Help Wo Fight Deportation

Hello all,

My name is Wo Chan. I am a 23 year old poet, performer, and activist. I came to the US in 1996 as a young child, arriving with my family with full legal permanent residence. As a child my status followed that of my parents who immigrated to the U.S. legally.

I am writing today because my mother, father, and I are facing unjust deportation charges due to the criminal actions of former Homeland Security supervisor Robert Schofield.

In 2002, my father and mother applied for naturalization through the Department of Homeland Security. My parents believed they were lawfully applying for citizenship at the time, when in fact, Schofield was profiting off of them. He spoke Chinese and was the acting assistant director for examinations from 1998-2004. In 2006, he was convicted of bribery and various related crimes in connection with his issuance of certificates of naturalization to nearly 200 applicants, all of whom are in the Asian American community.  Read more about Schofield’s crimes and the families he’s violated here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000603.html

My mother, father, and I represent three of those applicants who fell victim to Schofield's scheme in 2002. In 2011 and 2012, we were stripped of our US citizenships and in 2013, we were placed under deportation proceedings.

Neither my parents nor myself had any reason to obtain our citizenship outside of the regulations in place; my  family was unfortunate to have Officer Schofield involve himself in our citizenship cases. Mr. Schofield's conviction and sentence lead to the US government placing all files that he had ever handled under investigation and in deportation proceedings.
Our lawyer is now fighting to show that neither my parents nor myself were involved or aware of this officer's fraudulent actions against the US government.

As this is a very unique and high-stakes case, we have hired a lawyer to represent us. The judge, however, has expedited our trial, meaning that the timeline for paying my attorney has shrunken dramatically. We need to come up with $15,000 by the first week of December to pay our attorney to represent us in our final hearing on December 23.

If there were any other way to do it, I wouldn’t ask for help, but the actions of this corrupt DHS official has stressed my family to a point of impossibility. I call upon all my communities and chosen family to help fight this injustice and keep my parents and me in the U.S..

I am asking for $5000, which is unexpected cost that my parents had to suddenly bear because the trial has been expedited.

I'd appreciate any donation you can give. Any little bit helps. Or if you cannot, please share this call.

I thank you so, so much.


Sincerely,
Wo Chan & Fam



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Wo Chan is a queer Fujianese poet, writer, and drag performer. A recipient of fellowships from Poets House , Kundiman, and Lambda Literary , Wo’s work has been published in cream city review , BARZAHK , The Cortlandt Review , iO: A Journal for New American Poetry , and VYM Magazine. As a member of Brooklyn-based drag alliance, Switch n' Play , Wo has performed at venues including Brooklyn Pride, The Trevor Project, and the Architectural Digest Expo. Wo is a 2015 Asian American Writers Workshop  Margins Fellow .