US drops plan to deport Chinese national who exposed Xinjiang abuses, rights activists say

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security has dropped its plan to deport a Chinese national who entered the country illegally, two rights activists said Monday, after his plight raised public concerns that the man, if deported, would be punished by Beijing for helping expose human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.

Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer who assisted in the case, said Guan Heng’s lawyer received a letter from DHS stating its decision to withdraw its request to send Guan to Uganda. Asat said she now expects Guan’s asylum case to “proceed smoothly and favorably.”

Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the advocacy group Human Rights in China, also confirmed the administration’s decision not to deport Guan. “We’re really happy,” Zhou said.

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database lists Guan, 38, as a detainee.

His legal team is working to secure his release from an ICE detention facility in New York on bond, both Zhou and Asat said.

Guan in 2020 secretly filmed detention facilities in Xinjiang, which activists say have been used to lock up as many as 1 million members of ethnic minorities in the region, especially the...