{"id":59870,"date":"2025-12-03T17:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/59870\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T17:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:52:24","slug":"a-6-year-old-boy-is-missing-after-ice-detained-his-father-as-nyc-mayor-elect-mamdani-leads-outcry-over-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/59870\/","title":{"rendered":"A 6-year-old boy is \u2018missing\u2019 after ICE detained his father as NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani leads outcry over \u2018cruelty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 6-year-old Chinese boy has been separated from his father after federal agents<\/a> arrested the family following a routine immigration appointment in New York City.<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s father, Fei Zheng, is detained inside Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>\u2019s custody records.<\/p>\n

But \u201cnobody knows\u201d where Yuanxin is being held, according to immigrants\u2019 rights advocates. Homeland Security officials have not disclosed his location.<\/p>\n

Yuanxin, who attends first grade at a school in Astoria, Queens, and his father were arrested during a check-in with ICE inside 26 Federal Plaza last week, according to advocates who accompanied the family. Now he\u2019s \u201cmissing,\u201d according to advocates.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a 6-year-old who should be in school, not living in detention,\u201d family friend and advocate Jennie Spector told The City, which first reported the case<\/a>. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fei<\/p>\n

Fei Zheng was separated from his 6-year-old son after their arrest during an ICE appointment in New York City November 26. Advocates close to the family say they are not able to locate the man\u2019s son while DHS won\u2019t disclose where he has been detained (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Independent, Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin disputed that ICE had separated the father and son while acknowledging that they were in separate custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE does not separate families,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is consistent with past administrations immigration enforcement. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the family was given an order of removal, the boy\u2019s father \u201crefused to board the plane and was acting so disruptive and aggressive that he endangered the child\u2019s wellbeing. He even attempted to escape and abandon his son,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n

She added that if police had pulled over a U.S. citizen and \u201cchose not to comply\u201d with an officer\u2019s orders, \u201cthe children would be placed in safe custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York officials have demanded ICE reunite the family and withdraw from the city, which has emerged as a flashpoint for Donald Trump\u2019s anti-immigration agenda<\/a>. Several protesters were arrested last week<\/a> after dozens of demonstrators foiled an ICE raid in Manhattan, and a federal building has faced growing legal scrutiny over conditions inside its makeshift jail <\/a>and the practice of arresting immigrants moments after their immigration court hearings.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who represents Astoria in the state assembly, said \u201cthis cruelty serves no one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must end,\u201d he wrote Tuesday.<\/a><\/p>\n

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called their separation \u201cindefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cICE won\u2019t tell anyone where 6-year-old Yuanxin is. He was separated from his dad at a mandatory check-in,\u201d added<\/a> New York City council member Tiffany Caban, whose district includes Astoria. \u201cThe cruelty is unfathomable [and] makes us all unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diana Moreno, who is running for Mamdani\u2019s vacant seat in the state assembly, said: <\/a>\u201cICE’s cruelty has reached our district.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must end this inhumanity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Democratic Rep. Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez, whose district includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens, said ICE is \u201ctearing families apart and traumatizing kids.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is with this family,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need answers now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mayor-elect<\/p>\n

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani blasted the family\u2019s separation, saying \u2018this cruelty serves no one\u2019 as other New York officials called on ICE to reunite the father and son (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s arrest on November 26 marks the third time they have been held inside ICE detention centers following their attempt to seek asylum in the U.S. after crossing the border earlier this year, according to advocates.<\/p>\n

They spent several weeks inside a detention center for families with children before their release this summer. They were arrested again in August during an ICE check-in and returned to the family ICE facility.<\/p>\n

During a hearing in September, an immigration court closed their asylum case, signaling that ICE was not imminently seeking their removal from the country. But they faced arrest yet again as they returned for a court-ordered ICE check-in appointment last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe father does not know where his son is. He has not been told where his son is,” Spector told CBS News. \u201cThey basically have kidnapped his son.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A federal building that houses ICE and immigration court in Manhattan has emerged as a flashpoint for arrests, with dozens of children reportedly separated from their families during appointments and court hearings (REUTERS)<\/p>\n

Yuanxin\u2019s placement in federal custody follows a surge in child detainment nationally and growing concerns among immigration attorneys that the Trump administration is imminently planning to remove dozens of them.<\/p>\n

ICE has sent more than 600 immigrant children into a federal shelter system this year \u2014 more than over the previous four years combined, according to data collected by ProPublica.<\/a><\/p>\n

That includes children who have been arrested inside 26 Federal Plaza behind closed doors, according to legal advocates who accompany immigrants at their hearings and appointments inside the building.<\/p>\n

A federal network of shelters for \u201cunaccompanied\u201d immigrant children is run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which operates under the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, a federal judge blocked the administration from deporting hundreds of Guatemalan children<\/a> in shelters after they had crossed the U.S. border alone, after lawyers and shelter workers scrambled to prevent their abrupt removal.<\/p>\n