The detention of Ho Yin Mo, a field representative for California Assemblywoman Catherine Stefani who was taken into custody by immigration agents on Sept. 17, triggered headlines in local, national and even international media. Almost every politician in San Francisco City Hall and many state legislators have called for Mo’s release.
The White House weighed in on Wednesday, calling Mo “an illegal alien,” after the Department of Homeland Security defended the arrest and said that Mo, who is from Hong Kong and lawfully entered the country on a temporary basis on Jan. 13, 2020, has overstayed by failing to depart by May 15, 2020.
Online, hundreds of accounts on both English and Chinese social media accused Stefani, who said Mo is a “legal employee of the California State Legislature,” of hiring “an undocumented immigrant.”
But attorneys, Mo’s friends, and sources familiar with immigrants from Hong Kong say that a vital detail has been omitted from the popular and government narrative. They said it’s inaccurate to call Mo an undocumented immigrant or an illegal alien.
Instead, they said, it’s highly likely that Mo is covered by Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), which is not an immigration status but a Biden-era presidential directive that allows eligible Hong Kong residents to work in the United States. As of now, it protects them from deportation through Feb. 5, 2027.
The program for Hong Kong residents was initiated in 2021 in response to the imposition of the June 2020 national security law in Hong Kong. It is meant to provide temporary refuge to U.S.-based Hong Kongers who could face danger if they return home. Those in the program do not necessarily have any past involvement in Hong Kong political movements.
DED functions similarly to TPS, the Temporary Protected Status granted to immigrants from El Salvador, Lebanon, Ukraine and elsewhere. But unlike TPS, eligible Hong Kong residents are automatically granted the protection from deportation by DED.
“There is no DED application form required for an individual to be covered by DED,” reads an April 2025 notice by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
And the bar for DED eligibility is low. “Generally, any Hong Konger who resides in the United States and was physically in the United States on January 15, 2025 is absolutely covered by DED and is not removable,” said Samuel Bickett, a Washington, D.C.-based immigration lawyer who specializes in Hong Kong issues.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to Mission Local’s emails asking whether Mo falls under the protection of DED.
“As someone who knows Mo, I know that he is covered by the Hong Konger DED,” said a friend of Mo who requested to remain anonymous because they are also on DED, which they’ve relied on when the usual pathways, such as H1B or green card, failed to work out. “That is something that is very easy to know because as long as you know someone has been in the country since 2021, they are 100 percent covered by DED.”
Mo’s high-profile case has shocked many immigrants from Hong Kong, who have been “messaging a lot in groups and DMs” this week, said the source, who has a fulltime job in San Francisco. “I thought he would be completely safe … he’s part of this system, so I was really shocked that … he would be targeted.”
There are at least 3,000 people in the United States who are on DED right now, said Bickett, though the actual number may be far higher. “That’s what we can verify, but it’s probably more like 7,000,” he explained.
Mo was not the first to face arrest. Arrests of DED Hong Kongers started in June, and it’s been going on since then, according to Bickett. “I’ve become aware of at least a couple a week since then,” he said.
It’s a “sad irony,” Bickett added, that Hong Kongers “are facing a situation where they’re being unjustly arrested, detained despite doing everything this government told them to do, following every rule as it was handed to them. And now this administration is putting them in prison for it. It’s absolutely insane.”
The Department of Homeland Security, Bickett said, often does not volunteer information about DED when someone from Hong Kong is fighting a deportation case in court. In cases when representing clients from Hong Kong, he has had to tell government lawyers that his client has DED. Then “the DHS lawyers are forced to admit that,” but they decide to bring these cases anyway, Bickett said.
In general, people covered by DED “will not be deported to Hong Kong unless they agree to do so,” said Bickett. “ICE is claiming that they can keep them in a detention center,” he said. But courts have disagreed in every case he has handled so far, he said, either ruling in his clients’ favor on bond or, when he has taken their cases to federal court, finding the detention unlawful.
The San Francisco Bay Area has been one of the most popular destinations for people from Hong Kong because of its ample job opportunities and its large Cantonese-speaking population.
For months there have been word-of-mouth warnings advising DED holders to avoid domestic air travel. Most who had continued to travel canceled their trips this past week because of Mo, said Mo’s friend, who also canceled a forthcoming trip. “I won’t plan to fly anytime in the near future.”
“There are not limits in the DED program on domestic travel. So if it is the case that Mr. Mo had DED that adds another element to why this is so absurd,” said Evelyn Wiese, a program director at the Asian Law Caucus. She called the current climate “terrifying,” and said the administration keeps expanding the categories of individuals they are targeting.
“It really is a campaign of cruelty and it’s a campaign to redefine who belongs in our country,” Wiese said.
That campaign has put immigrants on edge. “When I came to America, I felt that, ‘Okay, that is my safe space,’ but now I doubt it because I don’t feel safe here anymore,” said another person who knows Mo.
For the time being, Mo is being held at Nevada Southern Detention Center while waiting for a hearing in Las Vegas on Sept. 30.
