Washington– Guan Heng, who exposed human rights abuses in his native China, has been in US custody since he was arrested in a crackdown. Immigration enforcement The operation is in August. He says he doesn’t even dare think about what would happen to him if he was sent back.
“I will be tried, I will be imprisoned, I will be tortured. All of this could happen,” Guan, 38, told The Associated Press in a recent phone call from Broome County Correctional Facility in New York.
On Monday, a judge is scheduled to consider his request to remain in the United States, where he sought asylum after fleeing his homeland more than four years ago to publish video footage of detention facilities in the United States. Xinjiang region of China.
The Department of Homeland Security initially sought his extradition to Uganda, however The plan was dropped In December, after his ordeal raised public concerns and attracted attention on Capitol Hill. But his future remains unclear.
Guan said the public interest gave him hope. During his first months in ICE detention, he said there was “no help from the outside world,” and stories of fellow detainees and reports of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign made him deeply pessimistic.
He is among tens of thousands of asylum seekers who were arrested in mass deportation efforts last year even though they had what they believed were legitimate claims to remain in the United States.
“We are very concerned about the number of asylum seekers who will be returned to very dangerous conditions,” said Vanessa Dujaquez Torres of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It is disturbing to see that an institution like asylum is being eroded to this extent.”
Gowan said ICE agents found him during an operation targeting housemates in the small town where he lived outside Albany.
ICE encountered Guan when she was helping the FBI execute a criminal search warrant, said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.
“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 before an immigration judge.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamurthy, a member of the House Select Committee on the Communist Party of China, urged Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to release Guan and approve his asylum request.
In a statement to the Associated Press on Friday in reference to Gowan’s case, the Illinois Democrat called for “strict adherence to due process and America’s longstanding commitment to protecting human rights whistleblowers.”
Migrants can apply for asylum when there is a fear of harm in their home country because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
The Trump administration is making a concerted effort to turn away asylum seekers, said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. She added that instead of allowing them to remain in the country while their cases are pending, immigration authorities are closing cases and issuing deportation orders to people so they can be deported quickly.
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 ordered 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, up from 11% between 2010 and 2024. A case is usually classified as “abandoned” when an applicant misses an appointment, said Bartlomiej Skorupa, the group’s chief operating officer. He added that the reason for the increase is not yet clear.
In cities across the country, some immigrants stopped showing up for routine hearings after agents started Making arrests Right into courtrooms, turning them into deportation traps.
Guan was secretly filmed in 2020 Detention facilities in XinjiangThis adds to a body of evidence of what activists say are widespread human rights violations in the region, where up to a million members of ethnic minorities, especially Uyghurs, have been imprisoned.
The Chinese government has denied the allegations, saying it runs vocational training programs to help local residents learn employable skills while rooting out extremist ideas.
Beijing tolerates little dissent, especially 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 footage in hand, Guan knew he had to leave the country if he wanted it published. He first went to Hong Kong with no other plan. “I played it by ear,” he said.
From Hong Kong, he flew to Ecuador, where Chinese tourists can then travel without a visa, and then to the Bahamas before sailing to Florida in October 2021. By the time he arrived, he had released most of his money. Video clips on YouTube.
Guan settled in Queens, New York City, and said he tried to live a “stable” life. Once he got a work permit, he worked as an Uber driver and delivered. He has cut off contact with almost all his relatives in China so that they will not be harassed by the police.
He said he cherishes the freedom from fear he enjoyed in the United States. Then Donald Trump returned to the White House and launched a mass deportation campaign.
Guan said he understands why Trump took such a radical approach.
“It’s because the previous immigration policy was too lenient and caused discontent among many people,” Guan said, adding that he considered such fluctuations “normal” in a democratic society.
“No matter what it is, any issue has both support and opposition,” he said. “I also learned that people across the country are protesting the government’s very aggressive behavior.”
Guan said local residents who did not know him personally showed their support. “So these things, taken together, allowed me to experience the social atmosphere under 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 remain in the United States.
“I would like to do meaningful things,” Guan said. “I hope to make some connections with others so I can help others.”