Kangle Jiang, 22, was found guilty of conspiring to transport illegal immigrants and conspiring to defraud the United States, according to the statement.
The court also ordered Jiang to serve one year of supervised release, complete 50 hours of community service, and pay a $100 special assessment fee.
According to an indictment, on or around Dec. 10, 2024, Jiang conspired with four other individuals to transport himself and seven other Chinese nationals from Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, to the U.S. territory of Guam by boat.
The group intended to avoid detection by law enforcement, the indictment said.
The charging document states that Jiang, who had only been in the Northern Mariana Islands since Oct. 31 last year, paid $6,000 for the illegal voyage from Saipan to Guam.
As the boat carrying Jiang and other Chinese nationals approached Guam, its operators pushed and threatened those on board, forcing them to jump into the water, even though some of them could not swim, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Law enforcement officials later found many of the passengers from the illegal boat trip in or near sensitive military installations.
The indictment stated that the purpose of the illegal journey was to “directly and substantially enable Defendants to further their unlawful presence in the United States, by relocating from Saipan, where low wages and job scarcity made the Defendants’ continued unlawful presence difficult, to Guam, where higher wages, more job opportunities, and a lower risk of detection made Defendants’ continued unlawful presence less difficult.”
According to a statement from the Missile Defense Agency, the military launched a Standard Missile-3 Block IIA from the Aegis Guam System and successfully neutralized a medium-range ballistic missile target.
The Aegis Guam System was integrated with a new AN/TPY-6 radar and a vertical launching system for the test, Missile Defense Agency said.
In a statement, Attorney Shawn N. Anderson said that Jiang “took advantage of unique federal immigration regulations that permit certain foreign nationals to visit the [Northern Mariana Islands] as tourists.”
He added that any local economic benefits from those provisions are lost when individuals later attempt to unlawfully enter another part of the United States.
“The defendant and his co-conspirators also placed themselves and others at great risk of personal harm due to the nature of their travel at sea,” Anderson said. “Our enforcement efforts will continue to focus on safety, deterrence, and maintaining the integrity of our immigration system in the Western Pacific.”
The Epoch Times has contacted Jiang’s lawyer for comment.
