‘Wonderful to welcome you’: Asylum-seekers from Chinese church arrive in Dallas-Fort Worth

‘Wonderful to welcome you’: Asylum-seekers from

Chinese church arrive in Dallas-Fort Worth

 Apr 7, 2023

About 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church plan to resettle in Tyler, according to two Texas aid organizations

A group of asylum-seekers from an overseas Chinese Christian church, including dozens of children, are welcomed after arriving in the U.S. at DFW International Airport on Friday, April 7, 2023. They plan to resettle in Tyler, according to two Texas aid organizations.

A group of asylum-seekers from an overseas Chinese Christian church, including dozens of children, arrived at DFW International Airport on Friday night with plans to resettle in Tyler, according to two Texas aid organizations.

At Terminal E, about three dozen Texas church members greeted the Chinese group. They carried red, white and blue pinwheels and flags, as well as signs that read “Welcome Christians” and “Welcome Friends” and “Jesus Christ is risen indeed.” A few carried signs with Chinese lettering.

“Welcome to Texas,” they shouted as the Chinese families filed into a conference room. Children carrying pink, purple and green balloons looked sleepy but smiled at the strangers. The group will spend the night in a Dallas hotel before leaving for Tyler in the morning.

A group of asylum-seekers from an overseas Chinese Christian church, including dozens of children, are welcomed after arriving in the U.S. at DFW International Airport on Friday, April 7, 2023. They plan to resettle in Tyler, according to two Texas aid organizations.

About 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, who were detained in Thailand last week for visa violations, have been seeking to live outside of China for the past three years.

At the airport, Julie Hu of the Wichita Falls Bible Reform Church and an immigrant from China, chatted in Mandarin with the newcomers. “The church of Jesus Christ always wins,” she said.

The children broke into a religious song in Mandarin about joy. A State Department official traveled with part of the group and addressed them with simple, powerful words. “It is wonderful to welcome you,” said Rashad Hussain, U.S. ambassador at large with the Office of International Religious Freedom.

Deana Brown, the director of Freedom Seekers International in Tyler, confirmed Friday that she was accompanying the group as the church members moved through immigration procedures at an unspecified location. Because of security issues, she said she could not provide more details.

Launched in 2007, the nonprofit seeks to “rescue ‘last resort’ and the most severely persecuted Christians in hostile and restrictive countries. Through methods of resettlement, we save their voices, allowing the Gospel to continue through their lives,” according to the group’s website.

The State Department said Friday in a statement: “Due to privacy and security considerations, we do not have anything to share.”

Religious freedom

ChinaAid, a faith-based nonprofit in Midland, has also assisted the congregants and praised the effort to bring the group to the U.S.

“We’re so excited for them to be in the U.S. to practice their religious freedom, to practice what they believe peacefully,” said Jonathan Dingler, the communications director for ChinaAid. “And we know that these Christians are going to fit into our society … They’re excited to do ministry here in America and excited to contribute to our culture and society as a whole.”

Dingler said there are three babies in the group, as well as a pregnant woman.

Human rights advocates say the Shenzhen church is one of the first known to flee China as a large group.

The church, founded in 2012, is considered illegal by Chinese officials, The Wall Street Journal reported. Its members say they have faced government harassment. In late 2019 and early 2020, many church members left China, relocating to the South Korean island of Jeju.

Dingler said he was part of a group that helped the church members leave South Korea and enter Thailand last year.

In late March, Thai authorities arrested the church members — 28 adults and 35 children — for visa overstays in a coastal Thai city, according to Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization. They could not get their visas renewed because Thailand’s immigration regulations require Chinese nationals to report to the Chinese Embassy first, the group said.

Tyler resident Roger Conaway (left) embraces an asylum-seeker from an overseas Chinese Christian church, including dozens of children, as his wife Phyllis Conaway (right) speaks with those who arrived in the U.S. Friday with plans to pass through Dallas-Fort Worth via DFW International Airport on Friday, April 7, 2023. They plan to resettle in Tyler, according to two Texas aid organizations.

Last week, Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging that the 63 church members not be deported from Thailand back to China. They would face persecution, torture and other serious harm, the advocacy group said.

“In China under President Xi Jinping, leaders and members of ‘house churches’ that refuse to join official churches increasingly face harassment, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in the statement.

Dingler of ChinaAid agreed: Had they been returned to China, they would have faced “certain retaliation, abuse and prison time.” He added that Rep. Nathaniel Moran, an East Texas Republican, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and other members of Congress worked with State Department officials to negotiate the release of the church members.

High win rates

It is unclear whether the group entered the U.S. with humanitarian parole or if they have attorneys to assist with asylum requests. But one thing is clear: Chinese have very high win rates in federal immigration courts.

The success rate “is just tremendous,” said Austin Kocher, a research assistant professor at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University nonprofit. “We just don’t see anything else like it in the data.”

For this fiscal year, Chinese asylum-seekers were denied only 16% of the time, compared to an overall rate of 50%, Kocher said. The U.S. government looks favorably on those fleeing Communist countries, he said.

Over a 23-year period for completed cases, Chinese asylum-seekers won their cases nearly 70% of the time. During that same period, asylum-seekers from any country won about 41% of the time.

Members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, also known as the Mayflower Church, leave from the Nongprue police station on their way to Pattaya Provincial Court in Pattaya, Thailand, Friday, March 31, 2023. More than 60 members of a Chinese Christian church have been detained in Thailand, supporters said Friday, raising fears they may be returned to their home country, where they face possible persecution.