Heng Guan (Simplified Chinese: 关恒; Traditional Chinese: 關恆), a courageous whistleblower who exposed the Chinese government’s genocide against Uyghurs, is currently being unjustly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite having sought asylum in the United States for well-founded reasons.

In 2020, Heng risked his life to document and film the concentration camps used to detain Uyghurs in East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang, China). Following this, he sought a safe location from which to publish his footage and ultimately made his way to the United States in 2021. The release of his documentation has contributed significantly to international awareness of the systematic human rights abuses faced by Uyghurs and other persecuted minority groups. As a result of his actions, Heng and his family have been subjected to ongoing persecution, surveillance, and government-supported harassment. 

Heng has applied for political asylum and has been working with a permit in the United States. Instead of receiving protection, Heng was arbitrarily detained by ICE in August 2025 and placed into a detention system that inflicts unnecessary suffering and undermines the rights of asylum seekers. If deported, Heng faces an extreme and credible risk of lifelong persecution, imprisonment, or worse at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

Numerous reports document prolonged ICE detention without adequate due process, substandard conditions, and practices that violate international human rights norms. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, to which the United States is bound, affirm the right of individuals to seek asylum from persecution. Yet in practice, thousands of asylum seekers—like Heng—are detained without necessity and placed at grave risk of the forced return to persecution.

We call for the immediate release of Heng Guan and demand an end to ICE’s practice of arbitrarily detaining asylum seekers who pose no threat and are exercising a fundamental human right.

Sign this petition to stand with Heng Guan—and with all asylum seekers trapped in a system that denies them safety, dignity, and justice. Speak out for accountability. Defend the right to asylum. Demand humane treatment for those who risk everything to tell the truth.

• Cover image: Screenshot from Heng’s YouTube video on Uyghur concentration camps
• News resource:  The Wall Street Journal - ICE Holding Chinese Man Who Documented Uyghur Camps
• Heng's YouTube video on Xinjiang concentration camps: