US immigration authorities in California asked an immigration court on Friday to reverse its decision to free fugitive Rebar founder Wang You-theng (
Wang was released from a Los Angeles immigration detention center on Aug. 7 after spending six months behind bars as US and Taiwanese authorities sought a way to legally deny his entry into the US and have him returned to Taiwan to face justice.
He was released after a Board of Immigration Appeal (BIA) judge ruled that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency had wrongly arrested him.
"We filed a motion to reconsider today," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the ICE office in Los Angeles.
"We're asking the Board to reconsider its previous ruling and to assign a three-member panel to review the case. The appeal was filed this morning," she said.
"The basis of our filing was simply that we believe that the original immigration judge's finding that Wang was not an arriving alien and the board's ruling supporting that finding arose from a factual error and we've asked the board to seat a panel to reconsider the decision," Kice said.
Wang, who fled Taiwan through China last year and arrived in the US in January, was admitted on a valid Taiwan passport and US visa. After he arrived, however, Taiwan revoked his passport, invalidating his visa.
In early February, he attempted to leave the US, apparently to slip out of the grasp of the US and Taiwanese authorities pursuing his case. While trying to get to Myanmar, he was refused transit entry in Singapore at Taiwan's request and was put on the first plane back to Los Angeles, where he was arrested by ICE on his return as an illegal alien.
On Mar. 28, an immigration court judge ruled against the ICE, saying that Wang had never left the US since he had not been admitted to another country. On August 3, the Board upheld that ruling and Wang was released four days later.
"Our position is that he is, under law, an arriving alien and that's why we filed this motion," Kice said. "We believe that the original immigration judge and the original member of the BIA who reviewed this case and found that he was not an arriving alien, that their ruling is in error."
Pending the ICE motion to reconsider, Wang remained under close observation by the ICE to prevent him from fleeing again.
"We're continuing to monitor him while this legal process plays out," although he will remain free in the interim, Kice said.
She could not say how long it would take the board to assign the panel or for the panel to make its decision, but the ICE has asked for expedited proceedings.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS