ICE arrests owner of Montgomery restaurant YaYa Noodles
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Montgomery resident and business owner Ming Xi Zhang on March 24 in Newark and placed him in an ICE detention center.
Ming Xi Zhang, known to many area residents as Sushi John, owns YaYa Noodles, which is located in the Montgomery Shopping Center on Route 206 North in Skillman.
According to ICE, Zhang lawfully entered the United States in June 2000 at Los Angeles International Airport but violated the terms of his lawful admission.
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey convicted Zhang last year of illegally acting as an agent of a foreign government without prior notification to the attorney general and sentenced him to three years of probation on April 30, 2024.
Zhang, 61, was born in Qingdao, a city of more than 8 million people in eastern China. He studied electrical engineering at the Ocean University of China, then worked in human resources for the government for about eight years before opening his own restaurant in China. When the Chinese economy declined, he moved to the U.S. He worked at the Jersey Shore before opening his own sushi bar at YaYa Noodles, which is a popular restaurant for local residents. Many residents have reacted to his arrest with shock and outrage.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Yeah, Elon Muck entered the USA lawfully but violated the terms of his admission so why doesn’t the Gestapo (ICE) arrest him? ICE agents afraid to show their faces. We live in the new and more aggressive age of Nazism.
In what way did Musk violate the terms of his admission? I’m just curious.
You can google it. It’s easy to find.
He entered the country in a student visa, dropped out and began to work. This is one of the categories ICE is cracking down on.
He worked illegally under a lapsed student visa when he dropped out of Stanford in the 90’s to focus on Zip2. Which wouldn’t be that big of a deal if not for his actions now.
blatant interference with US elections, accessing highly confidential information on US taxpayers from multiple unsecured locations, tax evasion… the list grows with every day that passes.
Why are they hiding their faces? ICE looks embarrassed (as they should be).
Law enforcement benefits from anonymity, which means society benefits as well. Just because they arrest someone you think should not be arrested doesn’t make them bad.
John is a treasure, and is the kind of “citizen” we want. As well as making lovely sushi, he has good taste in music, and is interesting and gracious to talk with.
TRUMP, red state voters put his billionaire gang in office again. Now they won’t have any labor force to work their farms or clean their offices and houses or
CARE for their children. Who’s going to work the car wash, mow their lawns and do their landscaping. They asked for this and they got it, sadly we realists will have to suffer for their misplaced loyalist votes.
They block their faces so that AI can not be used to Dox them and publish their names and home addresses. Is that too hard to understand
They work for US. We should be able to see the face of who is detaining them. Would you want your local police to be able to wear masks? I’m sure they could be dozed too. Ice is the new secret police!!
Republicans do enjoy not wearings masks anyway historically lol
Do you realize how FEW illegals work farms/picking crops? Less than 1%!!
We have “guest worker” programs that let foreign workers come here and work.
But will they come? And who do you think the other 99% are? Americans? I’ve been there and you lie!! EVERY one I saw was a migrant worker. I was the ONLY white girl picking Most of our dairy farms here too.
They did not say that only 1% of farm workers were illegals, but that 1% of illegals have farm jobs. I have no idea whether the math is correct.
40 percent
Roughly Half of Hired Crop Farmworkers Lack Legal Immigration Status. The share of hired crop farmworkers who were not legally authorized to work in the United States grew from roughly 14 percent in 1989–91 to almost 55 percent in 1999–2001; in recent years it has declined to about 40 percent.Jan 8, 2025
Farm Labor – USDA Economic Research Service
Blue State Secession is the answer to this Unconstitutional dimwit MAGA gang. Since the Constitution is not in force, the Armed forces is dissolved and the states may legally leave.
DOES ANYONE FROM THE PLANET PRINCETON EVER READ WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO PRINT? I FOUND WITHIN THE FIRST SENTENCE A CONDRADICTORY MESSAGE.
HOW CAN SOME ONE ENTER THE US LAWFULLY IN JUNE 2000 & THEN BE PUT IN JAIL FOR VIOLATING THE LAWFUL ENTRY AT AN AIRPORT.
