US drops plan to deport Chinese man who helped expose abuse of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, say activists | US news
The Department of Homeland Security has abandoned a plan to deport a Chinese citizen who entered the country illegally, two human rights advocates said, after his plight raised public concerns that if the man was deported he would be punished by Beijing for helping to expose human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.
Human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat, who is assisting with the case, said Guan Heng’s lawyer received a letter from the ministry informing him of its decision to withdraw its request to send Guan to Uganda. Asat said he now expects Guan’s asylum case to “proceed smoothly and positively.”
Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the Human Rights advocacy group in China, also confirmed on Monday that the administration had decided not to deport Guan. “We are really happy,” Zhou said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database lists Guan, 38, as a detainee.
Zhou and Asat said his legal team was working to secure his release on bail from an ICE detention facility in New York.
In 2020, Guan secretly filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang, which activists say are used to imprison as many as 1 million people from the region’s ethnic minorities, particularly Uyghurs. Beijing has denied allegations of rights abuses and said it was running vocational training programs to help locals learn employable skills while rooting out radical ideas.
Knowing he could not release the video footage while in China, Guan left the mainland for Hong Kong in 2021 and then flew to Ecuador, which did not require a visa for Chinese citizens at the time. He then traveled to the Bahamas and bought a small inflatable boat and an outboard motor before heading to Florida, according to the non-governmental organization Human Rights in China.
Guan reached the Florida coastline after spending nearly 23 hours at sea, according to the group, and video footage of the detention facilities was posted on YouTube, providing further evidence of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
However, the group said Guan’s personal information was quickly deleted and his family in China was summoned by state security officials.
Guan sought asylum and moved to a small town outside Albany, New York, where he tried to live a quieter life until he was detained by ICE agents in August, the group said.
Public support for Guan, including in Congress, has surged in recent weeks after Zhou’s group publicized its case. Before Guan appeared in court earlier this month, US lawmakers called for him to be given a safe haven.
“Guan Heng risked documenting the concentration camps in Xinjiang, which are part of the CCP’s genocide against the Uyghurs,” the Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission said on social media platform X, referring to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “Currently in the United States, he faces deportation to China, where he will likely be persecuted. He should be given every opportunity to remain in a place of refuge.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the CCP’s House selection committee, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, urging her to release Guan and approve his request for asylum.
Krishnamoorthi wrote that the United States “has a moral responsibility to stand up for the victims of human rights violations in Xinjiang as well as for the courageous individuals who took great personal risks to expose these violations to the world.”
