Background

ZHENG is a Chinese American who came to the United States as a legal resident with a green card and is now facing deportation for twenty-year old criminal convictions.

Eddy and his family immigrated to Oakland from China when he was 12 years old in 1982. As immigrants with no English skills, his parents took low-wage jobs to support their family; his father worked at the local Burger King, and his mother worked as a live-in babysitter for another family. When he was 16 years old, Eddy and his friends participated in a robbery; he was arrested and pled guilty to all counts. Charged as an adult, Eddy
was sentenced to seven-years-to-life in 1986.

While in prison, he was a model inmate. Eddy could barely speak English when he was sentenced; in prison, he learned to speak, read, and write English fluently. He earned his GED and is one of the few inmates in California to have graduated from college while in prison, by earning his Associate's Degree in the San Quentin College Program.

Eddy worked with at-risk youth in crime prevention workshops at the prison, has written an entire curriculum for working with at-risk youth, and has received several job offers at youth organization. He has written and published articles on his experience as an Asian American inmate, the importance of Ethnic Studies classes, and Buddhism. He has also published his poems, and he even organized the first poetry slam at San Quentin State Prison.

Even though he was sentenced to sevenyears-to-life, Eddy Zheng served more than 19 years as a model inmate before he was finally granted parole in March 2005, at the age of 35. Having spent more than half of his life behind bars for a crime he committed at 16, Eddy won his parole only by demonstrating to the parole board and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that he was a model inmate who acknowledged his mistakes, expressed remorse for his crime, and has done everything he can to improve himself.

The judge who sentenced Eddy, the Assistant DA who prosecuted him, a former director of the California Department of Corrections, and 12 state legislators supported his parole.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security is trying to deport Eddy for his convictions from 1986, even though Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated that he poses no threat to society. All of his family members are U.S. citizens.

This situation could have been completely avoided if Eddy's public defender had merely asked the sentencing judge in 1986 to order the immigration authorities not to deport Eddy when he finished his prison sentence. This same judge supported Eddy's parole. Since the public defender failed to do so, Eddy Zheng now faces deportation to a country he left as a child. Eddy also would not be facing deportation today if he had been tried as a juvenile at the age of 16. The Assistant DA who prosecuted him as an adult in 1986 also supported his parole in 2005. He has several job offers to make positive contributions to the community and has extensive community support.

Eddy Zheng is facing deportation for his convictions from 1986, even though Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated that he poses no threat to society.