A Chinese whistleblower and asylum seeker is being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Broome County Correctional Facility.

Guan Heng, a Chinese national who sought asylum in the United States in 2021, was arrested in August and has been held in the jail since. Guan allegedly documented the imprisonment of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, China by the Chinese Communist Party. He currently has a pending asylum application.

Guan reported on the CCP’s “reeducation camps,” where over one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned since 2017, with more subjected to surveillance, religious restrictions and forced sterilizations. The U.S. government has classified the CCP’s treatment of Uyghurs as constituting genocide since January 2021. Guan faces “grave danger” if deported, according to a Dec. 13 press release by the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

The Department of Homeland Security initially proposed deporting Guan to Uganda through the “third country removal” process, which refers to the deportation of a noncitizen to a country different from the individual’s birthplace. It is permitted in limited circumstances under U.S. immigration law and typically occurs when an individual is at risk of persecution or torture in their country of origin.

“The proposal to remove asylum seekers to Uganda or Honduras, or other sensitive countries, was really a new development of the U.S. asylum system,” said Chuangchuang Chen, Guan’s lawyer, in a Dec. 22 interview with Pipe Dream.

Under the Trump administration, these deportations have become widespread after the U.S. Supreme Court, in June, overruled a lower court’s attempt to block ICE from sending noncitizens to third countries. The ruling allowed the Department of Homeland Security to continue deporting migrants to countries like South Sudan and El Salvador.

Chen explained that following the announcement of Guan’s possible deportation, the Chinese government approached his father in China for interrogation and had planned to capture him in Uganda.

The U.S. government withdrew its plan to deport Guan to Uganda on Dec. 19.

“I think the U.S. government has taken a very good step to withdraw the request to deport him to Uganda,” Chen said. “Now we wish the U.S. government to take further correct steps by releasing him soon and granting him asylum, because he really needs that. I have no doubt at all that he will be severely persecuted at the hands of the Chinese government.”

Chen said that after the withdrawal of the proposal, the next steps in Guan’s case are unclear as they await notice from the court.

Andrew J. Pragacz, the president of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, told Pipe Dream that a group of organizers from New York City that advocate for civil liberties in China joined local organizations at a Dec. 15 rally outside the Broome County Jail in support of Guan and to protest ICE detentions at the jail.

The Broome County Sheriff’s Office’s cooperation with ICE has become an increasingly contentious issue in the community. After the 2026 Broome County budget was released, some community members voiced opposition to increased funding to the sheriff’s office. They pointed to the 287(g) agreement with ICE that Sheriff Fred Akshar signed in March, which allows state and local law enforcement “to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their agency’s jail.”

“Let’s be clear,” Pragacz said in an interview with Pipe Dream. “This is not the Sheriff’s Department. This is not the employees. This is Sheriff Akshar, in coordination with the Broome County legislature and the county executive. Their actions, holding ICE detainees in our jail, is despicable.”

Akshar previously told Pipe Dream that the number of ICE and U.S. Marshals Service detainees in the jail is not related to participation in the 287(g) program. In an April press release, Akshar indicated the jail has been housing detainees on behalf of federal agencies “for decades” and that nothing has changed in its policy.

“It’s no surprise to see the same old activists choosing to spread the same old misinformation and make the same old political attacks devoid of any facts,” Akshar wrote in a Dec. 23 statement to Pipe Dream. “Like their unwavering commitment to spreading falsehoods, the Broome County Sheriff’s Office continues our unwavering commitment to serving and protecting the people of this community — something I’ll never apologize for.”

The Broome County Executive did not respond to Pipe Dream’s request for comment.

As of Dec. 22, 53 ICE and 30 U.S. Marshals detainees were held at the correctional facility. Pragacz claimed that several asylum seekers and political dissidents were among those detained, adding that many of them were allowed to work in the United States and were picked up because they were “easy targets.”

According to Chen, Guan has “no criminal records at all” and was detained near Albany by ICE while officers executed a search warrant for other tenants in his residence.

“As stated many times before, Broome County Sheriff’s Office has housed individuals on behalf of our federal partners like the U.S. Marshals, FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for multiple decades, and that has not changed,” Akshar said. “The only thing that’s changed is the level and frequency of immigration enforcement being utilized by the federal government. The simple, and obvious truth is that this nationwide shift in enforcement policies is not [affected] by any actions taken by local municipalities, and anyone who attempts to say otherwise is simply and knowingly spreading lies and misinformation.”

JUST plans to continue advocating for Guan and supporting the families of those detained in the jail, Pragacz said. He explained that the organization was planning action for the date of Guan’s next hearing, which was set for Jan. 12.

No updates on Guan’s case have been provided since the hearing.

On Dec. 31, Guan was denied bail in a hearing with Ulster County Judge Charles M. Ouslander.

“We’re going to continue to do what we always do, which is support the families of people that are incarcerated in our jail and do our best to advocate for [Guan] while he’s inside, but also, of course, for his release and the release of everyone else that’s in ICE detention,” Pragacz said. “We don’t believe just Guan Heng shouldn’t be there, but absolutely no ICE detainees should be there and the vast majority of people that are in the jail overall just have no reason to be there whatsoever.”