State College Couple, Target of Federal Raids, Get Probation for Harboring Illegal Immigrants

A State College couple was sentenced to two years of probation for harboring and concealing illegal aliens.

The judge’s sentence comes after federal raids conducted in State College in June 2014 on a number of Asian restaurants in town by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement office and local police departments.

Xue Jiang and Jian Bin Chen, owners of Chen’s Mongolian Buffet located at 1880 S. Atherton St., are at risk of being deported after their guilty pleas.

After over a year of silence regarding the raids and what they involved, the Department of Justice announced this past summer that the defendants allegedly hired undocumented workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Thailand, and China. The workers were allegedly paid in cash at a rate well below minimum wage and were provided by the eight arrested restaurant owners with housing and transportation.

The owner of Fuji and Jade Garden – Jing Mei Jiang, 51, of Boalsburg – is identified as the ringleader of the alleged conspiracy.

Jiang faced felony charges of conspiracy to transport and conceal undocumented workers and conspiracy to defraud the state and federal governments, which carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, but signed a guilty plea agreement over the summer. In that agreement, Jiang agreed to disclose and forfeit his assets and provide “information concerning the unlawful activities of others.”

The other defendants include Yu Mei Chen, Jian Bin Chen, Xin Xing Jiang (owner of My Thai), Yan Jin Jiang (owner of Hundred Degrees Hot Pot),  Yongcheng Chen (owner of China Dragon), Xue Jiang (owner of Chen’s Buffet), and Hua Zhen Dong (owner of Penang Asian Fusion). Their cases are still pending in the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania.