A Chinese man who was detained in New York and separated from his 6-year-old son for weeks has been deported to China, along with his son, according to an advocate who worked closely with him.
Fei Zheng and his son, Yuanxin, arrived in China on Friday night, according to Jennie Spector, a community activist who was in touch with Zheng before and during his detention. She said she confirmed with Zheng’s friend in China that the father and son had arrived there.
“We are happy to report we were able to remove the family back to their home country,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The New York Times in an email. DHS did not respond to NBC News’ questions about his deportation.
Spector previously told NBC News that both were detained during a routine check-in at ICE offices in New York City on Nov. 26. It was Zheng’s third time being detained after he crossed into the U.S. from the Mexican border with his son in April, she said, adding that he expressed fear of returning to China. Spector did not offer specifics on what he feared.
Zheng was placed in immigration detention at the Orange County Correctional Facility, and Yuanxin was transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which holds unaccompanied immigrant children, according to the DHS.
Their case drew backlash from community activists, who voiced their outrage over the fact that the Trump administration’s immigration policies had led to the separation of the father and son; the boy had just started first grade at a public school. Over 200 people, many of them members of Yuanxin’s school community, attended an anti-ICE protest in Astoria, Queens, earlier this month, according to Devora Fein, a leader of the western Queens chapter of Indivisible, a group that organized the rally. Some at the rally were seen holding signs that read: “Kids Aren’t Pawns” and “Kids Belong In School Not In Detention.” Spector said the father and son had no other family in New York.
When asked about the Zheng case, McLaughlin said in an email statement on Sunday that “ICE does not separate families. This is consistent with past administrations immigration enforcement. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.”
McLaughlin said Zheng and his son “were given a lawful order of removal as a family unit.”
“Mr. Zheng refused to board the plane and was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child’s wellbeing. He even attempted to escape and abandon his son,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “Mr. Zheng had the right and the ability to depart the country as a family and willfully choose to not comply. To be clear, refusing a judge’s deportation order is a crime.”
Spector said that while Zheng was at the detention center and away from his child, he decided to stop fighting his immigration case and comply with a deportation order because he wanted to be reunited with his son.
“It’s very sad,” Spector said in a phone interview on Friday. “Both he and his son had a lot to offer us. They were both very intelligent people and would have provided a lot to us as a country and also as a community here in New York, and they were just seen as sort of criminals.”
Saba Hamedy and Joy Y. Wang contributed.
