Li Xing Chen, the owner of Dragon China, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to his son and the Broome County Sheriff's Office. He is being detained at the Broome County Correctional Facility. Dragon China has been closed. Credit: Patrick McCarthy | Central Current

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson.

Last Monday, Li Xing Chen set out from his Nedrow residence for a hearing with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, according to Chen’s son.

Later that day, officers at the Broome County Correctional Facility received a new detainee: Chen.

Before his detention, Chen and his family operated Dragon China, a popular Chinese American restaurant in Nedrow.

ICE detained the 52-year-old Chen on Sept. 15 at the immigration hearing, Chen’s son said. The Broome facility confirmed with Central Current that it received Chen, who currently remains in its custody.

An employee at the Broome County Correctional Facility told Central Current that ICE did not provide the facility with a reason for Chen’s detention. The employee said that the inmates’ suspected charges are usually available for the facility to provide.

“I can give out his age, his name, usually charges, but in this case, I don’t know. Other than violation of ICE,” the employee said.

After publication, an ICE spokesperson responded to questions from Central Current. The spokesperson said that “ICE Buffalo” detained Chen on Sept. 15 and is currently holding Chen at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, contradicting the Broome Correction Facility officer who told Central Current that Chen is in Broome County’s custody. The ICE spokesperson on Tuesday verified that Chen is indeed in the Broome County facility, not the Buffalo facility that ICE previously stated was housing Chen.

Chen, a Chinese national, was arrested on a warrant of removal that an immigration judge issued in 1994, the ICE spokesperson wrote in an email to Central Current.

The Board of Immigration Appeals in August 2012 dismissed Chen’s appeal and upheld the order for his removal, the spokesperson wrote.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE is focused on removing illegal aliens who post [sic] a threat to the security of our communities as well as those who have a final order of removal,” the spokesperson said.

Chen is reportedly the third Chinese restaurateur arrested in the CNY area this summer.

Though ICE had yet to confirm Chen’s detention, workers in the neighboring stores that shared a plaza with Dragon China were well aware that Chen had been detained.

A Dollar General employee noticed family members removing items from Dragon China last week, and contacted the plaza owner to ask what happened.

“He said they got a one-way ticket to China,” the Dollar General employee said. An employee at the Rent-a-Center adjacent to Dragon China also said he heard the news through the company. 

Central Current reached out to Ellicott Development, the Buffalo-based real estate agency that owns the plaza, for comment.

Ellicott Chief Operating Officer Lori Carbaugh said that Chen’s son called Ellicott last week to inform the agency that ICE detained Chen, and that the family intended to close Dragon China. Carbaugh said Ellicott doesn’t have any tenant lined up to occupy the vacancy that Dragon China’s closure will create.

“They’ve always been a good tenant,” Carbaugh said. “We don’t have any other statement. That’s all we know.”

Throughout the summer, ICE increased the visibility of its operations in Central New York.

ICE made news in Camden, when immigration agents in June detained Jian Zhang, a respected owner and decades-long resident who had built a family in the little village. That same month, ICE arrested Kong Xiong Wang in Owego, NY, the small town where Wang ran a Chinese restaurant for roughly 25 years.

Then in September, ICE and other Department of Homeland Security agencies staged a large-scale raid at a food production plant in Cato, NY. Deputies from the Oswego and Cayuga County Sheriff’s Offices provided perimeter security as the federal agents laid siege to the Nutrition Bar Confectioners facility in an operation that detained 69 individuals but apprehended few criminals.

Last week, ICE agents stirred Syracuse.

Councilor Corey Williams saw agents outside an East Side multi-family home, prompting Mayor Ben Walsh and Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens to inspect the property. Federal immigration agents were spotted elsewhere in the city, but ICE has not provided City Hall or the Syracuse Police Department with details on its agents’ activities in Syracuse – or even confirmed if those activities resulted in any detentions.

While concerned Syracusans tried to keep up with ICE agents’ activities, Chen’s family was dealing with the aftermath of an ICE operation.

Word on Dragon China’s closure hasn’t spread very far beyond the little mom-and-pop eatery tucked between the Rent-a-Center and Dollar General. 

Regular customer Ross Getman stopped by Dragon China Monday afternoon. The restaurant should have opened Monday at 11:00 a.m. After approaching the unlit storefront, Getman walked back to his car looking surprised and disappointed. A Central Current reporter explained why Dragon China was closed, and informed him it would not be reopening.

Getman choked back a tear as he praised Chen and Chen’s family, calling them “as American as apple pie.” 

Chen’s detention felt personal for Getman, who has eaten at Dragon China for over a decade.

Getman has watched Chen’s children, who would complete their homework in the family-run eatery, grow throughout the years. He lauded the “tireless” work ethic of a man he called his “personal friend.”

Asked for Chen’s full name, Getman considered the question before realizing he didn’t exactly know the answer.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know,” Getman said. “I just, I actually would call him, ‘friend.’” 

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...