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Guan Heng, who has exposed human rights abuses in his native China, has been in U.S. custody since August after being arrested during an immigration enforcement operation. He said he couldn’t even think about what would happen if he was sent back.
“I would be prosecuted, I would be incarcerated, I would be tortured. All of those things could happen,” Kwan, 38, told The Associated Press in a recent phone call from the Broome County Correctional Facility. New York.
On Monday, a judge will consider his appeal to stay in the United States. He fled his home country more than four years ago, posting video footage of detention facilities in China’s Xinjiang region, and later sought asylum in the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security initially tried to deport him to Uganda but abandoned the plan in December after his plight attracted public attention and drew attention from Capitol Hill. But his future remains unclear.
Kwan said the public attention gave him hope. During his first months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, he said he had “no outside help” and was deeply pessimistic about the stories of other detainees and reports of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign.
He is one of tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have been subject to mass deportations over the past year despite believing they have a legal right to remain in the United States.
“We are very concerned that large numbers of asylum seekers will be returned to extremely dangerous conditions,” said Vanessa Dohaquez-Torres of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It is concerning to see an institution like asylum being so eroded.”
Kwan said ICE agents stumbled upon him during an operation targeting his roommate in the small town outside Albany.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said ICE encountered obstacles while assisting the FBI in executing criminal search warrants.
“This illegal alien from China illegally entered the United States at an unknown date and time,” she said in a written response to a request for comment. “All of his claims will be heard by an immigration judge.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, member of the House Select Committee Chinese The Communist Party has urged the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Release Guan and approve his asylum application.
The Illinois Democrat called for “serious observance of due process and America’s long-standing commitment to protecting human rights whistleblowers” in a statement about the case published by The Associated Press on Friday.
Working together to deport asylum seekers
Migrants can apply for asylum when they fear harm if they return to their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinions or membership in a particular social group.
Katherine 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 letting them stay in the country while their cases are pending, immigration authorities close cases and issue deportation orders to people so they can be deported quickly, she said.
Federal data provided by Mobile Pathways, a California-based nonprofit that helps immigrants navigate the U.S. legal system, shows that 170,626 asylum seekers were ordered deported in 2025. That’s about a third of the 500,000 people the Trump administration ordered deported last year.
The data also showed that 31% of asylum claims were abandoned in 2025, up from 11% between 2010 and 2024. Bartlomej Skorupa, the organization’s chief operating officer, said typically cases are marked as “abandoned” when applicants miss appointments. He said it was unclear what caused the increase.
In cities across the country, some immigrants stopped showing up for routine hearings after agents began arresting immigrants in court, turning them into deportation traps.
Mr. Guan leaves China to expose human rights abuses
Guan secretly filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang in 2020, providing a litany of evidence of what activists say are widespread human rights abuses in the region, where up to 1 million members of ethnic minorities, particularly Uighurs, are imprisoned.
The Chinese government has denied the accusations, saying it runs vocational training programs to help local residents learn job skills while rooting out radical ideas.
Beijing tolerates little dissent, particularly on issues such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan and Communist rule, and has largely suppressed dissent through a range of coercive measures including detention and “enforced disappearances.”
Chinese Embassy in China washington There was no immediate response to a request for comment on Guan’s case and his concerns about being deported to China.
Armed with the footage, Kwan knew he would have to leave the country if he wanted to publish it. He went to Hong Kong first without further plans. “I play it by ear,” he said.
He flew from Hong Kong to Ecuador, where Chinese tourists can travel visa-free, then to the Bahamas before sailing to Florida in October 2021. By the time he arrived, he had posted much of the footage on YouTube.
Kwan settled in Queens, New York City, and said he tried to live a “stable” life. After obtaining a work permit, he became an Uber driver and made deliveries. He cut off contact with nearly all of his relatives in China to protect them from police harassment.
He said he cherished the freedom from fear he enjoyed in the United States Donald Trump Returned to the White House and launched a mass deportation campaign.
Kwan still believes in American democracy
Kwan said he understands why Trump took such a drastic approach.
“This is because the past immigration policies were too loose and caused dissatisfaction among many people,” Guan said, adding that he believed such fluctuations were “normal” in a democratic society.
“Any issue, no matter what it is, will have support and opposition,” he said. “I also learned that people across the country were protesting against the government’s overly aggressive actions.”
Guan said local residents who didn’t know him also expressed support. “So these things collectively gave me a taste of the social climate of American democracy,” he said. “At the same time, I also felt the warmth of American society.”
He said he would cherish the opportunity to stay in the United States if he was released.
“I wanted to do something meaningful,” Guan said. “I’m hoping to make some connections with other people so I can help people.”