Peoria business owner living in US over 20 years detained at immigration meeting, faces deportation

PHOENIX — A business owner deeply entrenched in the Peoria community was detained by federal immigration agents in May, leaving her business and family surrounded by uncertainty.

Kelly Yu is being held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Eloy Detention Center and her removal from the U.S. has been ordered despite having no criminal record, 12News first reported.

She was detained on May 28 at a monthly meeting with immigration officials, 12News reporter Sean Rice told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos on Wednesday.

“She had gone to multiple of these meetings in previous months and she was not detained,” Rice said. “Well, come at this meeting in May, she is taken out in handcuffs and is immediately transported to the Eloy detention facility, where she’s been ever since.”

ICE raids at Phoenix immigration courts prompted large protests earlier in May.

Yu fled China at 18 while pregnant and sought U.S. asylum due to China’s one-child rule that is no longer enforced. She had her daughter Zita, now 21, shortly after arriving in the U.S., giving Zita protected legal status. Yu’s husband, Aldo, is a U.S. citizen.

The couple owns two Kawaii Sushi restaurants with locations in Peoria and Glendale.

Peoria business owner’s community impact

More than 30 employees work at the sushi restaurants, Rice said, and oftentimes these are high school students working their first jobs.

Yu’s philanthropy work includes donations to the Peoria Liberty High baseball team, Peoria Police Department and donations of food to homeless shelters around Christmas.

“It’s a very complicated process that she has undertaken over the last 21 years to try to get asylum and then try to get citizenship through marrying Aldo,” Rice said. “But one thing I want to point out is she is helping people who maybe are not fluent in English at the Eloy detention facility. She is mainly being housed with other Chinese nationals and if they don’t know English, she is helping them.”

Rice said Yu, who spoke to him via Zoom from the detention facility, is doing this because she comes from more means than the other detainees.

“They’re doing the best they can,” Rice said of how Yu’s family is holding up.

What’s next for Kelly Yu?

The order of removal is a substantial legal obstacle for Yu.

Much of what will come next depends on authorities being able to find her travel documents, as well as hearing back from China on if they’ll accept her back.

“She did describe to me that she does have a few family members there but is more acquainted with the Peoria community than any sort of community in Hong Kong,” Rice said.

There’s no clear timeline for when Yu would be deported.

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