Public Employee Press

Yuen Shing Lee, Local 1597
Member saved from deportation

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

For eight long years until June 25, Custodial Assistant Yuen Shing Lee lived under the threat of being deported to China and having his family torn apart. A member of Local 1597 whose wife is a member of Local 372, Lee received support from the union and finally won his case in federal court.

Under the Bush administration’s harsh enforcement of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, even misdemeanors and crimes like shoplifting and driving under the influence can now lead to deportation.

Lee, who arrived in New York from Hong Kong as a legal permanent resident when he was 11 and settled in the Bronx, got involved in a mail fraud scheme with his first wife’s brother and uncle. He was arrested and found guilty — his first and only brush with the law.

Lee starts campaign
Lee served a six-month sentence, completed probation and began paying a fine of $115,000. But when he was released from jail, Lee was sent straight to an immigration detention center in Oakdale, La., where he spent two years and received a deportation order.

“I don’t know anyone in China and I don’t speak Chinese,” said the Dept. of Citywide Administrative Services employee when he got the order.

In 2002 a judge in the federal district court ruled that Lee is a noncitizen U.S. national, a person who has demonstrated permanent allegiance to the United States; however, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision.

Lee and his wife, Arline, a member of Board of Education Employees Local 372, began a campaign to stop his deportation. With a petition drive supported by his coworkers, friends and neighbors, and immigrant advocates like Families For Freedom and Washington Square Legal Services in his corner, Lee fought back to stay united with his wife, children and parents in the only country that he has ever known.

The union exposed the injustice of the case in the Public Employee Press, and Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo built pressure against deportation by reaching out to Congress member Nydia M. Velázquez and raising the possibility of a “private bill” to block his expulsion.

Lee learned in court June 25 that he would not be deported. “I broke down and cried like a baby,” said Lee, who will no longer have to report to the INS every two months. “Everybody in my family was crying.”

Lee is planning a big party to celebrate. “Of course I have to thank everybody who was there for us — including the union,” he said. “We’re very grateful. That support meant a lot to me and my family.”