To: Rebbeca Adducci and Detroit Ice Outreach
ICE: Stop the Deportation of a Persecuted Asylum Seeker
Stop the deportation of Shixin Lu, A#205 859 361. Shixin is a loving mother a 13-year-old daughter residing in the United States. She has been warned by her supervisor in China that if she or her family return to China, they will be arrested and tortured due to their peaceful Falun Gong religious beliefs. Shixin is appealing a BIA decision to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and deserves to have her case heard in full before she is sent back to face human rights abuses in China.
We ask ICE Field office to use proper discretion and free her now while asylum appeal is pending so that she can be reunited with her family.
Why is this important?
Shixin Lu is a 43-year-old asylum seeker and a mother of a 13-year-old daughter, Yuening Li. She is in danger of being imminently deported back to China, where she is almost certain to be detained and tortured by Chinese authorities solely because of her peaceful religious beliefs.
Shixin and her husband, Austin, are practitioners of Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice outlawed in China since 1999. Tens of thousands of practitioners have since been detained and tortured. Shixin and Austin were both victims of this abuse in the early 2000’s, but following their detentions, they concealed their religious beliefs and built successful careers in China.
In January 2014, Austin and their daughter traveled to the United States, joined by Shixin a few weeks later. Shixin was forced to return to China in February after receiving news that her father was ill. While in China, Shixin started to receive threats to her family’s well-being. In a panic, Shixin returned to the United States, where she was detained in ICE custody before applying for asylum.
Her asylum claim was wrongly denied, despite the substantial proof of warnings from Chinese authorities.
Shixin has been detained in county jail like criminal for more than one year in Calhoun County Jail although ICE has the power to parole ( release her) as she is neither flight risk nor danger to public and has legitimate asylum claim.
ICE Field office should use proper discretion and free her now while asylum appeal is pending!