ICE agents arrested a Chinese father and his 6-year-old son, separating the two and sending the father to Orange County Jail while the whereabouts of the son remain unknown as of Tuesday morning.
The father and his son were arrested at a check-in with ICE inside 26 Federal Plaza last Wednesday, advocates who accompanied the family told THE CITY. Once inside, the father and son were separated. ICE agents then sent the father to a detention facility in Goshen, New York, according to Jennie Spector, a volunteer and community activist who spoke with the father in person after his arrest.
The father, named Fei, told Spector that he was separated from his 6-year-old son Yuanxin inside 26 Federal Plaza and not told where ICE agents were taking him. THE CITY is withholding the father and son’s full names for their privacy.
“This is a 6 year old who should be in school, not living in detention,” said Spector. “And certainly now not being separated from his father, who is a caring, intelligent person who takes good care of him. They should not be separating families.”
In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the two had been separated and did not say where 6-year-old Yuanxin is currently being held, while also adding, “ICE does not separate families.”
Fei had “refused to board the plane and was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child’s wellbeing. He even attempted to escape and abandon his son,” McLaughlin said.
She added if a US citizen was pulled over by police and obeyed a lawful order, “the children would be placed in safe custody.”
The 6 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, with a steep increase beginning in May.
ICE separated Chinese immigrant Fei from his 6-year-old son, Yuanxin, after detaining him at 26 Federal Plaza on Nov. 26, 2025. Credit: Courtesy of Family
Another volunteer named John, who declined to give his full name fearing retaliation, had accompanied the family to their 7 a.m. check-in at 26 Federal Plaza. John said he waited for several hours at a cafe nearby, but the father and son never re-emerged. The father’s name appeared in the ICE detainee locator later that day.
John said that for the past several months he has accompanied many families to check-ins at 26 Federal Plaza and witnessed many kids being taken by ICE.
“They just don’t come out,” he said. “Entire families have gone in and not gone out.”
The Nov. 26 arrest is the third time Fei and Yuanxin had been held inside ICE detention centers since they attempted to cross the border seeking asylum in April of this year, Spector said, though it is the first time they have been separated from one another. She met the family at a weekly mutual aid meal distribution in Clinton Hill where they had come seeking assistance.
The father and son spent several weeks inside a family ICE detention center after they first entered the country and were released on parole in early summer. They were arrested again at an August ICE check-in and returned to Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a detention center for families with children, where the two had previously been held.
In September, at an immigration court hearing while they were detained, a judge administratively closed their asylum case, according to immigration court records. Under prior administrations, would have been seen as a positive step and indicated that DHS wasn’t actively seeking the person’s deportation.
And just over a month later on Oct. 24, the father and son were released on a year-long parole, according to a copy of their DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement parole document reviewed by THE CITY. They were required to return for an ICE check-in in early December, according to the document.
“ICE may also terminate parole on notice prior to the automatic termination date,” the document warned. “Parole is entirely within the discretion of ICE and can be terminated at any time and for any reason.”
Despite the uncertainty, the two were settling into life in New York City, living at a family shelter in Queens, while Yuanxin had started first grade at P.S. 166Q in Astoria, according to Spector.
ICE has often been arresting children at 26 Federal Plaza behind closed doors, where members of the public are not allowed in to witness them. Accounts of these types of arrests of children have been hard to corroborate, because the families are often speedily deported and relatives around them are too afraid to speak up.
In August, THE CITY reported on a case of a mother, her 19-year-old son and six-year-old daughter who were arrested and swiftly deported to Ecuador.
And a number of other cases have been outlined in federal court filings in recent months for the few who have been able to connect with lawyers or who had advocates or family members file habeas corpus lawsuits on their behalf.
On Oct. 29 a 41-year-old Ecuadorean mother and her 18-year-old daughter, a college freshman, and nine-year-old son were arrested at an ICE check-in. The mother was a victim of domestic violence and was pursuing a U visa for people who’ve been the victim of certain crimes. She had cooperated with authorities to prosecute her abuser, her lawyers said. A federal judge declined to issue a restraining order, and the family was deported in early November, according to court filings.
On November 12, a Peruvian mother and her 14-year-old daughter were arrested by ICE at a check-in. In that case, another federal judge ordered their release eight days later.
Haidee Chu contributed additional reporting.
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