Scientist has been detained at SFO for over a week, left sleeping in chair, perm resident, lived in usa since age 5 [View all]

Scientist detained at SFO for over a week, left sleeping in chair


https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/scientist-detained-sfo-week-20794330.php

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown appears to have kept a Texas scientist who was born in Korea locked inside San Francisco International Airport for over a week with little access to basic necessities, according to the man’s attorney.

Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a 40-year-old who has permanent residency in the United States and has lived in the country since he was five, was detained at the airport on July 21 after returning from Korea, according to the Washington Post. Eric Lee, one of Kim’s attorneys, said the man has been denied access to an attorney.





Lee said in a post to X that Kim has been forced to sleep in a chair for more than a week with no access to daylight, and described the situation as “another brutal attack on immigrants & science.” Kim is a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University where he is studying vaccine development, according to the Post.

While Kim’s attorneys have said they have not been told why authorities are holding the man, his case appears to be an example of the Trump administration weaponizing marijuana offenses to increase the amount of people who are deported from the country. One of Trump’s primary campaign promises was to conduct mass deportations of millions of immigrants.