By Nate Sunderland, East Idaho News (KSL.com) | Held inside a Colorado immigration detention facility, packed into a cell block with around 70 others, sleeping each night on a thin mat not knowing what the future held, John Shin says he sank into a depression. The first day, after being shackled by immigration agents in Colorado Springs and sent to detention facility in Aurora, was particularly difficult.
“I was absolutely terrified. Obviously I cried all day,” he said.
The South Korean transplant to Utah, though, held on, refused to sign the paperwork immigration officials put in front of him even as he wondered how he would get out. Meantime, his supporters in the music community in Utah and beyond coalesced, clamored for his release.
“I did not want to give up because I have my family here,” said Shin, a violinist with a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Utah.
Ultimately, after 17 days inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Denver Contract Detention facility in Aurora, he got out. That was Thursday. By Friday, he was back in Utah, and he met with the media in the Millcreek office of his lawyer, Adam Crayk, accompanied by the lawyer and his wife, DaNae Snow.
> > > > > > > > >
Read more on this horrific immigrant detention story here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-is-my-home-violinist-john-shin-speaks-out-after-release-from-immigration-detention-facility/
The post ‘This is my home’: Violinist John Shin speaks out after release from immigration detention facility appeared first on East Idaho News.
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/09/this-is-my-home-violinist-john-shin-speaks-out-after-release-from-immigration-detention-facility/
Photo: John Shin & family | From his GoFundMe page