A Chinese college student spent weeks in San Diego immigration detention centers after an idea for a TikTok video led to him being wrongfully suspected of human smuggling.
Ziming Wang is a Los Angeles college student with 20,000 followers on TikTok. Last year, he set out on a cross-country road trip with his girlfriend with a plan to stop at the southern U.S.-Mexico border to show his TikTok followers a glimpse of what the border is like.
But instead of filming a quick video and continuing on his way, Wang says he found himself at the Dulzura border translating for Border Patrol and helping a group of injured Chinese migrants. But as he was offering to drive three women to a nearby shelter, he and his girlfriend were surrounded and arrested by Border Patrol.
Border Patrol agents suspected Wang of human smuggling, which Wang vehemently denied, pleading not guilty to the allegations.
Nonetheless, Wang spent the next few weeks in immigrant detention centers while he waited for his trial date. He described unsanitary and dangerous conditions that included little food, little access to medical care, no communication with his family or loved ones, overcrowded cells and a stint in solitary confinement that resulted in long-lasting impacts to his mental and physical health.
“It doesn’t feel like America,” Wang recalled of the detention centers.
Freelance reporter Yiqing Wang (who has no relation to Ziming Wang) writes, not only about Wang’s harrowing month in San Diego’s detention centers, but includes stories of other previously detained migrants and their firsthand experiences.
Border Report: Still in Mexico, Asylum Seekers Look to Other Countries
It has been nearly six months since President Donald Trump shut down asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border. That left roughly 30,000 applicants with appointments in limbo.
Voice contributor Kate Morrissey wanted to know what happened to those people. Where are they now? Are they still hopeful they can seek asylum in the United States?
In the latest Border Report, Morrissey reports that many have chosen to return to the countries they fled. Others are turning their attention to Canada. And some are not giving up and staying in Tijuana shelters in hopes that policies will change.
“I know it’s difficult, but with faith we will get ahead,” one woman told Morrissey.
In Other News
- City Tacos is set to close its location near Petco Park at the end of June after the Padres purchased the building where the taquería resides. (Union-Tribune)
- Hundreds gathered in Hillcrest to march for transgender rights amidst the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military service members. (ABC 10).
- A brush fire broke out Monday afternoon in North County, prompting evacuation orders in Fallbrook and Bonsall. (NBC 7)
- The Coast Guard intercepted a vessel 22 miles off of the coast of La Jolla carrying 11 migrants, all of whom were taken into custody by Border Patrol. (CBS 8)
- The Union-Tribune reveals that a nonprofit’s CEO directed volunteers to help renovate an investment property he purchased. Kyle Kennedy, leader of Urban Corps of San Diego County, was placed on a performance improvement plan but remains CEO.
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña and Tessa Balc. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.