Daughter Visits "Sushi John" in ICE Detention Facility: "He's My Idol"

By Barbara A. Preston | Posted April 14, 2025

Zhang Ming Xi (John Zhang), known affectionately as “Sushi John” to those who visit his Ya Ya Noodles restaurant in the Montgomery North Shopping Center, is entering his 22th day of captivity in an immigrant detention facility by Newark Airport.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) detained Zhang on March 24. The agency had telephoned him and told him to travel from Skillman to its Newark Field Office, but did not explain why, according to his daughter Emily Zhang.

“Once he got there, they would not let him leave,” she said in an interview with The Montgomery News. “There are no specific charges that I know about.”

John Zhang, owner of YaYa Noodles in Montgomery Township, is incarcerated in the Elizabeth Contract Detention Center, a private immigrant detention facility in Elizabeth.

Immigration court hearings

Unlike many detained immigrants in the news today, Zhang has an attorney, and has had two hearings since he has been detained in the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility (ECDF). 

His daughter said the hearings were not open to the public. Even she was not allowed to attend.

The most recent hearing was before Elizabeth Immigration Court Judge Adrian N. Armstrong on Thursday, April 10.

Zhang sought to be released from the immigration detention on his own recognizance, or on a bond.

Judge Armstrong basically ruled that the Elizabeth Immigration Court does not have jurisdiction in this case, Emily said.

The Elizabeth Immigration Court falls under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge, which is a component of the Executive Office for Immigration Review under the Department of Justice.

Emily told The Montgomery News that she does not know why he is being detained.  “He has not violated the terms of his probation,” she said. He remains in ICE custody at the ECDF. 

ICE apprehended Ming Xi Zhang [John Zhang] in Newark on March 24. (Photo provided by ICE).

In the first 50 days of Trump's second term, ICE has made 32,809 enforcement arrests. To put this figure into perspective, in the entire fiscal year 2024, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations made 33,242 of these at-large arrests, according to a recent Homeland Security press release.

“We have deported known terrorists, cartel members, and gang members from our country,” Secretary Kristi Noem said in the press release.”And our team at ICE will help us ... make America SAFE again.”

Sushi John: A dangerous criminal, or caught up in President Trump’s sweep of immigrants?

His daughter Emily says, “I think he is unlucky."

“How big of a secret agent could he be if he only got three years probation?” she asks. “The FBI wouldn’t have cooperated with him, and he would have gotten a harsher penalty if it were something more serious.”

Emily is a U.S. citizen, born in New Jersey. She graduated from Montgomery High School in 2023 and is now a 20-year-old full-time college student, studying psychology at a state university. She works as a hostess in her father’s restaurant, and is managing the business to the best of her ability in his absence. 

She said she is thankful for an outpouring of support from her customers and friends during this difficult time. She is her father’s only family member in the U.S.

John Zhang in his Ya Ya Noodles restaurant in Montgomery Township. (Photo by Barbara A. Preston)

Zhang’s case is complicated.

ICE reports that Zhang lawfully entered the United States in June 2000 at the Los Angeles International Airport, then later violated the terms of his lawful admission.

What terms exactly were violated?

ICE refers to Zhang’s 2024 sentencing hearing, where he was sentenced to probation for illegally acting as “an agent of a foreign government” without notification to the US  Attorney General. (The U.S. District Court of New Jersey had sentenced him on April 30, 2024 to probation for a term of three years.)

Here is where it gets complicated.

Zhang’s three-year probation sentence is based on a crime that occurred nine years ago.

In April 2016, Zhang “met with representatives of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) in the Bahamas on multiple occasions,” according to public court documents obtained by The Montgomery News via Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system.

MSS is responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and defense of the political security and honor of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“During these meetings, the MSS directed Zhang to take certain actions in the U.S., specifically to obtain $35,000 and provide it to another individual,” according to the court documents.

On about May 14, 2016, in Skillman, “Zhang provided $35,000 in cash to another individual, as he had been instructed to do by the MSS.”

Then, from about September 21, 2016 to October 1, 2016, Zhang hosted an “individual at his residence in Princeton, who himself acted in the U.S. as an agent of the [Chinese] government.” And, “Zhang did not give prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General regarding his acts in the U.S., that he took as an agent of a foreign government,” according to the court documents. 

In 2021, Zhang appeared in U.S. District Court before Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton. At that time, the case was sealed as a “highly sensitive document” and tried under the title, “USA vs. John Doe.”

In April 2023, there was an “order to unseal” the court documents and John Doe was identified as Zhang Ming Xi (John Zhang).

Forward to April 2024, Zhang reappears before Judge Shipp for sentencing.

Zhang had entered a plea deal. The exact details are unknown. Judge Shipp sentenced Zhang to a $10,000 fine and three years of probation, in which he: Must not commit another crime. And must report to the probation office in his federal judicial district.

