Jennifer moved to the United States from mainland China when she was 21 years old in 2002. She has been in the United States for more than eight years now. Here Jennifer explains how she eventually sought asylum to legalize her immigration status in the United States:
Since my husband is a citizen, the first thing that came to our mind was I could apply a legal status through my husband’s status. However, when I first came, there is no record of my entering under my name. Therefore…in order for my husband to sponsor me, I have to go back to China first. So, basically he cannot sponsor me, because I do not want to go back to China and wait for that long process of immigrations. I am afraid of going back. I have two children here. I…my family is here. What if I go back and am not able to come back to the United States again? I am worried.”
Later on in the interview, she went on to say:
When I was pregnant with my second child, I heard that from my friend… how can I put it? Okay. I am a Christian. When I had my second child, through my friend, I knew that I could sue for my legal status based on political asylum. […] Recently, there are kinds of political asylum in the United States for undocumented as a method, umm, to get their legal statuses. Basically, political asylum gives undocumented immigrants a legal status to stay in the United States to prevent them from deportations since they are going to get political prosecutions for some reasons in their home country. […] In my case, I know for sure that I am going to have some kind of prosecutions in China if they deported me. First of all, if I go back to China with my kids, I am going to get prosecuted. According to the One Child Policy in China, they are going to do tubal ligation on me to prevent to give more birth. Secondly, I am going to get prosecuted for practicing freedom of religion. I am afraid of these prosecutions. I do not want to be treated that way.”
