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Department of Homeland Security has abandoned his plans to deport Sugar The plight of a citizen who entered the country illegally has raised concerns that the man will be punished if he is deported, two human rights activists said Monday. Beijing To help expose human rights abuses in China Xinjiang Area.
Rehan Asat, a human rights lawyer who assisted in the case, said Guan Heng’s lawyer received a letter from DHS informing him of its decision to withdraw his request to deport Guan to Uganda. Assat said he now hoped Guan’s asylum case would “proceed smoothly and favorably.”
Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the advocacy group Human Rights in China, also confirmed the administration’s decision not to deport Guan. “We’re really happy,” Zhou said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Guan, 38, is listed as a detainee in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database.
Both Zhou and Assat said their legal teams are working to secure their release on bond from an ICE detention facility in New York.
Guan in 2020 secretly filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang, which activists say have been used to detain more than 1 million members of ethnic minorities in the region, particularly Uighurs. Beijing has denied allegations of rights abuses and says it has run vocational training programs to help local residents learn employable skills while rooting out radical ideas.
Knowing he could not release video footage while in China, Guan left the mainland for Hong Kong in 2021 and then flew there. EcuadorIn which visa was not required for Chinese citizens at that time. According to the NGO Human Rights in China, he then traveled to the Bahamas, where he purchased a small inflatable boat and an outboard motor before leaving for Florida.
After about 23 hours at sea, Guan washed up on a beach in Florida, and video footage of him being taken to detention facilities was released on YouTube, providing further evidence of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the rights group said.
But Guan was soon betrayed and his family in China summoned by state security officials, the group said.
Guan sought asylum and moved to a small town outside Albany, New York, where he tried to live a quiet life, the group said, until he was detained by ICE agents in August.
Public support for Guan, including in Congress, has surged in recent weeks after Zhou’s group publicized her case. Before Guan appeared in court earlier this month, US lawmakers had called for him to be provided safe haven.
“Guan Heng risked himself to document the concentration camps in Xinjiang, which were part of the CCP’s genocide against Uyghurs,” Tom Lantos of Congressman’s Human Rights Commission wrote on X.com, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “Now 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 asylum.”
Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Chinese Communist Party’s House Select Committee, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, urging her to release Guan and approve his asylum request.
“The United States has a moral responsibility to stand up for the victims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, as well as the brave individuals who took extreme personal risk to expose these abuses to the world,” Krishnamurthy wrote.