13 Aug 27th - Sept 2nd, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Want to keep reading Phoenix New Times in print every week? Support us today by becoming an advertiser or member. “Maybe stress. Maybe the water. Maybe the nutrition,” she said. “I don’t know.” She had been living freely and inde- pendently in the U.S. for more than 20 years before she was suddenly locked up. While her status was unstable, she had felt “solid” in Arizona after opening her first restaurant. In that sense, for Yu, Eloy did feel like a prison. Per ICE’s budget overview submitted to Congress for fiscal year 2025, the agency spends about $165 per day to house a person in detention. Yu was detained for 268 days, meaning that U.S. taxpayers spent north of $44,000 just to keep her locked up. That estimate doesn’t include her arrest, transport, processing, and legal back-and-forth. Nor does it account for what the economy loses by imprisoning a productive member of society. Before ICE grabbed her, Yu paid business, property and personal taxes, employed dozens of people in Peoria and put charity dollars back into the community. Spending the equivalent of a teacher’s salary to confine a woman like Kelly Yu in a cell for most of a year is a policy choice. America’s elected leaders keep making that decision again and again and again. As of May, ICE has detained more than 400,000 people since Trump returned to power in January 2025, according to Brookings. ICE is now holding more than 60,000 people in detention daily — meaning that taxpayers are shelling out nearly $10 million a day just to house detained immigrants. The bipartisan advocacy team and the Democratic congressional delegation worked for months to secure Yu’s release. Everett and Peak made public and media appearances. They reached out to congres- sional offices, federal agencies, the White House. The members of Congress reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. Kelly requested that Yu receive humanitarian parole. That request was denied. Outreach wasn’t returned or was outright rejected. The new year came and went without any apparent progress in Yu’s case. Early February brought a breakthrough. Yu’s attorney filed a habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court of Arizona to challenge the legality of her detention. The petition requires the government to justify detaining or imprisoning a person, calling upon the Fifth Amendment’s requirement that no one be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” These petitions have become a tool for immigration attorneys to free their clients from detention. Since April, at least 1,100 such petitions have been filed in immigra- tion cases in Arizona’s U.S. District Court. In response to Yu’s petition, Arizona’s U.S. Attorney noted that Yu had been detained for more than eight months. The government considers six months the outer limit of “reasonable” detention in these cases. The government ultimately didn’t oppose her release from custody, and District Judge Krissa Lanham granted Yu’s petition. She was spared, for now, because China hasn’t processed the travel paper- work DHS requested to legally deport her. Three days later, she was back inside K2 wearing an ankle monitor. Supporters and activists poured in to celebrate. Everett, Peak and Helfgot visited the restaurant the night Yu was released. “It was euphoric. There’s no other way I could describe it,” Helfgot said. “I remember being over the moon.” Stanton came the next day to give Yu a big hug. Kelly came a few weeks after that. Her daughter has filed a petition to sponsor her for a green card. She sports an ankle monitor under her black flared leggings as she greets customers in the restaurant. ICE could re-detain her at any time. And if China provides the U.S. with her travel documents, she could be deported back to the country she hasn’t been in for more than two decades. “Every time I go to ICE, I have to check in,” Yu said. “And I just feel like they’re gonna lock me up again.” Why Is America So Afraid of Kelly Yu? from p 11 Kelly Yu prepares a cocktail at Kawaii Sushi & Asian Cuisine in Peoria. She said her ordeal with ICE left her scared for the future. (Alan Staats)
