A columnist’s pay arrangement runs afoul of U.S. law.
By Donna M. Perry
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – Huei-Ju “LuLu” Yen’s writing brought a fresh outlook on Maine and a glimpse into her Taiwanese culture to the people in Franklin County. But because Customs officials say she violated her tourist visa, she has been banned from the United States for five years.

The 23-year-old Yen didn’t know that she was violating her visa when she accepted a stipend for expenses from a local newspaper, said her boyfriend Ben Fletcher.

Yen’s picture and her weekly column had appeared since September on the front page of the Franklin Journal.

The newspaper’s editor, Bobbie Hanstein, said Yen wasn’t on the company’s payroll and that she was only reimbursed for her expenses, including phone calls and mileage.

Yen was reimbursed less than $250 in all, Hanstein said.

Yen was in the United States on a 10-year tourist visa, which must be renewed every six months. As a temporary visitor on that type of visa, she wasn’t allowed to work or receive money or any reimbursement, according to Amy Otten, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who is based in Vermont.

“She was supposed to be a tourist,” Otten said. “I’m not even sure she was supposed to be going to school.”

Yen graduated from college in Taiwan after majoring in drama. Her sister is a journalist there in Taipei, Fletcher said, and Yen thought she would like to be a journalist too.

She hadn’t planned to go to the University of Maine at Farmington, he said, but she had a lot of downtime while Fletcher was pursuing his education.

Yen decided to take two creative writing courses at the college and volunteered to write a column for the Franklin Journal.

Yen arrived in this country with Fletcher in July 2003, he said. They lived with his father, Ralph Fletcher, in Auburn until they moved to Farmington.

Yen went back to Taiwan in early January to surprise her family for the Chinese New Year and to get her visa renewed.

But when she tried to return on Jan. 25, she was barred from re-entering the U.S. by a customs’ agent in Detroit.

Yen’s passport already had a red flag because she’d previously lost a passport and reported it lost, but she thought she had everything straightened out, Fletcher said.

But that wasn’t the case.

When customs officials searched her luggage at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, they found Yen’s newspaper columns and an uncashed $100 stipend check from the Franklin Journal for two months’ expenses.

She was in violation of her visa, Otten said, and was found to be ineligible to enter the country.

As required by law, Otten said, Yen was barred from the U.S. for five years.

He’ll go to Taiwan

Fletcher plans to leave for Taiwan on Tuesday to be with Yen. He’ll be teaching English again, as he did a few times in the past, and getting credit from UMF for studying Chinese and writing a business paper.

Yen’s supporters, including Hanstein and Fletcher, have contacted congressional representatives to try to get Yen readmitted to this country.

“It seems that people do care,” Fletcher said.

Yen has been going to the U.S. Embassy in Taiwan almost daily to try to get something done.

Fletcher said they’re hoping that someone high up realizes that Yen made a mistake and learned her lesson, and hopefully that lessens her sentence.

Yen at first was very upset to learn that she couldn’t return but she’s doing better now, Fletcher said.

“On the phone, she sounds pretty happy that I’m going to be out there,” he said.

She’s applied for a couple of journalist jobs in Taiwan, he said, and hopes to get one.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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