US frees ‘persecuted’ Singapore blogger Amos Yee, upholding asylum claim
‘I’m kind of stunned right now. It’s very surreal’
Amos Yee, the controversial teenage blogger from Singapore, was released from US custody on Tuesday following an immigration appeal court’s decision to uphold his bid for asylum.
Yee, whose online posts mocking and criticising the Singapore government twice landed him in jail there, left his homeland in December with the intention of seeking US asylum. But federal immigration agents detained the 18-year-old at O’Hare International Airport and he had been behind bars since.
Carrying a clear plastic bag stuffed with his belongings, Yee emerged Tuesday afternoon from a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in downtown Chicago.
He suffered past persecution on account of his political opinion and had a well-founded fear of future persecution in Singapore
Hours earlier his attorneys received notification of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision upholding a Chicago immigration judge’s March ruling that Yee had a “well-founded fear” of being persecuted upon return to Singapore. The board determined the Chicago judge correctly relied on expert and witness testimony in asylum proceedings earlier this year. US Department of Homeland Security attorneys opposed Yee’s asylum bid.
With asylum status, Yee will be eligible to apply for a green card in a year, attorneys said.