Purdue student reunites with family after release from days-long ICE detention

Yeonsoo Go, a 20-year-old South Korean student at Purdue University, has been released from federal immigration custody and reunited with her family in New York after being detained for four days in a case that sparked widespread community outcry.

What happened: Go, the daughter of an Episcopal priest, had just completed a routine immigration hearing in Lower Manhattan on July 31 and was set to return later this month when ICE agents took her into custody. She was transferred to Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, where she remained for the next three nights. Amid her detainment, loved ones, community members and local officials called for her release in protests across the city.

Without any explanation, she was returned to New York and freed shortly before 8 p.m. Monday. “I always had faith that [I’d] be out soon,” she told reporters as she walked out of 26 Federal Plaza.

About Go: Go first arrived in the U.S. in March 2021 on an R-2 visa with her mother, Rev. Kyrie Kim, who became the first female Anglican priest ordained in Seoul’s diocese. After completing high school in Scarsdale High as an honors student, she went on to Purdue’s College of Pharmacy while remaining active in the Episcopal church.

“We used to do midnight runs together and make sandwiches and meals for the homeless,” a friend named Caitlin told CBS New York. “She’s a college student, a daughter, a friend. She belongs here, not in a detention center.” While authorities claim Go is an “illegal alien” who had “overstayed her visa that expired more than two years ago,” her legal team says it remains valid through December 2025.

What her family is saying: Rev. Kim, who welcomed her daughter back, expressed relief in their tearful reunion. “I’m just happy that she’s with me,” Kim said while acknowledging others in similar circumstances. The religious leader previously called the situation “incomprehensible,” telling Yonhap News Agency she never expected her family to become targeted despite her work advocating for Korean immigrants.

New York State Assemblymember Amy Paulin, who spoke with Go by phone, reportedly described her as “happy, relieved and finally free.”

The big picture: Go’s arrest as someone with no criminal record reflects a documented shift in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. After White House officials set a daily arrest target of 3,000 in May, data shows more than half of those detained by ICE lack criminal convictions, far from the previous focus on targeting serious criminals.

Go’s case also follows that of Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a South Korean-born researcher and legal permanent resident detained at San Francisco International Airport in July, contributing to concerns within the Korean American community.