Freed from immigration detention, Chinese human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping is now being tracked with an ankle monitor.
In China, Wu said, “we call it an electronic shackle.”
“I’m afraid to go outside,” he said in an interview with WITF this week, referring to the stigma of wearing the device. Wu, who does not have a criminal record, said he’s worried someone would see it and mistake him for someone who has committed a crime. He said he has a work permit, but he now needs permission to leave the state.
“I don’t want to escape,” Wu said, and pointed to his house in Lancaster County where he lives with his wife and child. Wu, 48, is in the United States to flee persecution of human rights lawyers and activists in China, according to reporting from local newspaper LNP, which has closely followed his case.
“Now, I can’t get freedom,” he said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said entered the country on a visa which expired after six months on June 29, 2020. Wu applied for asylum.
“Pending applications do NOT confer legal status,” ICE wrote in an unattributed statement to WITF, which referred to Wu as “an illegal alien from China.”
ICE did not answer questions about why Wu was required to wear a GPS tracking device or where the policy has changed under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Spotlight on local law enforcement cooperation
Mt. Holly Springs police pulled Wu over for a stop sign violation on July 15, according to court records. The police department signed an agreement with ICE in February that gives them “limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties,” according to ICE information.
They arrested Wu and delivered him to ICE. They detained him in the Moshannon Valley detention center for two weeks before his lawyers and pressure from an international array of advocates won his release.
“It is a single incident that’s very striking because he’s a civil rights activist from a communist authoritarian country, which we used to prioritize for immigrants,” said Perry Hazeltine.
He’s a member of Solidarity Lancaster, an activist group established after Trump’s reelection that opposes cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE. For months, the group has been organizing to persuade Lancaster’s sheriff and district attorney to end their own ICE agreements, which are ongoing.
Wu’s case was “perfect timing, in a way,” Hazeltine said.
“I hate to say it like that, but I’m sure he would be glad to have his situation make people aware of the way in which he and others are being, essentially, incarcerated,” Hazeltine said.
The case has drawn international attention from Chinese dissidents and advocacy groups who say deporting Wu could put him in danger and would violate international laws meant to protect people fleeing persecution.
