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| Six-year old Yuanxin Zheng remains at an undisclosed location. |
Do you know a six-year old kid? Usually, he or she, is curious, takes joy in simple things and easy to have fun with. But can that child take care of himself? No. The six-year old needs an adult to feed, clothe, bathe him- or herself.
Now imagine taking that six-year old away from family; away from the adults who love and take care of him or her; who can speak to him or her in a language he or she can understand.
That's what happened to Yuanxin Zheng.
It has been almost two weeks that the youngster was separated from his father during a routine check-in with ICE in New York. It should be noted that they were following instructions, obeying the law, to check in periodically when the father was detained and whisked away to an ICE facility.
Yuanxin and his father, Fei Zheng, who are Chinese legally seeking asylum, were detained and separated from each other on November 26, 2025, during a scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Manhattan.
The child, who had just started first grade in New York City, is in ORR custody, which typically handles unaccompanied or separated minor immigrant children.
His father is being held at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, New York, where he can be located using the ICE online detainee locator. Just yesterday, Fei was allowed to speak to his son but they wouldn't tell him where young Yuanxin is.
His father is being held at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, New York, where he can be located using the ICE online detainee locator. Just yesterday, Fei was allowed to speak to his son but they wouldn't tell him where young Yuanxin is.
Advocacy groups and New York politicians, including Senator Chuck Schumer and Representatives Nydia Velázquez and Grace Meng, are working to locate Yuanxin and secure the family's immediate reunification and release.
The family was reportedly living in Queens, New York, and Yuanxin was enrolled in the first grade at a local elementary school prior to their detention. They were previously released on parole after attempting to cross the border in April 2025 and had a valid asylum case before it was administratively closed in September.
Community advocates and officials held a rally in Queens on December 7, 2025, to protest the family separation and demand their immediate release. The father and son were finally able to speak via phone call a week after their separation.
NYC officials, including the mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, have spoken out against the separation and are demanding the family's immediate reunification and release. Advocates are urging the public to contact the ORR hotline to pressure them into disclosing his whereabouts to officials and securing his release to his father.
ICE maintains that it does not separate families, but places children in the "safe custody" of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) when a parent cannot be safely detained with them or refuses to be removed with them.
A spokespers for the Department of Homeland Security said the family was given an order of removal and that the father "was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child's wellbeing," the spokesperson said.
A spokespers for the Department of Homeland Security said the family was given an order of removal and that the father "was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child's wellbeing," the spokesperson said.
It's understandable why the father was upset.
Advocates for the family argue that Zheng refused to board the flight to China in September and again in October out of fear of government retribution and torture in his home country, not to abandon his child. They view the separation as a tactic by ICE to coerce the father into complying with the deportation order, calling the action "inhumane" and "torturous".
The six-year-old is part of a growing number of children arrested and detained by ICE, according to newly released data obtained by the Deportation Data Project through a Freedom of Information Act request. One hundred and fifty-one children under the age of 18 have been arrested between January and October.
On Dec. 7, Sunday, supporters, including Yuanxin,'s first-grade classmates, held a rally at the playground of P.S. 166 where Yuanxin us enrolled.
"I have seen some brutal family separations," City Comptroller Brad Lander said at the rally. "But I have to tell you, I still have not heard anything as rotten as family separating and jailing a 6-year-old boy. We're not gonna stand for it. Shame."
Whether or not father and son are deported or their asylum request is granted is not the issue here; keeping a six-year old away from the one person who loves him is wrong. It is cruel. Intentionally cruel.
If this situation doesn't get you angry I don't know what to tell you. At the very least, forward this blog to your congressional representative and have them join Sen. Schumer and Rep. Grace Meng in demanding that father and son are reunited.
“Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria,” said Mamdani. “Now he’s in custody, alone. ... This cruelty serves no one. It must end.”
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