Overstaying tourist who worked illegally gets time served

An overstaying tourist, who was allegedly recruited from China on promises of work at a casino construction site and illegally worked as a construction worker and driver for tourists, entered a guilty plea in federal court and was slapped with a sentence of five days of time served Tuesday late afternoon.

Kedong Huang, 32, pleaded guilty to information charging him with one count of improper entry by an alien.

The offense is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of not more than six months of imprisonment and a fine of up to $3,000.

U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona said upon release from imprisonment, Huang shall submit to one year of supervised release and comply with conditions.

Manglona said the mandatory conditions are imposed immediately following Huang’s release.

As a further condition of supervised release, Huang was ordered to immediately report to an immigration official for deportation proceedings.

The judge said if deportation does not occur or Huang does voluntarily depart the CNMI by July 22 and he is released pending further immigration proceedings, he must immediately report to the U.S. Probation Office by July 23 to begin his term of supervised release.

Huang was ordered to pay a $500 fine and $10 in special assessment fee immediately after sentencing.

Assistant U.S. attorney James Benedetto, counsel for the U.S. government, recommended a sentence of time served.

Benjamin Petersburg, the court-appointed counsel for Huang, concurred with Benedetto’s recommendation.

According to the factual basis of the plea agreement, on March 6, 2017, Huang entered the U.S. at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport.

To obtain entry, Huang misrepresented to immigration inspectors with U.S. Customs and Border Protection that his purpose for entering the U.S. was for “tourism,” when in fact, was solely to find work.

During his immigration inspection interview, Huang concealed the material fact that his intention was to find work and reside in the U.S. beyond the time permitted by his conditional parole status.

Federal agents arrested the defendant last Thursday at the airport after Ports Police officers referred him after encountering him during a traffic violation outside the airport.

CBP officers confirmed from the record that Huang overstayed his CNMI-only conditional parole validity date by more than 400 days.

During an interview with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigators, Huang allegedly stated that while he was in China he met a man from Saipan through the “WeChat” messaging application on the internet.

The Saipan man told him to work at a casino construction site on Saipan and earn $2,000 per month, plus high overtime pay. He, however, upon arriving on Saipan did not work at the casino construction site but at different construction place.
Huang said he later became a driver for tourists.