A federal immigration judge on Wednesday granted asylum to a Chinese dissident who had taken great risks to secretly record his country’s mass detention and surveillance of Uyghurs.

週三，一名美國聯邦移民法官准予了一名中國異見人士的政治庇護，此人曾冒著巨大風險，祕密記錄了中國對維吾爾人的大規模拘禁和監控。

Heng Guan, 38, was detained last August in upstate New York, and supporters feared that he would be sent back to China, where human rights activists said he would almost certainly face persecution.

現年38歲的關恆於去年8月在紐約州北部被拘留，其支持者一度擔心他會被遣返回中國。人權活動人士表示，一旦回國，他幾乎必然會遭到迫害。

After an outcry from human rights advocates, Democrats and The Wall Street Journal editorial page, the Trump administration sought to deport him instead to Uganda.

在人權倡議者、民主黨人以及《華爾街日報》社論版的強烈呼籲下，川普政府曾試圖轉而將其驅逐至烏干達。

Then in late December, the administration dropped that request, but Mr. Guan has remained in immigration detention.

隨後在12月下旬，政府撤回了這一請求，關恆仍被關押在移民拘留所。

The judge, Charles M. Ouslander, said that Mr. Guan’s testimony was “credible and worthy of belief.” Judge Ouslander referred to a number of factors, including the State Department’s previous designation of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs in its far western region of Xinjiang as a “genocide.”

法官查爾斯·奧斯蘭德表示，關恆的證詞「可信，值得採信」。奧斯蘭德法官援引了多項因素，包括美國國務院此前將中國新疆地區對待維吾爾人的行為定性為「種族滅絕」。

He also noted a letter submitted to the court by the State Department that described Mr. Guan’s role in documenting the Chinese government’s abuses.

他還指出，國務院向法院提交的一封信函中，詳細說明了關恆在記錄中國政府侵犯人權行為中所發揮的作用。

Niles Gerry, a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security, suggested during the hearing that the department could appeal the decision. The department has 30 days to do that, during which time Mr. Guan will remain in detention.

美國國土安全部的律師尼爾斯·格裡在聽證會上表示，該部門可能會對這一裁決提起上訴。該部門有30天的上訴期限，在此期間關恆將繼續被關押。

The decision is a rare defeat for the Trump administration’s hardline immigration effort. Winning asylum cases is now exceedingly difficult.

這一裁決是川普政府強硬移民政策的一次罕見挫敗。如今，贏得庇護案件已變得極其困難。

But Mr. Guan had what appeared to be a strong claim, according to his supporters.

但在關恆的支持者看來，他的庇護理由似乎非常充分。

In 2020, while he was living in China, he traveled to Xinjiang and secretly shot video of detention centers that held mostly Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group. The centers were part of a draconian campaign under the Chinese leader Xi Jinping to indoctrinate Uyghurs and root out what the Communist Party said were dangerous ideas fueling resistance and extremist violence.

2020年，他在中國居住期間前往新疆，祕密拍攝了主要關押維吾爾人（一個以穆斯林為主的民族）的拘禁中心影片。這些中心是中國領導人習近平發起的一場嚴厲運動的一部分，旨在對維吾爾人進行思想改造，並根除共產黨所稱的助長抵抗和極端主義暴力的危險思想。

In 2021, Mr. Guan fled China, traveling through Ecuador before sailing on a small inflatable boat from the Bahamas to Florida. While he was on the water, Mr. Guan released the footage, which documented hulking detention camps, detailing their high walls, guard towers and barbed wire.

2021年，關恆逃離中國，經由厄瓜多，隨後從巴哈馬乘坐一艘小型充氣艇抵達佛羅里達。在海上航行期間，他公開了這些影像資料，影片記錄了龐大的拘禁營，詳細展現了高牆、崗塔和鐵絲網。

It became rare visual evidence of the scale and brutality of China’s clampdown on the Uyghurs and refuted Beijing’s claims that people lived at the centers voluntarily.

這些影像成為極為罕見的視覺證據，揭示了中國鎮壓維吾爾人的規模與殘酷程度，也駁斥了北京關於這些人是自願居住在這些中心的說法。

In previous years, the Uyghur issue had become a major flashpoint in the relationship between the Trump administration and Beijing. And on the last full day of Mr. Trump’s first term, the State Department officially declared the Chinese government’s actions in Xinjiang a “genocide.”

此前數年，維吾爾族問題成為川普政府與北京關係中的一個主要摩擦點。在川普首個任期的最後一個完整工作日，美國國務院正式將中國政府在新疆的行為定性為「種族滅絕」。

Mr. Guan’s “compelling firsthand documentation added significant weight to the Trump administration’s own findings that the atrocities amounted to genocide,” said Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer at the Atlantic Council, a nonprofit that promotes international engagement. Ms. Asat’s brother has been imprisoned in Xinjiang since 2016.

