Posted: December 22nd, 2010 | by Yuval Sheer

One of the fights that inspired the establishment of the New York Center for Juvenile Justice is the plight of Qing Hong Wu. Michael Corriero has recounted the story in an interview with Marion Mattingly which was published in the December/January 2011 issue of the Juvenile Justice Update. Here is what Judge Corriero had to say:

“About a year ago, after I had retired from the bench and while I was serving as Executive Director of Big Brothers, I received an email from a young man, Qing Hong Wu. He reminded me that in 1996 when he was 14 years old, I sentenced him for a series of robberies that he was involved in along with a group of other youths and that I promised him at the time of his sentence that if he turned his life around, I would do all I could to stand behind him. He said to me, “Judge Corriero, I did exactly what you told me.”
He excelled at his studies, supported his family, found a good job, and stayed out of trouble. One day, he applied for US citizenship after his mother had shortly before received hers, but because of his criminal record, he was taken into custody, transported to an immigration detention center, held without bail, and was subject to mandatory deportation. Qing Hong Wu told me that he could not understand how after doing all the right things, he was suddenly in a position where he was about to be deported and lose everything he had. I didn’t have a good answer. I was both proud of what he had accomplished and angry that he was in this position … I decided that I would join the fight for Qing Hong Wu. I wrote a letter on his behalf urging the Governor to pardon him since he had done everything that the system expected of him. Nina Bernstein of the New York Times wrote of Qing’s plight and the wide spread support he had in the community, including the judge who sentenced him. The story sparked a wave of public support for Qing Hong Wu. The Governor granted the pardon and today Qing Hong Wu is an American citizen.”

For more information on the Qing Hong Wu case, you can see the websites below:

Judge Keeps His Word to Immigrant Who Kept His
After Governor’s Pardon, Citizenship for Chinese Immigrant

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