Wanted for murder in the U.S., man gets permanent residency in Canada - thestar.com
Wanted for murder in the U.S., man gets permanent residency in Canada
Published on Tuesday November 06, 2012
Kai-Guo Huang
Kai-Guo Huang, 35, was arrested in Toronto recently for driving under the influence of intoxicants. Huang had a murder warrant in effect for the 1998 slaying of a man in Philadelphia.
Kai-Guo Huang came to Canada from China as refugee claimant Yu Chen in 2006.
He started a business and became a member of a local church. He paid his taxes on time.
He was granted permanent residency status in 2010 and purchased an upscale condo in north Scarborough.
To get into the country as a refugee claimant he was fingerprinted, interviewed and a criminal record check was completed. A second set of fingerprints were given and another criminal check done when he applied for permanent residency.
If Toronto police hadn’t arrested him for drunk driving in early August and run his prints against the FBI database in the U.S., chances are no one would have discovered two important things about Huang:
He entered Canada from China using fake travel documents.
He is wanted in the U.S. in connection with a grisly murder and decapitation 14 years ago.
The breakdown in border security has immigration experts and a Liberal MP baffled at how an alleged murderer got into the country undetected.
“The only reason he would’ve gotten through is if they didn’t run his prints in the United States,” said Richard Kurland, considered by many to be one of Canada’s leading experts on immigration.
It’s this kind of security mistake, he added, that should lead to changes in how people are screened, he said, suggesting the possibility of every refugee claimant automatically be put through criminal record checks.
Huang will be in court Nov. 8, the deadline for the Justice Minister to make a decision on whether to extradite Huang to the United States.
His lawyer, Ravin Pillay, said he plans to fight the extradition.
Eight years before Huang moved to Canada, Philadelphia police connected him to the gruesome July 1998 death of Hoi (Shorty) Yang, who was murdered in the basement of a Chinatown restaurant.
His head and torso were found in two New Jersey dumpsters the next day.
Huang, 35, was charged three months after the murder. By that time, he’d fled the city, and likely the country, back to China. His brother, Xing Huang, is also wanted for the murder, but it’s unknown where he is.
“It wouldn’t happen today and it shouldn’t have happened then and it’s a vulnerability to the background check system,” said Kurland of the fact Huang successfully entered Canada despite a warrant being issued for murder.
However, Kurland is hesitant of creating a free-flow of personal information between nations.
“My unease is not with the capability of doing this, but it’s with the absence of elementary consumer protection,” he said. “I don’t want to see a global matrix of personal information exchange without the ability of the individual, at a minimum, to see their personal information.”
Liberal immigration critic and Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux said Huang should never have been able to enter Canada and wants answers on how a wanted man got through the system.
“When things of this nature happen and become public, it angers a lot of Canadians,” he said, adding Huang’s case sheds a negative light on all immigrants. “They want to know how this happens and I’m one of those individuals.
“We need to get to the bottom of how this happened so we can fix the system.”
To enter Canada and become a permanent resident, a person must complete up to three security checks, which involve running fingerprints across international databases, in-person interviews and criminal record check, both domestic and international.
Government officials with Canada’s border security agency and immigration department said Huang would have been subject to the same routine.
When asked if an investigation into how Huang passed Canada’s strict security checks would take place, both departments deferred to the other.
Every person seeking entry into Canada must “demonstrate that they meet the requirements to enter and/or stay in Canada,” under the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, said Antonella DiGirolamo, a Canadian Border Services Agency official.
Several things can prohibit a refugee claimant from entering Canada, she said — including involvement in criminal activity and outstanding arrest warrants.
Huang should have been fingerprinted at least twice, said Lorne Waldman, one of Canada’s leading immigration lawyers. Once during his initial entry and again when he applied for permanent residency.
“He likely lied about being in the United States,” said Waldman. If that’s true, he added, there wouldn’t have been any reason for immigrant officials to run Huang’s fingerprints through the U.S. criminal database system that would alert officials of wanted criminals – or the system failed to catch the alleged murderer.
Unfortunately, this happens, he added. And completing thorough checks for each refugee claimant would prove too costly for the government to perform.
Security experts determine the appropriate level of checks based on a cost-benefit analysis for each person, Waldman explained. “Even with all that, undoubtedly, there will be people who get through the net.”
