An alleged sushi-slinging spy is in ICE custody.
Ming Xi Zhang, referred to as “Sushi John,” the 61-year-old proprietor of Ya Ya Noodles in Montgomery Township, NJ, was arrested March 24 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark.
Zhang was convicted in April 2024 of appearing as an unregistered agent of the Chinese language authorities and sentenced to 3 years’ probation. In Might 2021, he pleaded responsible to having served as an agent of China in 2016 with out notifying the U.S. Lawyer Basic.
ICE says he legally entered the U.S. in 2000 however later “violated the phrases of his lawful admission.”
“Any unlawful alien conducting actions associated to espionage, sabotage or export management in opposition to america is topic to deportation,” stated ICE Newark Area Workplace Director John Tsoukaris.
Zhang met with Chinese language safety officers within the Bahamas in 2016 and delivered $35,000 to an unnamed particular person in New Jersey, in response to NJ.com. He additionally admitted to twice internet hosting a Chinese language authorities agent at his Princeton dwelling that fall.
He’s being held on the Elizabeth Detention Heart awaiting immigration proceedings, a employee at his restaurant instructed the Submit on Saturday.
“He’s doing good, I imply, given the circumstances,” the employee stated. “However yeah, he’s simply form of ready… to get set free.”
The group surrounding Zhang’s restaurant has apparently rallied round him and his restaurant within the days since his arrest.
“The entire city has been actually supportive,” the employee stated. “Everybody’s been coming in, providing cellphone numbers, speaking to his household . . . everybody’s actually supportive.”
His arrest comes as ICE ramps up deportations below President Donald Trump’s renewed enforcement push for mass removals and expanded detention authority over unlawful immigrants.
The authorized panorama stays in flux: simply final week, the Supreme Courtroom on Thursday sided partially with Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a noncitizen who had been deported regardless of an lively enchantment — as a substitute sending the case again to the decrease courts to make clear whether or not the federal government has “facilitated” or intends to facilitate his return.
U.S. District Choose Paul Xinis chastised Justice Division attorneys Friday over the federal government’s stubbornness to conform, whereas the Trump administration has alleged Abrego Garcia has MS-13 gang ties and has disputed the scope of the phrases “facilitate” and “effectuate” within the choose’s order.
In the meantime, in a separate case, an immigration choose dominated that Mahmoud Khalil — flagged by the State Division as a nationwide safety concern stemming from his pro-Palestine picketing on Columbia’s campus — will be deported, although his case additionally stays below overview.
The Submit didn’t obtain a response from Zhang’s legal professional Robert Hazzard.
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