Federal Court orders release of 2 ‘asylum seekers’

Two Chinese nationals under detention by CNMI authorities have sought a temporary restraining order from the federal court to free them from jail following alleged violations of an earlier court order by local officials in connection with their asylum petitions.

Rui Liang and Liao Da Nian won minor relief after District Court Judge Alex R. Munson agreed to hear their emergency motion for TRO and to summon Labor and Immigration Sec. Mark Zachares and DOLI legal counsel Robert Goldberg to show cause for possible contempt of court.

The hearing date is set on Jan. 21 and the defendants, who include the CNMI and U.S. governments, have until Jan.. 18 to file their respond to the plaintiffs’ motion, according to Judge Munson’s ruling.

The two, through their lawyer Bruce L. Jorgensen, have filed the motion after a representative of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service reportedly interrogated Ms. Liao and attempted to question also Mr. Rui.

Federal INS representative Robert Stamerra went to the CNMI’s immigration detention center last Jan. 7 to interview the plaintiffs in the cell where they are being held “as a service” to Mr. Zachares and Mr. Goldberg with regards to their asylum applications that are in dispute in the civil suit brought up by the two, according to court documents.

Mr. Jorgensen said this action violated a September 1999 order by Judge Munson in which he ruled a status quo on the case of the two plaintiffs.

“Plaintiffs should…be released immediately from DOLI confinement. The manner in which the court’s order was violated alone justifies their release,” he said in papers he filed with the federal court.

The TRO is being sought from the court to require their immediate release from detention and to prohibit defendants, their lawyers and others involved in the suit from communicating with the plaintiffs without Mr. Jorgensen’s consent.

Both Mr. Zachares and Mr. Goldberg are also asked to justify why they should not be held in contempt of court and liable for contemptuous and bad faith litigation conduct arising from their facilitating the alteration of status quo in this proceeding.

They should also be disqualified as counsels of record in this case and be suspended from practicing law in the federal court, according to court documents.

The motion will also demand release of information requested by Mr. Jorgensen from the two officials as well as from acting Attorney General Maya B. Kara under the Open Government Act provisions.

Mr. Rui and Ms. Liao, detained on overstaying charges, are awaiting the Superior Court’s decision on DOLI’s bid to have them deported. But both have maintained they are in danger of being “personally threatened or harmed” by authorities of the communist government if they are sent back to Beijing.