Kelly Yu is still the best of humanity, even in the Eloy ICE Detention Center

Lisa Everett

Submitted photo

We cannot afford to cling to the simplistic “deport them all” approach. A civilized society must distinguish between those who endanger us and those who enrich us. Kelly Yu is not a threat. She is an asset.”

immigration

Bipartisan push made to release Peoria woman from immigration facility

immigration

Arizona AG vows to fight for detained Peoria business owner

Opinion

Political opponents stand together to keep Peoria’s Kelly Yu with her family

Fyodor Dostoevsky once wrote, “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” On Aug. 31, 2025, I visited the Eloy ICE Detention Facility to see detainee Kelly Yu — a Peoria restaurant owner, mother and community supporter — who has now been held for 96 days.

Kelly Yu’s story

Kelly fled China’s oppressive one-child policy at just 18 years old, pregnant and desperate for freedom. She arrived in the United States in 2004 seeking asylum. After 11 long years, her request was denied, but by then, her daughter was 11 years old and her life was firmly rooted in America.

Refusing to give up, Kelly began the process of seeking citizenship through legal immigration channels.

Over the last 21 years, Kelly has built a life defined by service, hard work and generosity. She owns a successful restaurant employing 30 people, pays her personal and business taxes faithfully, sponsors her local high school baseball team and allows police and firefighters to host fundraisers at her business.

She is not “the worst of the worst” — she is the opposite. She is the kind of person we should be proud to welcome as an American citizen.

Yet today, Kelly sits behind barbed wire and steel doors, facing deportation. If ICE’s order proceeds, she will be torn from her American daughter, husband, grandmother, two aunts and sister — all U.S. citizens. She will be forced to return to the very place she fled as a teenager, barred from reentering the U.S. for 10 years. She will leave with nothing but a backpack of clothes.

A glimpse inside Eloy

The Eloy ICE facility is run by CoreCivic, a publicly traded company that manages more than 70 prisons and detention centers nationwide. Last year alone, they reported $2 billion in revenue and $68.9 million in profit. Eloy houses around 1,500 detainees, some held for years without resolution.

Visiting Kelly felt more like entering a high-security prison than meeting a friend. Razor wire lined the fences. To get inside, I surrendered my ID, removed my shoes and belt, passed through a metal detector, and endured a full-body scan and pat-down. Jewelry, underwire bras,and personal belongings were banned. The humiliation was worse than TSA security at an airport.

The visitation room was sterile, hot and joyless. There were no tissues for the many tearful families and no cups for the water cooler in the corner. Guards wore uniforms with the slogan “Strength is our unity,” a bitter irony in a place designed to separate and break families. The hopelessness in the room was palpable.

Detainees must pay 35 cents for every text message. Toiletries and snacks are overpriced, further enriching CoreCivic. For those who arrive in America with no family, there is no one to fund their commissary account. Yet Kelly, even in detention, continues to help others — just as she always has.

Humanity behind the walls

Kelly rarely speaks about her own suffering. Instead, she asks about her family and worries about others around her. She told me of a woman who has been detained for two years. She described fellow detainees being awakened at night, told without warning they are leaving, with no chance to call an attorney or loved ones. They simply vanish.

In a place designed to strip humanity away, Kelly still shines as a light of compassion. She is an example of resilience and goodness — a model of the type of immigrant we should want to embrace, not discard.

Where do we go from here?

The question is not whether America should have immigration laws or secure borders — we must. The question is whether our system reflects our values. If Kelly Yu, after two decades of lawful contribution, is not “American enough,” then who is?

Right now, Congress is reviewing the bipartisan Dignity Act, a sweeping proposal that combines border security, e-verify, asylum reform, background checks, DNA testing and bars taxpayer-funded services. It acknowledges the need for security while also offering a structured, humane path for people like Kelly who have proven their worth and loyalty to the country they call home.

We cannot afford to cling to the simplistic “deport them all” approach. A civilized society must distinguish between those who endanger us and those who enrich us. Kelly Yu is not a threat. She is an asset.

As Dostoevsky reminds us, the true measure of our civilization is not found in our rhetoric, but in how we treat the most vulnerable within our prisons. Today, in Eloy, America is failing that test.

Editor’s note: Lisa Everett is chair of the Arizona LD29 Republicans. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.