Opinion ID: 43651
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: De Dong’s 1993 Asylum Application

Text: In his 1993 asylum application, De Dong alleged that he was married with three children born in 1981, 1984, and 1986. According to De Dong, after the birth of his second child, his village in the Fujian Province implemented a familyplanning policy, mandating that each married couple could have no more than one child. To ensure compliance with the policy, the government forced De Dong’s wife, Chun Rong, to have an intrauterine device (“IUD”) implanted. Several months after the IUD was implanted, it “dropped automatically,” and Chun Rong became pregnant. Chun Rong hid at the home of a relative in another village until she gave birth to their third child. 1 Because the petitioners’ removal proceedings commenced after April 1, 1997, the effective date of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996) (“IIRIRA”), this case is governed by the permanent provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), as amended by IIRIRA. 3 When the local government discovered that Chun Rong had given birth, it ordered the couple to undergo sterilization, but the couple refused and fled to another village. Subsequently, in 1992, Chun Rong became pregnant again with the couple’s fourth child. When she was four months pregnant, the government forced her to have an abortion and fined the couple 5,000 yuan for violating the family-planning policy. The government further ordered that De Dong undergo sterilization, but, rather than comply with the order, he fled to the United States.