华人庇护行业过去十年来的发展同华人移民以及持短期签证，并且部分是以居留为目的的中国人的增加同步。他们中的许多人都是以纽约为初始目的地。从2000年到2011年，纽约市在外国出生的华人从26.15万上升到35万，即将超过多米尼加人成为最大的族裔。

As an increasing number of Chinese have sought permanent immigration status here, asylum has become a popular way to achieve it: Asylum recipients are granted immediate permission to work and can apply for a green card a year later. Amid this rising demand, an ecosystem of law offices and other businesses specializing in asylum — not to mention a darker subculture of forgers and fake lawyers — has flourished in the crowded office buildings of Manhattan’s Chinatown and above storefronts along the bustling streets of Chinese enclaves in Flushing, Queens, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

由于越来越多的中国人希望取得永久绿卡，庇护移民就成为了获得绿卡的重要途径：庇护移民获批者可以得到直接的工作许可，一年后可以申请绿卡。正是因为这种日益增长的需求，律师事务所和其他专门从事庇护的机构--不用说还有伪造者和假律师等次产业--正在曼哈顿唐人街拥挤的建筑中大量涌现。同时在法拉盛、皇后区一级布鲁克林的日落公园等中国人聚居的繁荣街道上，有很多门面楼上方也出现了一些律师事务所 。

The trade has generated healthy revenues. Some firms ask $1,000 to handle a case, then they add incremental fees that might total more than $10,000 — steep for most of the applicants, many of whom are restaurant and construction workers, nannies and manicurists.

这个行业收入不菲。有些律师事务所一个案子收费1000美元起价，随后再加各种费用，最终能超过1万美元；这对于大多数申请者来说是极高的，因为很多申请者是辛苦挣钱的餐馆工、建筑工、保姆和指甲工。

But some involved in the business say they are motivated more by politics and moral principles than by money.

但一些行业中人说他们的动机不是为了钱，而是为了政治或者道德准则。

“We are doing work like the last stop on the Underground Railroad,” said David Miao, the owner of an immigration law office in Chinatown. He was among those indicted in the investigation that also implicated Mr. Wang; the case became public with the unsealing of nine indictments and a series of raids in December 2012. He has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.

David Miao说，我们的工作就像是地下铁路的最后一站，他是中国城一家律师事务所的拥有者。他是涉及到王律师的那次调查的其中一个被起诉者。在2012年12月的一系列搜查和9个诉讼被揭开以后，Miao先生的案例也就公诸于众，不过他申求了无罪，不承认自己密谋进行移民欺诈。

“If we didn’t do this, they will be sent back to China,” he said in an interview. “We save lives.”

他在一次访谈中说，”如果我们不这样做，他就会被遣返到中国。我们是在救命。“

The volume of petitions has clogged the federal bureaucratic machinery, overwhelming asylum officers and judges. The deputy director of the New York asylum office blamed fraud, in part, for the deluge, and said she had tripled her team of asylum officers to dig out of a two-year backlog of cases.

The schemes “wreaked havoc on the asylum system as a whole,” the official, Ashley B. Caudill-Mirillo, wrote in a letter to a federal judge in November.

The 2012 indictments appear to have disrupted, at least temporarily, the surge of Chinese asylum applications in New York. But when asked to comment publicly about how extensive asylum fraud remains among Chinese applicants, most officials declined.

Speaking privately, however, they concurred with the prevailing opinion in the Chinese diaspora: that the problem is ubiquitous and that one high-profile case will not curb it.

The United States has a long tradition of offering refuge to foreigners fleeing persecution. Whether in the country legally or not, immigrants can petition for asylum within one year of arriving. They must show they are unable or unwilling to return to their country because they have “a well-founded fear of persecution” based on their race, religion, nationality or membership in a particular social or political group.

美国在给国外逃亡的受迫害者提供避难方面有一个很久的传统。不管你是合法还是非法在美国，移民都可以在到达后的一年之内提交庇护申请。他们必须表明自己无法或不愿回到他们的国家，因为他们有非常强烈的受迫害风险，或者因为种族，或者因为宗教，或者因为国籍，或者因为是某个社会或政治小组的成员。

In fiscal year 2012, about 56,400 asylum applications were filed in asylum offices or in courts throughout the country. In the same year, about 29,500 people were granted asylum, the most since 2002, when 37,000 received it.

2012财年，全国大约有56400分庇护申请递交到各庇护移民办公室或法庭。同年，大约有29500人获批，这是自2002年37000人获批之后最多的一年。

False asylum petitions are among the most common forms of immigration fraud, in part because they are difficult to detect, experts said. Since many claims are based on events that took place amid armed conflict or political turmoil, the narratives and supporting documents can be hard for the American authorities to verify.

庇护申请造假是移民欺诈中的最常见形式，专家说，部分是因为它们很难被侦察到。因为很多声明都是基于发生在战乱或政治暴乱地方的事件，所以声明中的描述和支持文件对于美国机构来说都很难去验证。