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Why is Zhang now detained by ICE?

Zhang’s status went from probation, during which time he was operating a successful local business in Montgomery Township, to being one of 300 adults incarcerated in a privately-owned immigrant detention center in Elizabeth.

The Montgomery News asked Public Affairs Officer Chrissy Cuttita of ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark and Enforcement & Removal Operations (ERO) Newark why Zhang is being held in a detention center.

Cuttita responded by email, writing:  “ICE Newark arrested Zhang ...  in Newark ... because the violated the terms of his lawful admission.”

Cuttita added that, “U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement arrests aliens in the United States in violation of immigration law and aims to uphold the integrity of our immigration system while promoting public safety.”

The front entrance to the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility (ECDF). (From the ECDF website)

What is life like in the only NJ immigrant detention center?

Zhang is in a “containment area” with 100 other male immigrants, mostly Muslims and Latinos and two or three other Asians, according to his daughter.

She is allowed to visit him in person, and has done so six or seven times since he has been detained on March 24, she said. She said she is grateful for the visits, but concerned.

The Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility (ECDF) is operated by the private prison company CoreCivic under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is the only immigrant detention center in New Jersey.

With a capacity of around 300, “detainees are often transferred to facilities in other states when ICE detains more than it can hold,” according to an NJ Spotlight News article dated March 11, 2025.

Katy Sastre, the interim executive director of First Friends of New Jersey and New York, told northjersey.com in 2024 that “It is a facility with repressive conditions and policies that make it a horrific place for detention.

“It’s very arbitrary how people are treated, but the norm seems to be mistreatment,” Sastre said. (A spokesperson for CoreCivic denied that.)

Zhang’s daughter told The Montgomery News that her father “seemed okay” on their one-hour visits.

A photo of John Zhang with Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay hangs on the wall inside Ya Ya Noodles. Flay visited Zhang's Point Pleasant restaurant in the early 2000s, and praised his sushi.

Zhang’s character

During an interview at Ya Ya Noodles, Emily broke into tears as she spoke about her father.

“What I see is a man who works hard at his restaurant everyday, for years and years. His presence in this country is extremely important. He does not deserve this. He cares so much about this restaurant. His employees have all been here for 10 to 15 years. They are like family.”

His customers and employees are very loyal, and have sustained Emily during this difficult time. “In the past few weeks, countless people have been coming in to the restaurant to check on me, and to make sure that he is okay,” she said. “They have offered their attorneys and support.”

Zhang also worked with the Montgomery Business Association and the Montgomery Township Police Department in 2023 to host an information session at YaYa Noodles to raise awareness of a nation-wide crime wave that targets Asian-owned businesses.

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Who is Sushi John?

Zhang is a single father, and appears to be a good one.

His daughter said, “he’s been my idol, and the person I most look up to. He is genuinely the kindest man I have ever known. It makes me really sad that he has to be in a position like this. There is literally nothing he could have done to avoid this.”

Chef Zhang purchased the restaurant in November 2014, after working there for a number of years as a sushi chef under the Yang family’s establishment, according to an article published in The Montgomery News in the August 2018 issue titled “More than Noodles.”

The article highlights that Ya Ya Noodles has been a household name in and around Montgomery for more than a decade. Zhang, who lives in Montgomery, brought a renewed authenticity to Skillman’s food scene with a variety of his favorite dishes from his hometown in Qingdao, a port city of skyscrapers, parks, and beaches in China’s eastern Shandong province. It borders the Yellow Sea, used for fishing by the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese for centuries.

Born Ming Xi, Zhang studied electrical engineering at Ocean University of China in Qingdao Shi, known as Haida, and worked in human resources for the government for eight years before he opened his own restaurant there. His Shi Tai Yan, where he served traditional Chinese food, especially seafood, and old-style sushi — fresh cut fish with wasabi and ginger.

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The Chinese economy was struggling, he said, so he decided to check out America in 2000, he ended up staying. He worked at a variety of restaurants, and become known as “Sushi John” on account of his delicious sushi.

Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay ate Zhang’s sushi in a Point Pleasant restaurant in the early 2000s, and praised it.

Zhang’s signature roll, named for him, is called  John’s Roll — a delectable combination of spicy tuna, avocado in soybean paper, topped with spicy salmon, lobster salad, and tempura flakes, and a spicy mayonnaise sauce.

In addition to the standard American Chinese menu, Zhang has a traditional menu that he cultivated for those who wish to experience the real deal when it comes to Chinese food.  This menu has an entire section dedicated to handmade noodle specials and more.

The next step

Zhang’s attorneys are now applying for parole from the detention center. His next hearing should happen sometime in the next two weeks, but his daughter was unsure of which court would hear his parole case.