Yuanxin, a 6-year-old immigrant from China who was detained and separated from his father, Fei Zheng, over the Thanksgiving holiday in New York City, was finally allowed to speak with his parent by phone this past weekend.
Jennie Spector, who has been supporting the family since July, described the call as a “very good development”. She said a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer at the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where Zheng is being held, made it possible.
Spector, who spoke with Zheng after the call, said that “I could just hear the relief in his voice knowing that he’s [Yuanxin] doing as OK as he can”.
However, there’s still no indication of where the minor was being held. Yuanxin has been confirmed to be in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency under the US Department of Health and Human Services responsible for unaccompanied and separated minor immigrants.
In a statement to the South China Morning Post, the ORR cited the “privacy and security of unaccompanied alien children” in refusing to comment on the case.
Spector said that Yuanxin could be with a foster family, but it was not confirmed. Activists have raised concerns about the trauma of being separated from his parent and his limited ability to communicate his needs and feelings, as Mandarin is his primary language.
According to the agency’s website, a minor in ORR custody is explicitly entitled to communicate his or her needs and feelings in his or her native language, with professional interpretation provided free of charge whenever necessary.
ORR did not comment on the query of whether a Mandarin language interpreter was made available where Yuanxin was staying.
This is the third time the duo has been held by ICE since they attempted to cross the border seeking asylum in April. However, this is the first time they have been separated.
After their second detention in October, Zheng and his son were allowed to stay in the US on a year-long parole with regular check-ins, according to Spector. However, they were arrested again during a routine check-in from lower Manhattan on November 26. Yuanxin was admitted to an elementary school in the Astoria section of Queens, New York, only last month.
The US Department of Homeland Security has attributed the incident to Zheng’s “disruptive” and “aggressive” behaviour and his refusal to board a plane despite receiving a removal notice as a family unit. The department said that ICE does not separate families, but that children of arrested parents are placed in “safe custody”.
While the team of Nydia Velazquez, a Democratic congresswoman from New York, and other activists have been in touch with relevant federal agencies to secure the release and reunification of Zheng and his son, it remains unclear if the DHS plans to deport them back to China.
New data reported by American news outlet NBC shows that more than one-third of the roughly 220,000 people arrested by ICE in the first nine months of the Trump administration had no criminal record. ICE is currently holding about 65,000 migrants in detention centres nationwide, according to DHS data posted online.
A recent report by ProPublica, a US-based non-profit news organisation, found that since the start of this year, about 600 immigrant children have been placed in government shelters by ICE – the highest number recorded in a decade.
On Sunday, hundreds gathered in the playground of Yuanxin’s school in Queens to protest against his detention and separation from his father.
“It is deplorable that our students across the city are disappearing,” Queens Councilmember Julie Won said at the rally. “It is deplorable that mothers are afraid to walk their child to the school bus stop because they may get kidnapped.”
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has also issued a new video telling people about their rights during ICE raids.
“If you’re being detained, you may always ask ‘Am I free to go’ repeatedly until they answer you”, he said in a clip posted on his social media channels on Sunday.
Mamdani, who takes office next month, is an assembly member from Queens, and has called on the authorities to release and reunite Yuanxin and Zheng.
