FOIA Lawsuit Filed by Chaofeng Ge's Brother Against Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE")

Press Conference: 11/12/25, 12:30 PM, Foley Square

WHAT

FOIA lawsuit by Chaofeng Ge’s brother against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) for information about his death at an immigration detention facility on August 5th.

CONTACT

David B. Rankin, 212-277-5825; drankin@blhny.com

Members of the family are available for interviews upon request.

SPEAKERS

Family of Mr. Ge

Adrianna Torres-García, Member of the Shut Down Detention Campaign

Anacristina Fonseca, Community Advocacy Manager at Envision Freedom Fund

Katy Sastre, Executive Director, First Friends of New Jersey & New York

David B. Rankin, Partner, Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP

Yanfeng Ge, the brother of Chaofeng Ge—a resident of Queens who was found in a shower stall at Moshannon Valley Processing Center (“MVPC”) an ICE detention facility in Pennsylvania, hanging by his neck, with his hands and legs tied behind his back—is filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the federal government to release information about his brother’s death. ICE has provided no information to the family, and no transparency into this tragic event.

Chaofeng Ge was experiencing significant distress prior to his death, that he was isolated because no one in the facility could speak Mandarin speaker. MVPC staff refused to even try to communicate with him. Yanfeng Ge still does not understand how the government could have allowed his brother to die. Now, after ICE ignored his Freedom oF Information Act request, Mr. Ge is taking them to court to get answers and justice for Chaofeng.

Yanfeng Ge, the brother of Chaofeng, makes the following statement:

“I am devasted by the loss of my brother and by the knowledge that he was suffering so greatly in that detention center. He did not deserve to be treated that way. I want justice for my brother, answers as to how this could have happened, and accountability for those responsible fpr his death.”

"The Shut Down Detention Campaign is clear in its values: detention in any form is unacceptable. Freedom means an end to cages, to surveillance, and to state violence. We move to end detention, because our communities are not disposable. Our communities, o ur people are valuable. Mr. Ge's life was valuable; he was a member of this community, of a family and he was loved. We stand in solidarity with his family, ready to fight for justice, for him and everyone who has been or is being abused in Moshannon. We will not stop until Moshannon is shut down for good. Because none of us are free until all of us are free. And together, we will shut down detention," said Adrianna Torres-García, Member of the Shut Down Detention Campaign.

“Chaofeng Ge should be alive today. His death—like so many others before it—was entirely preventable. Detention doesn’t protect anyone; it isolates, traumatizes, and kills. People deserve to fight their immigration cases in freedom, surrounded by family an d community—not behind bars. Immigration detention is unnecessary, inhumane, and it must end.” Anacristina Fonseca, Community Advocacy Manager at Envision Freedom Fund.

“The total lack of transparency into what is happening at these detention centers has to stop. People are dying and our government doesn’t have the common decency to offer the family any explanation, it’s appalling,” said David B. Rankin, Partner, Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP – attorney for the family.

“The government is so committed to keeping the public in the dark about what is happening at these detention centers that it is willing to violate the law. This lawsuit calls for much needed transparency into how the government is treating detainees,” said Jeremy A. Ravinksy, Associate Attorney at Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP.

The Ge family is represented by Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP, who represented Nicholas Feliciano’s family, Eric Garner’s family, members of the Exonerated Park 5, and cocounseled Floyd, the stop and frisk litigation.

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