Nearly 10 years after her aunt settled in the States, Yu set out to join her. She trav- eled to Mexico and crossed the border in 2004. Pregnant and 18 years old, she sought asylum to escape China’s restrictive one-child policy and to give her yet-unborn child a better life. But an immigration judge denied her asylum claim. And a year after she arrived, a judge ordered her removal from the country. As she appealed that order, Yu began making a life for herself. She got a waitressing job in Scottsdale at a Chinese restaurant where she worked for seven years. Eventually Selamat came across a strug- gling sushi restaurant, Kawaii Sushi & Asian Cuisine, in a strip mall on Happy Valley Road in Glendale. She and Yu took a chance in 2014 and bought the restaurant from the previous owners. Selamat was in charge of the kitchen; Yu ran the front of the house. Bubbly and upbeat, Yu greeted guests and forged easy connections with them at the bar. She became the face of the restau- rant online and in print promos, and has been featured on the front page of the Northwest Valley’s hyper-local commu- nity newspaper, the Upper Westsider. The restaurant sponsored local Little League teams and supported the city’s firemen and police. While Yu was becoming a community pillar, her immigration status was wobbling. Two years after taking over the restaurant, her final asylum appeal was dismissed. But years passed before deportation proceedings began. Yu and her aunt kept working. In 2018, they opened a second location, in Peoria. They were employing more than 30 people, including high school students working their first jobs. Four years into the second location, the business relationship between Yu and Selamat began to strain. They decided to split control of the restaurants: Selamat would take over the first location in Glendale, and Yu would control the second Peoria spot. Still, the two women kept in close contact and in the early 2020s floated the idea of coming back together and opening a third location. Yu had her eye on a space in north Peoria, in the master-planned community of Vistancia. Many Vistancia residents — and Kawaii Peoria regulars — encouraged her to bring a location to the neighborhood. “Many years ago, I told them that one day I’m gonna open a restaurant near Vistancia so you guys don’t have to drive that far,” Yu said. “That is like my promise to the community.” In 2023 she came across a retail space for sale in a Vistancia strip mall. She sent it to Selamat. It was just an idea, but they wanted to make it happen. Then ICE grabbed Yu. She focused on surviving and keeping the Peoria location running while Selamat trucked ahead on opening the new location. Sita, Selamat’s daughter-in-law, took on a co-ownership role. In January, when ICE released Yu from her second detention stint, Selamat asked if she wanted to help run the new restaurant. With her status uncertain, Yu said no. The elevated, midcentury modern restaurant opened five months later without her direct involvement. “I don’t even have legal status to be able to situate myself,” Yu said. “How can I make sure all three locations are taken care of?” ‘AT MOST, A MISDEMEANOR’ On a sunny Sunday afternoon in 2025, a political strategist walked through multiple steel doors, past barbed wire fencing. Just behind him, a local GOP legislative chair and Democratic progressive activist followed. The group had ditched their keys, phones and jewelry at the door. They were patted down and put their belongings through an X-ray machine. Once through the security checks, the odd throuple slid and squeezed into one side of a plastic booth-like seat inside the filthy visitation wing of Eloy Detention Center. A few minutes later, detention staff escorted Yu, sporting a greenish-gray scrub uniform, to the booth on that hot, August afternoon. She hugged each of the three activists before sitting down on the other side of the booth, divided by a thin, five-inch wooden slat. For the next hour, they got to know each other. Earlier that day, the team — Republican activist Lisa Everett, progres- sive organizer Brent Peak and strategist Jeremy Helfgot — made the hour-and-a- half trek from the West Valley to visit Yu. Over the past few weeks, the bipartisan group had begun organizing and bringing attention to Yu’s case to get her out. The team had come together after Peak enlisted Everett’s help. They’d met on the opposite side of a protest, but struck up a cordial relationship. “It was a medium-security prison,” Everett said, reflecting on the trip to New Times nearly a year later. “I vividly remember an igloo cooler sitting on a counter with cold water on it, with no cups.” Peak also called the facility a medium- security prison, describing it as “stark,” he added. “We treat prisoners better.” Helfgot consistently describes the facility as a “concentration camp,” and added that, “at most, Kelly’s guilty of a misdemeanor,” yet “she’s locked up for (nearly) nine months in a facility that is run more poorly than a federal corrections facility.” Several members of Arizona’s congres- sional delegation, notably all Democrats, also visited Yu at the federal detention facility. In an interview with New Times, Sen. Mark Kelly described the facility bluntly. “Hey, it’s not a great place to be,” he said. “It’s prison. I don’t see why these people have to be sent to prison.” Despite the environment she was living in, Kelly described Yu as a smart, impres- sive “valuable member of the community” who loves the United States. And Rep. Greg Stanton said it was “heartbreaking” to see Yu in detention, but added that even there, in uncertain, scary times, Kelly was building a community. “Her fellow detainees loved her,” Stanton said. “She was a positive force, keeping their spirits uplifted.” Yu’s stoic yet upbeat personality among her detained peers translated from visit to visit. During his visit, Sen. Ruben Gallego said he could tell Yu was worried, but trying to be strong for the other detainees. Before he left, Gallego hugged her. She broke down in sobs. “It’s something that will always have a big impact on me for the rest of my life,” he said. “Seeing her break down a little. I think she had been holding a lot up.” Yu saw Eloy differently. It’s not a prison, she maintains. “Maybe not like home,” Yu said. “But at least it’s a bed for us. They are providing medical, food and clothes to change into.” The food in Eloy wasn’t great, she said. Her hair became damaged, and a lot of it turned gray. She promptly colored it once she was released. Lisa Selamat, Kelly Yu’s aunt and partner, bought the restaurant’s first location 12 years ago in Glendale. (Alan Staats) Kelly Yu shows off a spread of sushi rolls, and her new hair that was damaged and gray while in ICE custody. One of the first things she did when she regained her freedom was color it. (Alan Staats) (Alan Staats) >> p 13
