00:00A man from China living in Wyoming County for the last 30 years has been detained by ICE.
00:0513 Wham's Carly Miner spoke with the man's family who says they're in shock and working to bring him home.
00:10Carly, good evening.
00:11Yes, Stephen. The man's family tells me their father went to the immigration office for a routine check-in and
00:17never returned home.
00:18It's been nearly a month since 56-year-old Yu Yang was taken into custody by ICE.
00:24His daughter Elizabeth tells me she's still in shock.
00:27The immigration office asks him to come in or they'll set up an interview on the phone and just checks
00:35in with him every once in a while.
00:37So this time we thought it was normal routine check-in.
00:41She tells me on July 14th, he received a call to report to the immigration office and was arrested.
00:47He asked his lawyer and his lawyer was like, oh, it's okay because you should be fine because he just
00:53recently got approved for the first death.
00:57First step in applying for his green card. So he just went in thinking it was going to be okay.
01:04Elizabeth tells me her father had a work authorization card and when he stepped down from his restaurant in Perry
01:10nearly a year ago, he began working to obtain his green card.
01:14I, like many other people who live in the village of Perry, met Yang initially through Hong Kong restaurant.
01:23Josh Marks met Yang about eight years ago.
01:26I had seen a post on Facebook about it and I was just completely shocked.
01:32You know, this is somebody who, in my mind, has just been a part of this community for forever.
01:40He says Yang was one of the hardest working people in town.
01:44This is exactly the kind of person you want in your community, who settles in your community and, you know,
01:53raises their family there and is ingrained in a part of it.
01:57And it's just, it's insane to me.
02:01We reached out to ICE and a spokesperson said a warrant of removal was issued to Yang by an immigration
02:06judge back in 2002.
02:08They say Yang had his due process and remained at large for over 20 years.
02:14Elizabeth says the family has talked to her dad over the phone and the family has visited him at the
02:19Buffalo Detention Center.
02:20This obviously sucks for anyone that's, for all the families that are going through this.
02:25It just sucks because families are getting torn apart.
02:30ICE says Yang will remain in custody pending his removal from the U.S.
02:34Yang's family says they are working with an attorney to try and resolve this.
02:37Yes, Steven.
02:38Steven.
