Chinese asylum seeker who exposed rights abuses fights to stay in the US

WASHINGTON– Guan Heng, who has spoken out against human rights abuses in his native China, has been detained in the United States since he was arrested during an immigration enforcement operation in August. He says he doesn’t even dare to think about what would happen to him if he was fired.

“I would be prosecuted, I would be imprisoned, I would be tortured. All of that could happen,” Guan, 38, told The Associated Press in a recent call from the Broome County Correctional Facility in New York.

A judge on Monday is set to consider his appeal to remain in the United States, where he sought asylum after fleeing his country more than four years ago to release video footage from detention centers in China’s Xinjiang region.

The Department of Homeland Security initially sought to deport him to Uganda, but abandoned that plan in December after his fate sparked public concern and attracted attention from the Capitol. But its future remains uncertain.

Guan said the public attention gave him hope. During his first months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, he said “there was no help from the outside world” and the stories of his fellow detainees and reports of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign left him extremely pessimistic.

He is one of tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have been drawn into mass deportation efforts over the past year, despite claiming legitimacy to remain in the United States.

“We are very concerned about the number of asylum seekers who will be returned to extremely dangerous conditions,” said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It is worrying that an institution like asylum is eroding to this extent.”

Guan said ICE agents discovered him during an operation targeting his roommates in the small town where he lived outside of Albany.

Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, said ICE met with Guan while he was helping the FBI execute a criminal search warrant.

“This illegal alien from China entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and time,” she said in a written response to a request for comment. “All of his requests will be heard before an immigration judge.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, urged Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to release Guan and approve his asylum application.

In a statement to the AP Friday in reference to Guan’s case, the Illinois Democrat called for “scrupulous respect for due process and America’s long-standing commitment to protecting human rights whistleblowers.”

Immigrants may seek asylum when they fear harm in their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group.

Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said the Trump administration is making a concerted effort to deport asylum seekers. Rather than allowing them to stay in the country while their cases are pending, immigration authorities close cases and issue deportation orders to people so they can be quickly deported, she said.

Federal data from Mobile Pathways, a California-based nonprofit that helps immigrants navigate the U.S. legal system, shows that 170,626 asylum seekers were deported in 2025. That’s about a third of the half-million people the Trump administration ordered deported last year.

The data also shows that 31% of asylum applications were abandoned in 2025, compared to 11% between 2010 and 2024. Usually, a case is marked “abandoned” when the applicant misses an appointment, said Bartlomiej Skorupa, the group’s operational director. He added that the cause of the increase was not yet clear.

In cities across the country, some immigrants stopped showing up for routine hearings after agents began making arrests directly in courtrooms, turning them into deportation traps.

In 2020, Guan secretly filmed detention centers in Xinjiang, bolstering a body of evidence of what activists say are widespread rights abuses in the region, where up to a million members of ethnic minorities, particularly Uighurs, have been locked up.

The Chinese government has denied the allegations, saying it runs vocational training programs to help local residents learn job skills while eliminating radical thoughts.

Beijing tolerates little dissent, particularly on issues such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and Communist Party rule, and has largely silenced dissent through a range of coercive means, including detention and “enforced disappearances.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Guan’s case and his fears of being deported to China.

With the images in hand, Guan knew he had to leave the country if he wanted to publish them. He initially went to Hong Kong with no other plans. “I played it by ear,” he said.

From Hong Kong, he flew to Ecuador, where Chinese tourists could then travel without a visa, then to the Bahamas before embarking for Florida in October 2021. Upon his arrival, he had released most of his video footage on YouTube.

Guan settled in Queens, a borough of New York City, and said he was trying to live a “stable” life. After obtaining his work permit, he worked as an Uber driver and made deliveries. He cut off all contact with almost all his relatives who remained in China so that they would not be harassed by the police.

He said he cherished the freedom to live from fear that he enjoyed in the United States. Then Donald Trump returned to the White House and launched his mass deportation campaign.

Guan said he understands why Trump took such a radical approach.

“This is because the past immigration policy was too lax and aroused resentment among many people,” Guan said, adding that he considers such fluctuations “normal” in a democratic society.

“Whatever the issue, any issue has both support and opposition,” he said. “I also learned that people in all regions of the country are protesting against the government’s overly aggressive behavior. »

Local residents who don’t know him personally have shown him their support, Guan said. “All in all, these things allowed me to experience the social atmosphere of the American democratic system,” he said. “At the same time, I felt the warmth of American society.”

If released, he said he would cherish the opportunity to stay in the United States.

“I would like to do meaningful things,” Guan said. “I hope to connect with others so I can help others.”