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Mark Magnier

The Chinese-American community expressed anger and concern on Thursday over the death of a Chinese national in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on US territory.
Wei Lianyong, 51, reportedly died in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) on August 23, although the scandal-plagued agency did not disclose the death until this week.
“Asian-Americans, Chinese-Americans, should be very concerned about this and very energised to stop what is essentially an attack on the existence of the community,” said Gabriel Chin, professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.
“We should not accept the idea that Chinese immigration is a bad thing because it’s Chinese because that’s inevitably going to affect the position of US citizens of Chinese ancestry.”


Wei was arrested on August 21 by the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety on criminal charges following an alleged assault on a family of five at their home, according to ICE.
The next day, he was taken into ICE custody in advance of deportation proceedings in Saipan, the archipelago’s capital. On the morning of August 23, ICE said he was found “unresponsive” in his prison cell and taken to a local accident and emergency hospital where “life-sustaining interventions were initiated” before he “passed away” at 7.30am. The cause of death remains under investigation, it added.
Wei reportedly fifth Chinese national to die in custody of ICE or US Border Patrol
Wei is at least the fifth Chinese national who has died in the custody of ICE or the US Border Patrol since March 2025, according to Associated Press tracking.
Chinese-American advocates said ICE has been recruiting so rapidly under US President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration and deportation policy that standards are not always great.
“You see it in terms of the ICE agents who are field agents who have no idea what they’re doing and are constantly doing things like accidentally shooting somebody who’s completely innocent,” said Justin Sadowsky, legal director with the Chinese-American Legal Defence Alliance, an advocacy group.
A related outcome is the rise of deaths in custody due to heat, lack of food, insufficient medical care or mental stress tied to incarceration. “It’s not surprising that eventually this would happen to a Chinese person in the Northern Mariana Islands. It was just a matter of time,” Sadowsky said.
Analysts added that the Trump administration’s immigration policies are part of a broader pattern seen in recent years that has scapegoated immigrants and Asian-Americans for Covid-19, eroding US competitiveness and the more cutthroat economy.
“What we are seeing in Saipan is the tragic, inevitable result of an aggressive use of government power,” said Chris Kwok, a New York-based Asian-American Community Organiser. “You cannot separate this lack of transparency and basic duty of care from the broader, hostile climate being engineered right now.
“When an administration is simultaneously trying to dismantle birthright citizenship and ramping up opaque ICE detentions, it sends a terrifying message to Asian-American and immigrant communities: your existence is viewed as illegitimate, and your rights are expendable,” he added. “We will deport you to random third countries. We don’t care if you die in our custody.”
ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said it notified the Chinese consulate and his next of kin “or other designated contact”. It was not immediately clear what part of China Wei came from.


The Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles confirmed it was notified of Wei’s death.
“We have expressed serious concerns to the relevant US authorities over this incident and required a timely and thorough investigation into the cause of Mr Wei’s death, notification of the findings, measures to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents, and assistance to the family of the deceased in handling the aftermath,” the consulate said in a statement.
Beijing has also repeatedly raised concerns with Washington about detainee treatment, medical intake delays and overall conditions inside federal detention centres.
DHS, which described Wei as a “criminal illegal alien from China”, said he was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, and aggravated assault and battery.
It did not say whether charges were dropped after his death, why the death was not revealed for nine days and whether a medical exam was performed as required.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments,” the agency said. “All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health intake screenings within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility.”
CNMI is a US territory in the North Pacific Ocean located roughly three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines. The 14-island archipelago currently has a population of around 42,000, of which around 3,300 are of Chinese descent.
US government ignores international protests over deaths in ICE detention: analysts
Analysts said the Trump administration has largely brushed aside protests from foreign governments over deaths and treatment of their citizens in ICE detention, although Beijing has a louder voice than most others.
“Given the upcoming summit meeting and President Trump’s responsiveness to individual appeals and contacts with international leaders, if this gets brought up at the summit, Trump is likely to respond,” said Chin.
Often, added Sadowsky, any such people-to-people issue at summits becomes part of a broader negotiation involving tariffs and related issues.
“My guess is the United States government isn’t going to publicly admit wrongdoing or apologise. That just doesn’t seem to be what the United States government is doing with ICE these days,” he said. “Maybe this could be used to attract concessions from China, but I don’t expect it to resolve the issue.”
The Chinese community is hardly the only community facing such treatment, but the number of people facing discrimination and ill-treatment is on the rise, Sadowsky said.
“There’s definitely been an increase in stops, including stops of US citizens, and ICE harassing Chinese people, because they’re casting wide nets and using racial profiling.”
“I don’t expect anything other than it’s going to get worse,” he added.
Unlike most of the rest of the US, the local government controlled the territory’s labour and immigration policy between 1978 and 2009, creating a loophole that attracted large numbers of Chinese.
Under these carve-outs, clothes made on Saipan could be legally labelled as “Made in the USA” and shipped to the mainland United States duty-free and quota-free, while avoiding US federal minimum wage standards or many immigration restrictions.
That led dozens of Chinese-owned textile factories to employ tens of thousands of mainland Chinese contract workers, mostly young women, resulting, by the late 1990s, in foreign contract workers vastly outnumbering the local population.


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Wei Lianyong, 51, reportedly died in Northern Mariana Islands on August 23, after he was found unresponsive at a local detention facility


Wei Lianyong, 51, reportedly died in Northern Mariana Islands on August 23, after he was found unresponsive at a local detention facility.


Another Chinese national dies in US immigration custody, raising profiling fears

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Wei Lianyong, 51, reportedly died in Northern Mariana Islands on August 23, after he was found unresponsive at a local detention facility

Wei Lianyong, 51, reportedly died in Northern Mariana Islands on August 23, after he was found unresponsive at a local detention facility