In the Media
Mr. Wang’s case has drawn press attention in Hawaiʻi and beyond. Here is the coverage and the record.
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Before June 2, 2025
Mr. Wang’s U.S. citizen daughter petitioned for him to be admitted as a lawful permanent resident. The government investigated for roughly five years. Mr. Wang’s position is that throughout this entire process, up to May 30, 2025, he did nothing wrong.
The denial — May 30, 2025
On May 30, 2025, USCIS denied Mr. Wang’s I-485 application. Officials cited two grounds of inadmissibility: his membership in the Chinese Communist Party, and an allegation of “alien smuggling” — the claim that he brought Chinese staff into the U.S. on visitor visas to work for him. Mr. Wang denies both. He maintains that the denial of his application was wrong, and that everything that followed flows from that error.
Taken into custody — June 2, 2025
Days later, Mr. Wang arrived for what he understood to be a routine meeting with immigration officials. Instead, he was taken into detention. He has been held at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center ever since. “I will fight hard with them because what they did to me was illegal,” he has said. “I will fight to the end.”
Held without release
Because his residency application had been denied, Mr. Wang was classified as an “arriving alien.” In plain terms, that classification treats a person as though they are seeking entry at the border — and it made him ineligible for release on bond while his case is decided. He offered to post bond and was refused. A federal habeas petition, arguing that his detention was unlawful, was denied.
The ruling — June 2026
In June 2026, Immigration Judge Kiley Hyatt ruled against Mr. Wang, writing that he had “circumvented and disregarded immigration laws” and “was not candid and truthful to the court,” and that “wealth and an investor’s status does not allow an individual to bypass our legal requirements.” The judge granted Mr. Wang the option to leave the country voluntarily rather than be deported. These are the court’s findings. Mr. Wang rejects them and says the allegations underlying his case were never proven.
Mr. Wang’s position
Mr. Wang’s position is this: the allegations used to deny his application — alien smuggling and Communist Party membership — did not hold up, and because they did not hold up, the government should correct its error, stop trying to remove him, and release him immediately rather than keep him confined. He intends to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, a process that could take roughly another year. He has said he plans to keep fighting — and to keep investing, with plans for $50 million in affordable rentals on his Young Street lot and $50 million to restore the former museum site in Makiki.
A note on the “retaliation” claim
Some coverage of Mr. Wang’s case has framed it primarily around a fear of retaliation in China. Mr. Wang asks that his case be understood on its own terms: as a matter of American constitutional protection and the lawful treatment of an investor who believes he has done nothing wrong. His support for democracy is a matter of public record — carved into the walls he built in Hawaiʻi — and it speaks for itself.