CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A Chinese man who trekked from China to Suriname by air and Suriname to St. Thomas by boat will be deported back to his homeland.
Xiaoling Li, 32, of Beijing, pleaded guilty to illegal entry into the United States before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller. Li was sentenced to time served, U.S. Attorney Delia L. Smith said.
According to court documents, Xiaoling Li was arrested after being inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection before he attempted to board a Delta flight to New York on August 2, 2023.
During his inspection, officers determined that Li traveled from China to Suriname, and on July 26, 2023, Li paid $7,500.00 to his traffickers to illegally transport him by boat to St. Thomas.
Li’s inspection also confirmed that no record exists that authorized his legal entry into the United States, and no evidence exists that Li applied for, sought, or received prior permission to
enter or reside in the United States.
This Virgin Islands Free Press article provoked this response on social media today.
“Sad, but if he’s being deported, it should be fair, all those Europeans people who came here by boats, as well as the down islanders, Haitians, Venezuelans all who entered illegally, it’s the Law,” Lee Questel said from St. Thomas. “We have Nigerians ,Ukrainians who are coming here and paying for the visa legally, I am not being biased in case you haven’t noticed, there’s a loophole here that the Arabs opened a business legally, then they have to leave for six or seven months and then they send a whole bunch of their family here to run the business, and it also goes on big time in St. John with the Europeans as well ,we really need CBP and immigration to get on top of this, Right now the federal government is really cracking down on the Chinese, they are infiltrating all the infrastructure of the American government and economy, and using American name brands for their business and products, if we don’t wake up we will be just like the Roman empire, we will fail and fall because these people care absolutely nothing about American citizens, nor culture. Have you ever seen an American citizen who move anywhere overseas fly our flag over there, or protest??? In America only American citizens have the rights to protest against anything, it’s written in the constitution, immigrants DO NOT have that right. So you move here love it and be thankful and grateful, or u can go back to that hell hole u came from, I would be thankful to God I am not in one of those God forsaken places, whether I was born here or escape from that country that’s murdering everyone on both sides war is hell.”
This case was investigated by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Melissa P. Ortiz.