'Will be jailed, tortured on return': Chinese asylum seeker who exposed rights abuses fights to stay in US
Says he dares not even think about what would happen to him if he were sent back
Guan Heng, who exposed human rights abuses in his native China, has been in US custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August. He says he dares not even think about what would happen to him if he were sent back.
"I would be prosecuted, I would be jailed, 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 to consider his appeal 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 China's Xinjiang region.
The Department of Homeland Security initially sought to deport him to Uganda, but dropped the plan in December after his plight raised public concerns and attracted attention on Capitol Hill. But his future remains unclear.
Guan said the public attention has given him hope. During his first months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, he said, "There was no help from the outside world" and stories from fellow detainees and reports of the Trump administration's anti-immigration campaign left him extremely pessimistic.
He is among tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have been swept up in mass deportation efforts in the past year despite having what they believed to be legitimate claims to stay in the US.
"We are very worried about the number of asylum seekers that will be sent back to extremely dangerous conditions," said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "It's worrying to see that an institution like asylum is being so eroded." Guan said ICE agents stumbled upon him during an operation targeting his housemates in the small town where he was living outside of Albany.
Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said ICE encountered Guan when assisting the FBI in executing a criminal search warrant.
"This illegal alien from China entered the US illegally 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 Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, has urged Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to release Guan and approve his asylum request.
In a statement to the AP on Friday in reference to Guan's case, the Illinois Democrat called for "careful adherence to due process and America's long-standing commitment to protecting human rights whistleblowers."
