Though the New York City government claims that it protects the rights of its residents and will not pass information about immigrants' legal status to federal immigration authorities, this year news is circulating in the Chinese community that more and more immigrants, both legal and undocumented, are being investigated on account of previous criminal records and even deported.

Immigration lawyers warn that immigrants with deportation orders or serious criminal records should be careful, as "the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is not playing nice now."

New York lawyer Ming Hai says that within a week his law office received two cases in which Chinese immigrants with green cards ran afoul of New York PD, who, discovering their previous criminal records, reported them straight to federal authorities, resulting in them receiving deportation orders.

Ms. Xiang, a single mother whose family members have lived in the United States for 10 years, sells fake leather purses on the street in Flushing. Xiang, who successfully renewed her green card last September, had been arrested a total of nine times previously and had not been sent to court on immigration charges.

However, several weeks ago Xiang had another encounter with police in Flushing; when the police discovered her immigrant status and her previous criminal record, they directly contacted ICE investigators, who arrested her and began deportation proceedings immediately. But Xiang, in an immigration detention facility, was unable to attend her trial in the New York criminal courts and, as a result, was held in contempt of court. Hai immediately explained Xiang's difficult straits to the court; both the judges and the public prosecutor, shocked to learn of Xiang's situation, agreed to extend the court hearings and drop the contempt charges.

Another Chinese immigrant, a 21-year-old college student named Zheng in the States for 10 years and the only member of his family not yet naturalized, was arrested in November on charges of abusing ketamine and pled guilty on his lawyer's advice, Hai said. But on January 26, Zheng was riding in a friend's car when a fight broke out in the car and one of his friends called the police, resulting in the entire group being brought to the police station for questioning. When the police discovered Zheng's criminal record, they notified the ICE. Zheng is now in an immigration detention center, waiting for deportation proceedings.

Since January, an increasing number of cases involving immigrants with criminal records has been passed on to the ICE by local police. Previously, most such cases involved immigrants with deportation orders, but now even legal immigrants have become a target of the ICE.

Yesterday Hai discussed Xiang's situation with ICE official Jamie Rodriguez, but the answer he got was "justice will be done."