Guan Heng, a native of landlocked north-central China, was so desperate to reach the United States in October 2021 that he decided to buy a small inflatable boat, and set sail from the Bahamas.
He had just published a roughly 20-minute video drawn from footage he had filmed in China's Xinjiang region where people were reportedly being detained.
Guan believed the film would lead to his arrest in China, so he hoped to reach the U.S. and ask for asylum. Battling severe seasickness and despite having no prior boating experience, he reached the shores of Florida 23 hours later, he later told Human Rights in China, a U.S.-based advocacy group, which has been raising awareness about Guan's case.
This week, after months of being held in U.S. immigration detention in upstate New York, the 38-year-old appeared via a video link before an immigration court in upstate New York on his asylum application. His asylum case is still pending.
If asylum is denied, he could face deportation to Uganda, which a Department of Homeland Security lawyer argued in favor of during a Monday hearing on Guan's case. Such third-country deportations, in which people are removed to countries where they are not from, were cleared by the Supreme Court in July. A second hearing for Guan is scheduled for Jan. 12.
The story of Guan's desperate escape to the United States, only to end up in detention, raises fresh questions over the scope of an expanding immigration crackdown in the U.S.
"He has a pending asylum application, and the circumstances of his departure from the PRC are a textbook example of why asylum exists," Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois wrote in a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Saturday.
The Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had "encountered" Guan while carrying out a criminal search warrant, in a statement sent to NPR. "This illegal alien from China entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown date and time. All of his claims will be heard before an immigration judge."
In 2020, Guan had become intrigued from English news reports about China's extrajudicial detention of at least hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region, according to his mother and lawyer.
He decided to go to the region and film hours of footage of purported detention camps and evidence of the massive securitization of the region.
He did not dare publish the footage while still in China, so in July 2021, he left China and flew to Ecuador, which Chinese nationals could then enter visa-free, then to the Bahamas, where he bought the small inflatable boat he sailed to the U.S., according to his lawyer, Chen Chuangchuang.
About 15% of asylum applications from Chinese nationals adjudicated in 2024 were rejected, compared to more than 50% that were granted.
In the U.S., Guan applied for asylum and secured a work permit. He made ends meet driving Uber and doing odd jobs.
But this past August, Guan was arrested by ICE who raided his residence initially to investigate his roommate, his lawyer said.
"How Guan ended up being caught by ICE was really due to bad luck," said Chen, his lawyer.
His case has attracted criticism from human rights activists, who argue the U.S. must protect Guan as a whistleblower.
His family back in China says they were interrogated extensively after Guan left the country and published his Xinjiang footage.
"There is not one family member of his who has been left unaffected and not investigated," his mother, Luo Yun, who lives in Taiwan, told NPR. "My son is young, his road [in life] is still long. … I hope he can stay in the U.S. He has no path of retreat from this."
Within China, authorities have aggressively detained and arrested people they suspect of endangering security in Xinjiang, including people who leak information. Beijing remains sensitive to international criticism over its detention campaign in the region.
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