Republican, Dem work to prevent deportation of entrepreneur

By Chris Woodward
The Center Square

It is not every day that people on opposite sides of the political spectrum join forces, but that is exactly what Lisa Everett and Brent Peak have done in Arizona.

Everett, the GOP chair for Arizona Legislative District 29, is working with Peak, a Democrat, to keep restaurant owner Kelly Yu from being deported to China. She’s currently detained at the Eloy Detention Center in Eloy, Arizona.

“Kelly is a woman who came to the United States when she was 18 years old, 21 years old at the time,” Everett told The Center Square. “She was pregnant, fled China due to the one-child policy, and when she arrived, she immediately applied for asylum.”

Those processes were denied, but Yu has been in the court system still trying to become a U.S. citizen. Meanwhile, Yu is active in Peoria, a Phoenix suburb where she owns two restaurants and employs 30 people.

“She sponsors the high school softball team. She helps with fundraisers for the fire and police department. She has no criminal record, and she does in fact pay her taxes, the business as well as her personal because there are forms you can use to do that,” said Everett. “She was scooped up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while she was at an immigration meeting that she had to go to because she is married now, and she’s trying to use being married to an American to become a citizen.”

Peak, co-chair of progressive activist group Northwest Valley Indivisible, said if nothing changes, Yu will be sent to Hong Kong in the next two to three weeks. Peak and Everett are now appealing to the White House for assistance.

“We know that if the president gets involved, things could happen, and so we’re pretty much at the point where he’s the one person who has the power to do something differently here,” Peak told The Center Square. “So we are encouraging people to send a civil message through the comment form on the White House website asking him to take a look.”

Pointing to Yu’s involvement in Peoria, Peak said, “There are several aspects of Kelly’s story that we can all get behind,” from being a job creator to obeying the law and giving back to her community.

In addition to maintaining her two restaurants, Peak said Yu is planning to open a third location.

“She is not the worst of the worst,” said Everett.

Peak and Everett met earlier this year at a protest/counterprotest outside the office of U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Arizona. Peak and others had been showing up to demonstrate against things such as DOGE cuts. When Everett heard about it, she stood with others in another location to provide the opposite opinion.

“I went up to her and said ‘Hi, I am Brent. I am one of the coordinators with the other group over here, ‘ and her response was ‘Well, it’s our turn now,’” said Peak.

Eventually, the two politicos struck up a conversation and later had breakfast. When Peak saw a news interview with Yu’s husband and her American daughter, Zita, Peak reached out to Everett for help.

“This was something she wanted to get on board with,” said Peak.

Yu’s husband, Aldo Urquiza, hopes other people get on board and help his wife avoid deportation.

“Time is running out, and it’s not fair,” Urquiza told The Center Square. “I thought deportations were for criminals, but Kelly is not a criminal. She is an amazing person, and we need more people like her in this country.”

Some of Arizona’s elected leaders have met with Yu and others facing deportation. U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, visited Yu’s detention center on Aug. 7.

“Arizonans deserve real solutions for our broken border and immigration system, not what I saw today which was ripping families and communities apart,” said Kelly in a press release.

U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, also met with Yu. Afterward, Gallego issued a warning that “we all lose as a country when we lose the Kelly Yu’s of the world.”

U.S. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Center Square, “Lai Kuen Yu, an illegal alien from Hong Kong, has had a final deportation order from a judge since 2005. She was arrested illegally crossing the border by U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona on February 4, 2004, and two days later was released into the country.

“On November 14, 2013, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed her appeal and upheld her final order of removal,” McLaughlin said in an email. “On August 23, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied her appeal. On June 12, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted her a temporary stay of removal while they consider her motion to reopen. She will remain in ICE custody pending her removal proceedings.”

McLaughlin noted ICE doesn’t export U.S. citizens. “It’s her choice. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with someone the parent designates.”

The U.S. is offering illegal immigrants $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport themselves, McLaughlin said. “We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

McLaughlin said illegal immigrants can take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. CBP stands for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.