A New Jersey Sushi restaurant owner is in ICE custody after he was convicted of conducting espionage operations for China last year.
Ming Xi Zhang, known as “Sushi John,” was taken into custody by federal immigration with ICE’s Newark field office on March 24. Zhang, 61, is the owner of Ya Ya Noodles in Montgomery Township, New Jersey.
Zhang was convicted of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government in April 2024, for which he was sentenced to just three years’ probation. In May 2021, he pleaded guilty to having served as an agent of China in 2016 without notifying the U.S. Attorney General, according to a report from the New York Post.
Despite the serious conviction, the Biden Administration allowed him to remain in the United States with, when compared with the sentences received by peaceful January 6 trespassers, an incredibly light sentence.
According to ICE, Zhang legally entered the United States in 2000, but later “violated the terms of his lawful admission.”
“Any illegal alien conducting activities related to espionage, sabotage or export control against the United States is subject to deportation,” ICE Newark Field Office Director John Tsoukaris said in a statement.
Zhang met