
appears in this descending order: larceny-theft, aggravated assault,
homicide, robbery, motor vehicle theft, burglary, and rape.
In Texas, immigration violation is associated with violent crime
and is independent of property crime. The correlation between the
predictor and all crimes is highest in aggravated assault, followed by
homicide, rape, robbery, motor vehicle theft, and burglary. Larcenytheft is the only type of crime that is not related to immigration
violation.
In New York, as in California, immigration violation is more
strongly associated with property crime than with violent crime. The
correlation between the predictor and all crimes is most noticeable in
burglary, followed by larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, robbery, rape,
aggravated assault, and homicide. Similar to the case of California, all
crimes in New York are influenced by undocumented residents.
In Florida, immigration violation has a stronger association with
violent crime than its correlation with property crime. The correlation
between the predictor and all crimes is largest in aggravated assault,
followed by robbery, homicide, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor
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Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
vehicle theft. Rape is the only type of crime in the state that is not
related to immigration violation.
Table 2. Results of state-level analysis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Predictor: Convictions for Immigration Violation ( b / R2 )
Dependent
Variables/States
Population
Index Crime
Violent Crime
Property Crime
Homicide
Rape
Robbery
Aggravated Assault
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor Vehicle Theft
CA
TX
NY
FL
.23**/.87** 213.68**/.80**
3.77/.00
167.18**/.77**
-35.65**/.87** -9.41*/.42* -32.45**/.80** -17.06**/.83**
-10.27**/.89** -1.72**/.66** -6.63**/.77** -2.58**/.87**
-25.38**/.86**
-7.69/.38
-25.82**/.81** -14.48**/.81**
-.15**/.87** -.01**/.71** -.10**/.74** -.02**/83**
-.16**/.60**
-.12**/.66*
-.11**/.76**
-.02/.16
-5.13**/.87**
-.74*/.50*
-4.37**/.78** -1.26**/.86**
-4.82**/.90** -.79**/.80** -2.05**/.75** -1.28**/.86**
-14.42**/.84** -3.20*/.43* -7.42**/.84** -5.29**/.79**
-23.42**/.91**
-2.20/.17
-11.2**/.82** -7.02**/.74**
-.13**/.87**
-2.29*/.50*
-.19**/.81** -2.17**/.70**
N=11
**: p(t)<.01 / p(F)<.01
*: p(t)<.05 / p(F)<.05
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table 3 presents the results of county-level analysis. The
population of New York County, that is, Manhattan, is not influenced
by the change in the number of illegal residents. The influence the
variable has on the violent crime and property crime of Los Angeles is
more substantial, compared with its impact on the identical variables
of New York. Similarly, its impact on all crimes in Los Angeles
weights more, compared with how it influences similar crimes in New
York. There is no association between immigration violation and the
rate of rape of Los Angeles.
Human Smuggling, Illegal Chinese Immigrants and Crimes-An Examination of The American Experience 65
In the case of Los Angeles, the magnitude of the association
between immigration violation and violent crime and the relationship
between immigration violation and property crime are identical. The
importance of the correlations between the predictor and all crimes
appears in the order of larceny-theft, homicide, robbery, motor vehicle
theft, aggravated assault and burglary. Rape is the only type of crime
in the area that is not related to illegal residents.
In the case of New York, immigration violation has a stronger
association with violent crime than with property crime. The
magnitude of the correlation between the predictor and all crimes
appears in the order of rape, burglary, aggravated assault, motor
vehicle theft, homicide, robbery, and larceny-theft.
Table 3. Results of county-level analysis.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Predictor: Convictions for Immigration Violation ( b / R2 )
Dependent
Variables / Counties
LAC
NYC
Population
.04**/.85**
3.11/.30
Index Crime
-14.83**/.84**
-6.89**/.70**
Violent Crime
-5.12**/.84**
-1.47**/.72**
Property Crime
-9.63**/.84**
-5.42**/.69**
Homicide
-.08**/.86**
-.02**/.72**
Rape
-.47/.14
-.03**/.82**
Robbery
-2.91**/.85**
-.95**/.71**
Aggravated Assault
-2.15**/.82**
-.48**/.75**
Burglary
-4.58**/.82**
-1.19**/.78**
Larceny-theft
-6.93**/.88**
-3.37**/.65**
Motor Vehicle Theft
-5.50**/.84**
-.86**/.74**
N=11
66
Tamkang Journal of International Affairs
**: p(t)<.01 / p(F)<.01
*: p(t)<.05 / p(F)<.05
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
Findings from three levels of analysis indicate that the increase in
the number of illegal Chinese immigrants has led to an increase in
national population. These findings merit public concern rather than
celebration because undocumented residents are associated with
crimes. In other words, the country will have a higher proportion of
deviant residents in the long run, as long as Chinese keep on being
smuggled into the country.
In the future, when the PRC becomes more open, one anticipates
seeing more Chinese citizens being trafficked to the U.S. Given its
population superiority, it will not take long for China to become the
major source of illegal immigrants. Consequently, America will
eventually serve “as the crime control and rehabilitation center”40 for
the PRC.
Intentionally or unintentionally, China has been leaking her
people. In their 1979 meeting, President Jimmy Carter advised Deng
Xiaoping not to restrict his citizens from emigrating. “How many
millions of Chinese does the United States want?” Deng responded.41
40
Carl F. Horowitz, op. cit.
41
Charles Wilbanks, op.cit.