Chinese asylum seeker Guan Heng freed from U.S. detention after judge grants asylum

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Guan Heng, a Chinese national who exposed allegations of human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, was released from U.S. federal immigration detention Tuesday after an immigration judge granted him asylum, the Associated Press reported. The decision, reached after a hearing last week, followed a finding that Guan faced a well-founded fear of persecution if sent back to China, according to the report.

The Associated Press said Guan was released and reunited with his mother, Luo Yun, on Tuesday, nearly a week after the asylum ruling. The report described Guan as staying temporarily in Binghamton, New York, and said he had not yet had time to consider what he would do longer term.

Guan, 38, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he was in a “great mood.” He also said he did not feel the excitement immediately after release the prior day and described that he felt “still in prison,” adding that “today many friends have come to see me.”

Luo, who traveled to the United States from her home in Taiwan to support her son, said she finally felt relieved. The Associated Press reported her saying she had not slept “one good sleep” for “five and half months,” but that she felt “assured” after the release.

The Associated Press said the case was a rare successful outcome for an asylum seeker since President Donald Trump returned to office and that Guan had been detained for more than five months following an immigration enforcement operation. It also reported that at one point in custody, Guan faced deportation to Uganda, but the Department of Homeland Security dropped that plan in December after his situation drew public attention and interest on Capitol Hill.

The report said the Department of Homeland Security has 30 days to appeal the immigration judge’s Jan. 28 ruling, and that the agency did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation about whether it has decided not to appeal. It also noted that the State Department declined to comment on Guan’s case because of confidentiality rules, but said it condemns the Chinese Communist Party’s “genocide, religious persecution, and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang,” the Associated Press reported.

Guan’s asylum case centered on footage he produced after secretly filming detention facilities in Xinjiang in 2020, according to the Associated Press. The report said he released most of the footage on YouTube shortly before arriving in Florida by boat in October 2021, after traveling from China to Hong Kong and then to Ecuador, and later to the Bahamas.

During his asylum hearing, the Associated Press reported Guan said he did not start filming detention facilities with the goal of seeking asylum in the United States. The report said he told the judge he sympathized with Uyghurs and wanted to “bear witness” to their plight.

Rep. Ro Khanna, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said Guan’s release should not have required months in detention to reach the right outcome. In remarks carried by the Associated Press, Khanna said, “His release is a reminder that the rule of law and our moral duty to protect those who expose human rights abuses go hand in hand,” and vowed to press for transparency in similar cases.

As covered in MSI previously, Guan Heng was granted asylum after his Xinjiang footage surfaced as central evidence in his case after being granted asylum after Xinjiang footage. The Associated Press reported that China’s government has denied allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang and says it runs vocational training programs and roots out radical thoughts, and that Beijing has silenced dissenting views through coercive means.