A New York State Assemblymember is demanding federal immigration officials release a 2024 Scarsdale High School graduate from custody after the young woman was detained following a routine visa hearing last week.
Democrat Amy Paulin, who represents Westchester, says 20-year-old Yeonsoo Go was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last Thursday as she exited an appointment at New York Immigration court. Federal agents have been waiting in the hallways at the facility to arrest and detain people leaving their hearings — a practice elected officials and advocates have decried as unconstitutional.
According to Paulin, Go has been in the U.S. on a religious visa for the last five years because her mother is a pastor, and her hearing was an appointment to extend it.
“[She] has not done any wrong thing in her life, and she was detained having a legal visa to our country. We have no idea why or where or how, and we want her home,” Paulin told Gothamist. “How scary is this for someone so young? It is extraordinarily horrible and it's heart wrenching for the family, for those of us who live in the community.”
Go is being held at the Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, according to a federal immigration database.
Paulin said she plans to hold a community rally in Scarsdale on Thursday, August 7, along with other elected officials. A local outlet reported that Go was scheduled to start her sophomore year at Purdue University in a few weeks, where she was enrolled in the School of Pharmacy.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Go has been placed in “expedited removal proceedings.”
"Yeonsoo Go, an illegal alien from South Korea, overstayed her visa that expired more than two years ago,” McLaughlin stated, adding that the Trump Administration is “committed to restoring integrity to the visa program” so immigrants cannot use it as a "permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S.”
