After a violinist who has played with high profile orchestras was arrested for the application of immigration and customs last week, members of the Utah musical community join in support of their launch.
Donggin Shin, 37, who arrived in the United States from South Korea with his father as a child, was arrested abruptly in the parking lot of a hotel while on a working trip in Colorado, said his lawyer Adam Crayk to NBC News. He was put in ice arrest on August 18. With a scheduled audience for early September, his colleagues in the Salt Lake City area hope to send a message to the administration and beyond that shin, which is called John, it is a valued part of the community.
“John has been in this country since he was 10 years old and his parents brought him here. He did not receive the option in the matter,” said violinist and director Gabriel Gordon. “It is not someone who is taking from the community, but is giving.”
A senior official of the National Security Department said in response to NBC News questions about Shin: “Our message is clear: criminal foreigners are not welcome in the United States.”
Shin, who works in a daily work in Telecommunications, but has played with the prestigious symphony of Utah and Ballet West, is currently at the Denver contract detention center in Aurora, Colorado, according to an ICE database, more than 500 miles away from his house.
According to the accusation documents, Shin was identified by the ICE fugitive operations team, which generally focuses on detaining immigrants who have committed serious crimes and are considered threats to national security. In the case of Shin, the arrest was promoted by an old minor crime of minor crime that occurred while Shin was navigating his father’s battle against brain cancer, Crayk said.
“We are literally having fugitive operations and national security investigations, which are two law enforcement agencies that focus on really terrible and terrible things, now relegated to look for people like John,” said Crayk.
The senior DHS official did not prepare the details of Shin’s arrest, but pointed out that his story includes a DUI sentence.
“Shin entered the United States with a tourist visa on September 3, 1998,” said the official in the statement. “This visa demanded that it leave the United States before March 3, 1999.”
According to Crayk, the DHS story about the history of Shin’s immigration omits some details. After Shin and his father entered the country with a tourist visa, his father finally changed to a student visa, under which Shin, a dependent at that time, was also covered, said the lawyer.
Years later, Shin became a DACA receiver. However, due to the condemnation of driving with problems of 2020, Shin lost his DACA protections, leaving him without legal status during the last four and a half years, Crayk said. The records show that Shin declared himself guilty of the minor crime, fulfilled his probation and the matter was resolved.
On the day of his arrest, his wife, Danae Shin, with whom he has two steps, received a panic phone call, wrote on social networks. It turned out to be his birthday, he said.
“I received a John call: ‘Honey, I don’t have much time. I have been arrested for ICE and they are sending me to a detention center. I love you and the children, I will be fine, please call our lawyer and then I was hurried on the phone,” Shin wrote. “John is not a criminal, he is an incredible husband, father and person, and I will do what is necessary to bring him back home.”
While Shin has been eligible for a long time for a green card, Crayk said his family was fighting financially and green card rates based on marriage cost around $ 2,375.
“At the time he married his wife, Danae, his father died of brain cancer and his wife lost his job,” Crayk said. “So they went through an extreme financial crisis, and have been discarding and saving since then.”
Since listening to the news, Gordon and several other musicians have been playing in the State Capitol every day, determined to continue doing it to raise awareness until Shin returns home. Gordon, director and violinist of Ballet West, said he is known to Shin for almost a decade and “would do anything” for the violinist and his family. He described Shin as a “top -level violinist.”
“It has an incredible technique,” said Gordon, who is also a concert master of the OGden Chamber Orchestra. “Even more than that, he takes his technique and brings her soul to her. He brings that joy of making music to the whole community.”
Robert Baldwin, orchestras director of the University of Utah, where he is also a professor, said he was shocked and angry with the news. Baldwin’s friendship with Shin dates back to more than 15 years when the violinist began his undergraduate studies at school. Baldwin said Shin showed Arena from the beginning.
“He was not the best violinist when he arrived. He had a lot of raw talent and asked what he had to do to be, for example, in the upper orchestra,” Baldwin recalled. “He made his way. When he was a graduate student, he was the concert master, who means the first violinist of the upper orchestra.”
Baldwin also said that as Shin progressed, he tried to create an inclusive environment for his fellow musicians.
“He helped other students to acclimatize to university life, whether a first -year student or a new postgraduate student,” said Baldwin. “I really like the fact that he did not take a leadership role and simply used it as a badge and puts himself in a ivory tower above all others.”
Gordon expects Monday’s performance in support of Shin to transmit a clear message.
“We hope that all we are doing is showing how valuable it is for this community and why it belongs here,” he said. “He belongs absolutely here.”