Little is know about Huang since he entered Canada in 2006. To those who saw him regularly — employees at his Etobicoke-based food storage warehouse, members of his church and the tenants he collected rent from a roommate in the north Scarborough condo he lived in until his arrest — he was known as 30-year-old Yu Chen, a quiet man who never spoke about his life before coming to Canada.
Sometime in 2008, he rented at least one room from a homeowner in northeast Scarborough near Hwy. 401.
She said Huang paid rent on time and with cash. She spoke very little with him, but said he was very friendly to her, often helping her shovel snow in the winter.
“In the morning he’d go to work and in the evening he’d come home and sleep,” she said. “He was really quiet, always really nice.”
In 2010, Huang settled into a Scarborough condo where he lived until he was arrested for drunk driving on Aug. 7 near Finch Ave. East and McCowan Rd.
Following standard procedure for first-time offenders, Toronto police ran Huang’s prints through the FBI criminal database after Huang was released on bail.
On Aug. 10, he was arrested by Toronto police and U.S. law enforcement.
According to property records, Huang purchased the condo unit at 55 Huntingdale Blvd., one of three 20-storey complexes owned by Royalcrest Condominums on the street, in May 2010 for $206,000. He then sold the unit on Sept. 20 this year for $220,000, six weeks after he was initially arrested.
A number of neighbours on the second floor of the condo where Huang lived didn’t want to talk about him, or didn’t know anything.
Along with a condo in a fancy complex sporting an indoor pool, Huang also owned a food distribution business in Etobicoke, located on Evans Drive just south of the Gardiner Expressway. The signs for the shop, much of it in Chinese, still remain on the building.
Jin Guo Trading was incorporated in January 2008 and operated in the food distribution business, selling fruit and vegetables, until it was voluntarily dissolved on Aug. 10 of this year, the same day Huang was picked up by police.
Mable Cheng, a bookkeeper with the accounting firm that handled his tax forms, said her only contact with Huang came during the tax season when he’d drop a box of documents off and return later to sign his tax return.
“He was friendly,” she said.
An official with Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office told the Star in a statement the Conservative government is working to strengthen Canada’s immigration system. Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, will allow for collection of biometrics, including fingerprints and high-resolution photos) from all temporary residents and asylum claimants, the official said.
“Through the Perimeter Agreement, beginning in 2013, we will be checking all information and biometrics available for applicants to Canada against U.S. databases so Canadian visa officers will know if any applicant has previously visited the U.S., made an asylum claim, and most importantly, has a criminal record there,” the statement read.
He started a business and became a member of a local church. He paid his taxes on time.
He was granted permanent residency status in 2010 and purchased an upscale condo in north Scarborough.
To get into the country as a refugee claimant he was fingerprinted, interviewed and a criminal record check was completed. A second set of fingerprints were given and another criminal check done when he applied for permanent residency.
If Toronto police hadn’t arrested him for drunk driving in early August and run his prints against the FBI database in the U.S., chances are no one would have discovered two important things about Huang:
He entered Canada from China using fake travel documents.
He is wanted in the U.S. in connection with a grisly murder and decapitation 14 years ago.
The breakdown in border security has immigration experts and a Liberal MP baffled at how an alleged murderer got into the country undetected.
“The only reason he would’ve gotten through is if they didn’t run his prints in the United States,” said Richard Kurland, considered by many to be one of Canada’s leading experts on immigration.
It’s this kind of security mistake, he added, that should lead to changes in how people are screened, he said, suggesting the possibility of every refugee claimant automatically be put through criminal record checks.
Huang will be in court Nov. 8, the deadline for the Justice Minister to make a decision on whether to extradite Huang to the United States.
His lawyer, Ravin Pillay, said he plans to fight the extradition.
Eight years before Huang moved to Canada, Philadelphia police connected him to the gruesome July 1998 death of Hoi (Shorty) Yang, who was murdered in the basement of a Chinatown restaurant.
His head and torso were found in two New Jersey dumpsters the next day.
Huang, 35, was charged three months after the murder. By that time, he’d fled the city, and likely the country, back to China. His brother, Xing Huang, is also wanted for the murder, but it’s unknown where he is.
“It wouldn’t happen today and it shouldn’t have happened then and it’s a vulnerability to the background check system,” said Kurland of the fact Huang successfully entered Canada despite a warrant being issued for murder.
However, Kurland is hesitant of creating a free-flow of personal information between nations.
