WASHINGTON – In a recent development, the Department of Homeland Security has decided against deporting a Chinese national who had entered the United States without authorization. According to two rights advocates on Monday, the individual faced possible punishment from China upon return due to his role in unveiling human rights violations in the Xinjiang region.

Human rights attorney Rayhan Asat revealed that Guan Heng’s legal representative received notification from DHS, indicating the agency’s retraction of its plan to deport Guan to Uganda. Asat expressed optimism, anticipating that Guan’s asylum application will now move forward “smoothly and favorably.”

Zhou Fengsuo, who heads the advocacy group Human Rights in China, also verified the government’s choice to halt Guan’s deportation process. “We are truly delighted,” Zhou remarked.

The Department of Homeland Security has yet to comment on the matter. Meanwhile, Guan, aged 38, remains listed as a detainee in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement database.

Efforts are underway by his legal team to secure his release on bond from a detention facility in New York, according to both Zhou and Asat.

Back in 2020, Guan clandestinely recorded footage of detention centers in Xinjiang. Activists claim these centers have confined up to a million ethnic minorities, primarily Uyghurs. While Beijing denies any human rights abuses, it asserts these are vocational programs aimed at providing skills training and countering extremism.

Knowing he could not release the video footage while in China, Guan left the mainland in 2021 for Hong Kong and then flew to Ecuador, which at the time did not require visas for Chinese nationals. He then traveled to the Bahamas, where he bought a small inflatable boat and an outboard motor before setting off for Florida, according to the nongovernmental organization Human Rights in China.

After nearly 23 hours at sea, Guan reached the coastline of Florida, according to the group, and his video footage of the detention facilities was released on YouTube, providing further evidence of rights abuse in Xinjiang, the rights group said.

But Guan was soon doxxed, and his family back in China was summoned by state security authorities, the group said.

Guan sought asylum and moved to a small town outside Albany, New York, where he tried to live a quieter life, the group said, until he was detained by ICE agents in August.

Public support for Guan, including in Congress, has swelled in recent weeks after Zhou’s group publicized his case. Before Guan appeared in court earlier this month, U.S. lawmakers called for providing him with a safe haven.

“Guan Heng put himself at risk to document concentration camps in Xinjiang, part of the CCP’s genocide against Uyghurs,” the congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission wrote on X.com, referring to the Chinese Communist Party by its acronym. “Now in the United States, he faces deportation to China, where he would likely be persecuted. He should be given every opportunity to stay in a place of refuge.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, urging her to release Guan and approve his asylum request.

The U.S. “has a moral responsibility to stand up for victims of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, as well as the brave individuals who take immense personal risks to expose these abuses to the world,” Krishnamoorthi wrote.