UPDATE: 7:25P: Rep. Mike Lawler says he helped secure the release of Yeonsoo Go – a 20-year-old Scarsdale High School graduate recently detained by ICE after an immigration hearing in New York City. Original story is below the X post.
Yeonsoo Go, 20, a 2024 Scarsdale High School graduate, went to an immigration hearing Thursday in New York City regarding her visa. As she was leaving the courthouse, ICE agents detained her.
She was later sent to Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, and slated for expedited removal, according to ICE officials.
Late Monday, though, sources close to Yeonsoo's family told News 12 she was transferred again, but family and friends did not know where.
Yeonsoo came to Westchester County in 2021 from South Korea on a Visa meant for dependents of people coming to the United States on religious assignments, since her mother — an Episcopal pastor — took an assignment at a nearby church.
After graduating high school, Yeonsoo went to Purdue University to study pharmacy.
Sources said Monday her current visa does not expire until the end of this year.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said that is not the case.
"Yeonsoo Go, an illegal alien from South Korea, overstayed her visa that expired more than two years ago," McLaughlin wrote in a statement to News 12. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S. ICE arrested her on July 31 and placed her in expedited removal proceedings."
District 88 State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin has been working closely with local elected officials lobbying for Yeonsoo's release.
Paulin hopes ICE made a mistake.
"We're shocked they would take someone who was legally here," Paulin said Monday over Zoom, "who was a fabulous student, graduated from Scarsdale High School, went to college. We were just shocked that something like this could happen."
Robert Draper, Yeonsoo's high school honors physics teacher said Yeonsoo was a top student, and a determined leader who does not deserve the treatment she has been receiving.
"I'm just hoping that by shining a little light on the matter, it can accelerate things toward a more judicious end," Draper said Monday afternoon in a Zoom interview.
Yeonsoo's family, friends and local lawmakers will gather at 5 p.m. Thursday at Chase Park to rally for her release.
They were growing especially concerned Monday afternoon, still unaware of where Yeonsoo was being held.