THIS SOUNDS LIKE ANOTHER DONALD TRUMP, ELON MUSK & J.D. VANCE TACTIC TO CONFUSE IMMIGRANTS TO DO SOMETHING STUPID. ARE WE NOT SUPPOSE TO TREAT EVERYONE LIKE WE WANT TO BE TREATED. NO HUMAN BEING ON THIS EARTH IS BETER THEN ANYOTHER INDIVIDUAL.
You are clueless.
Yes did it in Wisconsin too and someone who was in the process of getting their citizenship
Violated the terms of their entry after they entered. I wish the author stated the nature of the violation(s).
The below notation, I believe, is deserving of further explanation by the Feds. “illegally acting as a foreign agent of another government”. Since he previously worked for his native government, one would think this may have been looked into on his original immigration application”. I DO NOT SUPPORT TRUMP in any way, shape or form. however, this was a conviction under the previous administration.
First if all, it’s not necessary to scream with CAPS. It only emphasizes your ignorance of grammar and comprehension. Secondly, if you understood sentence structure, content, and meaning you’d read it to say that the person entered legally but later allegedly violated those terms.
Omg. Quick question Victoria…so you want just EVERYBody and anybody to come to USA regardless if it’s legal or not? If EVYONE did that you think you would have anywhere to live in the USA?
Biden charged him and he was on probation, for 3 years and Trump is saying no no you lied you gotta go. If he didn’t have anything to hide Sushi John should’ve disclosed the facts that he was HR for the Chinese Govt. I’m sure there’s much more to the story than what we are reading. But what you’re portraying is we should just open our arms to the WHOLE world?
Allll while you and the rest of America are working, paying taxes so people can just come here legally or not and live in our country and we support them? Nahhhh I’m good! Id much rather save that money and spend it on MY loved ones and family.
And I’m a Christian.
Really?? Well, pretty soon there won’t be any jobs b/c that crew is laying everyone off! Guess what they are hard working Americans.
Last year when he was arrested, Joe Biden was president. We don’t know what he violated, do we?
No you don’t so why think the worst? Because it fits your narrative?
wow, he was charged and convicted last year while Biden was in office…cant help but wonder what he did as an agent for China? Clearly Trump administration is following up on what Biden administration discovered and prosecuted. Too bad, I like that place.
Unbelievable. An honest, respected, hardworking asset to the community is arrested while an amoral felon in the White House spends a shameful amount of time hopelessly trying to improve his golf game (when heaven forbid he could open a book and learn about democracy) instead of thinking of adolescent insults to those who he knows in his heart are his betters, massaging his fragile ego by flourishing his ridiculous signature on laws guaranteed to undermine all that used to be noble in America.
I guess nobody’s concerned that he was acting as an agent of China that was not registered with the US govt. Essentially espionage.
They perform activities like collecting information on activists, engaging in economic espionage, or attempting to influence U.S. residents and officials, as part of the Chinese government’s efforts
What all of you are talking (actually writing)???
Did he break the law?
Yes.
So…what is the issue here?
If you overstay your visa in Germany, Italy, Canada or any other country do you think the authorities in foreign countries would be gentle to you and let you stay there without consequences??? You would be expelled and barred from entering that country for several years!!!
I don’t understand why people are protesting for authorities simply following the law.
By your logic then, Elon should be picked up by the Gestapo.
An absolute outrage. I will bet that the details will not be made public. Hiding their faces is just possibly because they are acting illegally for King Donald and Czar Musk.
Does anyone now where he is now? What the details of the charges are? If he was unjustly detained I think those of us concerned about the growing # of unlawful detainments should organize around him in support if he had not violated his probabtion.
Sorry to learn all this about John. We love the restaurant. John was always a gentleman and very gracious.
I will reserve judgement until ALL the facts are presented.
Seems unfair for people to not do same. PP should have done more research to provide more facts. Too many unanswered questions.