大西洋理事會（一家致力於推動國際交流的非營利機構）的人權律師萊漢·阿薩特表示，關恆提供的「令人信服的第一手記錄，為川普政府關於這些暴行構成種族滅絕的調查結果提供了有力支撐」。阿薩特的弟弟自2016年起就被關押在新疆。

After releasing the videos, Mr. Guan applied for asylum, joining the queue of more than three million people waiting for their case to wend through the overburdened court system. He had just moved to upstate New York when he was detained last summer after he was caught up in an immigration enforcement effort targeting his housemates.

發布這些影片後，關恆申請了政治庇護，加入了逾300萬人等待案件在超負荷運轉的法院系統中審理的隊伍。去年夏天，他剛搬到紐約州北部不久，就在一次針對其室友的移民執法行動中遭到波及並被拘留。

In a telephone interview before his release, Mr. Guan said he gave the immigration agents his documents and told them that he had applied for asylum and had a permit to work legally in the United States. But, he said, the agents didn’t seem interested.

在獲釋前接受電話採訪時，關恆表示，他向移民執法人員出示了相關文件，並告知對方自己已申請庇護，且持有在美國合法工作的許可。但他說，執法人員似乎並不感興趣。

“Their focus was mainly on how I arrived in the United States,” Mr. Guan recalled. “So I told them the truth.”

「他們關注的重點主要是我如何抵達美國，」關恆回憶。「所以我如實告訴了他們。」

Mr. Guan feared that he might be sent back to China. His mother, Luo Yun, who lives in Taiwan, has said that after the Xinjiang footage was released, even distant members of Mr. Guan’s family in China were questioned by Chinese police officers.

關恆曾擔心自己會被遣返回中國。他居住在台灣的母親羅雲（音）曾表示，在新疆影片發布後，甚至連關恆在中國國內的遠親也遭到了警方的盤問。

Mr. Guan’s concerns were hardly allayed in December when the Department of Homeland Security sought instead to deport him to Uganda, which has close political and economic ties with Beijing. “It felt very unreasonable,” he said.

去年12月，國土安全部轉而試圖將關恆遣送至與烏干達，這並未打消他的擔憂，因為烏干達與北京在政治和經濟上保持著密切的聯繫。「這感覺非常不合理，」他說。

Days later, the agency issued a new directive that limited deportation to Uganda to immigrants from most other African nations.

幾天後，國土安全部發布了一項新指令，將遣返烏干達的對象限制在來自大多數其他非洲國家的移民。

Despite the monthslong ordeal, Mr. Guan said that he did not regret his decision to flee to the United States. He said he understood why, after years of rising illegal migration, Mr. Trump was taking such a hard line. National immigration policies often fluctuated, he reasoned, and he happened to come at a time of tightening. “I’m just a little unlucky, that’s all,” he said.

儘管經曆數月煎熬，關恆表示，他並不後悔逃往美國的決定。他說，他理解在非法移民持續上升多年之後，川普為何採取如此強硬的立場。在他看來，國家層面的移民政策本就經常搖擺變化，而自己恰好趕上了政策收緊期。「我只是有點倒霉，僅此而已，」他說。

America, he said, was a country that followed laws. Not long after he landed on a Florida beach in his boat, he had watched from afar as a car came to a stop at an intersection. “There was no one else around, no cars, no people, and yet this driver was still following the rules,” he recalled. “That left a deep impression on me.”

他說，美國是一個遵循法律的國家。他乘船抵達佛羅里達海灘後不久，曾遠遠地看到一輛車在路口停下。「周圍沒有其他人，沒有車，也沒有行人，可那位司機仍然遵守規則，」他回憶道。「這給我留下了非常深刻的印象。」

Mr. Guan said that the long days in detention had given him ample time to reflect, and he wanted to make a big life change. He had been more of a lone wolf, preferring to keep to himself. But while in the correctional facility, he struck up a friendship with other detainees, including an immigrant from Cameroon who helped pull him out of an especially difficult period emotionally.

關恆說，拘留所裡的漫長日子給了他充足的時間反思人生，他希望做出重大的人生改變。過去，他更像是一匹獨狼，習慣獨來獨往。但在拘押設施裡，他與其他被拘留者建立了友誼，其中包括一名來自喀麥隆的移民，在他情緒最為低落的一段時期，這名移民幫他走了出來。

It made Mr. Guan realize the value of human connection.

這段經歷讓關恆意識到人與人之間聯繫的價值。

“I would like to help other people,” he said. “And maybe that can also help enrich my own life, too.”

他說，「我想去幫助別人，也許那樣也能讓我的生活更加充實。」