“If what Kuan said was wrong, then why hasn’t Yuan filed a lawsuit against her as he said he would?” Tsai asked.
Kuan said yesterday she holds credible evidence that Yuan’s permanent residency is still valid and demanded MOFA replace him immediately.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said he received an overseas call from Yuan shortly before the committee meeting.
BLUNDER
“Of course it is a blunder on the part of US immigration. Why would the US notify someone of the approval of his green card application when he has already officially relinquished the process?” he asked.
Yuan had done his part by requesting the termination of the application, while the rest was up to the US, he added.
Justin Chou (周守訓), chairperson of the Foreign and National Defense Committee said that based on his experience of US agencies, it was very likely that the US made a mistake on Yuan’s application.
“I spent a number of years in the US and I know that the US government often makes mistakes. They can even make a mistake on a person’s social security number or translation of one’s name,” he said.
GREEN CARD
Chou said it would be illogical for the US to agree to Yuan’s appointment as Taiwan’s representative if he were a green card holder.
The American Institute in Taiwan declined to comment, saying the US government does not openly discuss an individual’s immigration process out of respect for privacy.
Meanwhile, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said yesterday that the accusation that Yuan possessed a US green card had been a mistake for which the US should take the blame.
Liu made the remarks when asked for comment in an interview with the state-owned Central News Agency yesterday morning.
RESIGN
KMT Legislator Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) urged Yuan to publicize the documents to prove that he had followed the process in renouncing his green card.
But KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) said Yuan should step down over the controversy.
“This controversy is much more serious than the controversy surrounding [former minister without portfolio] Chu Yun-peng [朱雲鵬],” Chiu said.
Chu stepped down late last month for skipping work to go out on dates during office hours.
DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said Yuan’s green card incident was a “big scandal” for the government and Yuan should “step down immediately” if the government still had a sense of shame.
Cheng said the KMT government had discovered high-ranking officials and party legislators were US citizens, but that it had defended them and not expressed remorse over the matter.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA, FLORA WANG, SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
AND RICH CHANG
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