“My unease is not with the capability of doing this, but it’s with the absence of elementary consumer protection,” he said. “I don’t want to see a global matrix of personal information exchange without the ability of the individual, at a minimum, to see their personal information.”
Liberal immigration critic and Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux said Huang should never have been able to enter Canada and wants answers on how a wanted man got through the system.
“When things of this nature happen and become public, it angers a lot of Canadians,” he said, adding Huang’s case sheds a negative light on all immigrants. “They want to know how this happens and I’m one of those individuals.
“We need to get to the bottom of how this happened so we can fix the system.”
To enter Canada and become a permanent resident, a person must complete up to three security checks, which involve running fingerprints across international databases, in-person interviews and criminal record check, both domestic and international.
Government officials with Canada’s border security agency and immigration department said Huang would have been subject to the same routine.
When asked if an investigation into how Huang passed Canada’s strict security checks would take place, both departments deferred to the other.
Every person seeking entry into Canada must “demonstrate that they meet the requirements to enter and/or stay in Canada,” under the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, said Antonella DiGirolamo, a Canadian Border Services Agency official.
Several things can prohibit a refugee claimant from entering Canada, she said — including involvement in criminal activity and outstanding arrest warrants.
Huang should have been fingerprinted at least twice, said Lorne Waldman, one of Canada’s leading immigration lawyers. Once during his initial entry and again when he applied for permanent residency.
“He likely lied about being in the United States,” said Waldman. If that’s true, he added, there wouldn’t have been any reason for immigrant officials to run Huang’s fingerprints through the U.S. criminal database system that would alert officials of wanted criminals – or the system failed to catch the alleged murderer.
Unfortunately, this happens, he added. And completing thorough checks for each refugee claimant would prove too costly for the government to perform.
Security experts determine the appropriate level of checks based on a cost-benefit analysis for each person, Waldman explained. “Even with all that, undoubtedly, there will be people who get through the net.”
Little is know about Huang since he entered Canada in 2006. To those who saw him regularly — employees at his Etobicoke-based food storage warehouse, members of his church and the tenants he collected rent from a roommate in the north Scarborough condo he lived in until his arrest — he was known as 30-year-old Yu Chen, a quiet man who never spoke about his life before coming to Canada.
Sometime in 2008, he rented at least one room from a homeowner in northeast Scarborough near Hwy. 401.
She said Huang paid rent on time and with cash. She spoke very little with him, but said he was very friendly to her, often helping her shovel snow in the winter.
“In the morning he’d go to work and in the evening he’d come home and sleep,” she said. “He was really quiet, always really nice.”
In 2010, Huang settled into a Scarborough condo where he lived until he was arrested for drunk driving on Aug. 7 near Finch Ave. East and McCowan Rd.
Following standard procedure for first-time offenders, Toronto police ran Huang’s prints through the FBI criminal database after Huang was released on bail.
On Aug. 10, he was arrested by Toronto police and U.S. law enforcement.
According to property records, Huang purchased the condo unit at 55 Huntingdale Blvd., one of three 20-storey complexes owned by Royalcrest Condominums on the street, in May 2010 for $206,000. He then sold the unit on Sept. 20 this year for $220,000, six weeks after he was initially arrested.
A number of neighbours on the second floor of the condo where Huang lived didn’t want to talk about him, or didn’t know anything.
Along with a condo in a fancy complex sporting an indoor pool, Huang also owned a food distribution business in Etobicoke, located on Evans Drive just south of the Gardiner Expressway. The signs for the shop, much of it in Chinese, still remain on the building.
Jin Guo Trading was incorporated in January 2008 and operated in the food distribution business, selling fruit and vegetables, until it was voluntarily dissolved on Aug. 10 of this year, the same day Huang was picked up by police.
Mable Cheng, a bookkeeper with the accounting firm that handled his tax forms, said her only contact with Huang came during the tax season when he’d drop a box of documents off and return later to sign his tax return.
“He was friendly,” she said.
An official with Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office told the Star in a statement the Conservative government is working to strengthen Canada’s immigration system. Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, will allow for collection of biometrics, including fingerprints and high-resolution photos) from all temporary residents and asylum claimants, the official said.
“Through the Perimeter Agreement, beginning in 2013, we will be checking all information and biometrics available for applicants to Canada against U.S. databases so Canadian visa officers will know if any applicant has previously visited the U.S., made an asylum claim, and most importantly, has a criminal record there,” the statement read.
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