A 6-year-old boy from Queens was separated from his father and placed in federal custody in New York City as President Trump’s deportation crackdown has swept up increasing numbers of migrant families and children.
The boy, Yuanxin Zheng, is among the youngest migrants to be taken from a parent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a routine check-in in New York City.
The day before Thanksgiving, Yuanxin showed up for a scheduled appointment with his father, Fei Zheng, at 26 Federal Plaza, ICE’s headquarters in the city and the epicenter for migrant arrests. After the two were arrested, Mr. Zheng was sent to an adult detention center in Orange County, N.Y., while officials prepared Yuanxin to be transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which holds unaccompanied immigrant children, according to federal documents obtained by The New York Times.
Their separation has drawn outrage from community leaders and elected officials, including Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City. In a post on X, Mr. Mamdani denounced the family’s arrest and criticized ICE officials for not telling Mr. Zheng where his son was being held.
“This cruelty serves no one,” Mr. Mamdani said. “It must end.” A spokesman for Senator Chuck Schumer said that he was working with Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, a fellow Democrat from New York, and local immigration advocates to persuade federal officials to provide Mr. Zheng with his child’s location.
The case appears to be an example of a tactic that the Trump administration has used to pressure undocumented immigrants to leave the United States by separating them from their families after they refuse to comply with deportation orders.
Government records show that Mr. Zheng was taken from his son because he did not comply with an order to leave the country.
Mr. Zheng and his son illegally entered the United States in April through Mexico, and were discovered by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Dulzura, Calif., according to federal documents. After both were placed in custody, Mr. Zheng told federal agents that he had come to America because he was afraid of being tortured in his native China.
Immigration officials determined that his fear was not credible, and an immigration judge affirmed that finding. Mr. Zheng does not have a criminal history, according to government records.
The family cycled in and out of detention at least twice until their arrest on Nov. 26, according to government records and Mr. Zheng’s attorney, Mike Gao.
Mr. Gao said that his client had refused to board an ICE flight to China in September because he was fearful of facing government retribution for fleeing the country.
Government records show that ICE tried again in October to get Mr. Zheng to board a plane to China, but he refused.
When immigration agents arrested Mr. Zheng last month, he became aggressive with officers and hit his forehead against a wall, according to internal records. Several officers placed him in handcuffs, and Mr. Zheng told them that he wanted to die, the records show.
“It’s a very sad story,” Mr. Gao said during a telephone interview. “I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
Federal officials are attempting to deport the father and son together later this month, records show, indicating that the government plans to reunite the family for the deportation flight.
In an email, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, stressed that migrant parents were given the option of leaving the country with their children.
“In the cases of Fei Zheng and his son — illegal aliens from China — they were given a lawful order of removal as a family unit,” Ms. McLaughlin said.
Sophia Ortiz, a spokeswoman for Ms. Velázquez’s office, said that migrant children were spending much longer in detention facilities this year than in the past. Earlier in 2025, the average stay was about a month; by August, it had grown to roughly 179 days, she said.
“That makes it even more important for us to understand what’s happening in this case,” Ms. Ortiz said.
Andrea Flores, a former White House immigration official in the Obama and Biden administrations, said that the authorities were using atypical methods to coerce Mr. Zheng into complying with his deportation. She said the family’s case would not have been a priority under previous administrations, both Democrat and Republican.
“The punishment for this father not getting on a plane is using his child, which is completely inhumane,” Ms. Flores said. “The tactics being used are torturous.”
Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former ICE official in the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations, said that the family had tried to enter the United States at a time when access to asylum was severely restricted, making it hard for them to stay.
“What is our moral position on our values as a country?” Ms. Trickler-McNulty said. “Is the priority removing a family and creating potential trauma to a child? I think the agency is in a very hard spot on these cases. They tried a few times to not separate the family before they took this step.”
From Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January through mid-October, ICE has arrested at least 140 children younger than 18 in the New York City area, according to federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. Nationwide, the government has arrested about 2,600 minors.
Jennie Spector, a community activist who spoke with Mr. Zheng while he was in detention in Orange County on Saturday, said that Yuanxin had just been admitted to Public School 166 in Queens. The family had been looking forward to him learning English in school.
“He’s a very smart boy,” Ms. Spector said. “They do not need to be in detention. They are not criminals.”
Raj Saha contributed reporting.
Ana Ley is a Times reporter covering immigration in New York City.
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