A six-year-old boy’s separation from his father after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in appointment one day before Thanksgiving sparked outrage among New York officials and advocates, who organized calls for the pair to be reunited.
The child, Yuanxin, a first grader in Astoria, Queens, was reported “missing” for more than a week after his father was arrested, according to immigrants’ rights advocates who pushed for information about the family’s whereabouts and release.
Homeland Security officials say the father and son were deported to China last week.
Advocates said Yuanxin was among the youngest children taken into immigration custody during a routine check-in in New York, drawing renewed scrutiny to family separations that critics describe as a pressure tactic aimed at undocumented immigrants.
His father, Fei Zheng, was arrested and held in upstate New York, according to ICE records. After more than a week of searching for Yuanxin, attorneys and advocates confirmed the boy was in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which takes responsibility for unaccompanied children who are separated from family members in ICE custody.
Zheng was able to speak with his son twice by phone while they were apart, but officials did not disclose the child’s location, according to Jennie Spector, an immigrants’ rights advocate who remained in contact with the father during his detention.
“This was a family who wanted to contribute to their community, a child who was bright and wanted to get a good education, a father who wanted the best for his child and wanted to work hard,” Spector told The City. “They were denied that opportunity because of our broken and punitive immigration system, a system that is now set up to cause as much harm as possible.”
In an initial statement, Homeland Security said Zheng refused to board a plane and “was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child’s wellbeing.”
“He even attempted to escape and abandon his son,” Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent at the time. “Mr. Zheng had the right and the ability to depart the country as a family and willfully choose to not comply.”
The agency later reported, according to The New York Times citing internal records, that Zheng hit his head against a wall and said he wanted to die during his arrest at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan.
Zheng and Yuanxin entered the United States earlier this year without legal authorization and sought asylum, citing fears of torture in China. They were briefly detained at an ICE family facility in Texas before being released.
Afterward, they began settling in New York, with Yuanxin starting first grade while their immigration case moved forward. But advocates say they had been out of detention only a few weeks before they were arrested again in November.
Zheng’s wife learned of his deportation from a lawyer in New York, according to a family friend who spoke to The City.
“She sounded hopeless — unsure of what to do next,” the person said. “But she also sounded very clear-eyed about this. She’s just worried about what life would look like in the future. What her husband would do, how to make a living, how to support her husband when he returns, how to deal with his despair.”
Federal data reviewed by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley, shows ICE arrested at least 140 children under 18 in the New York City area from Trump’s inauguration through mid-October. Nationwide, the data shows more than 3,800 minors—including 20 infants—were arrested after Trump took office.
Advocates say growing numbers of children have been sent to government-run shelters as immigration enforcement actions increase. They argue the pattern echoes the “zero tolerance” period of Trump’s first administration, when thousands of children were separated from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border—a policy later constrained by a federal court settlement.
Legal advocates told The Independent they are now seeing what they describe as an “unprecedented” resurgence of family separation across the United States, including cases involving mixed-status families who have lived in the country for years.
They also warn that interior enforcement actions are forcing parents into an impossible decision: leave children with other caregivers—or with no caregiver at all—risking placement in shelters or foster care systems, and possible removal proceedings.
New York City’s public advocate Jumaane Williams called the family’s case “tragically emblematic” of “the cruel trauma of family separation, a lack of due process for asylum seekers and others, and inhumane conditions. Enough.”
Diana Moreno, who is running for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s vacant Queens seat in the state assembly, called the family’s removal “devastating” and renewed her calls to “abolish ICE once and for all.”
Hundreds of people rallied in Queens this month in support of the family, including one of Yuanxin’s teachers, who described his contributions to the classroom.
“He has amazing handwriting both in English and Mandarin. He loves to sing and dance to our ‘Good Morning’ song during our morning meetings. He is great at making friends and he is an important part of our classroom community,” she said. “Our class feels his absence every single day.”
Advocates are also urging the Department of Education to publicly defend immigrant students in the city, warning that families are being increasingly targeted.
“No student should be held in ICE custody separately from their family,” a statement said.
