Gun charge dropped against former Virginia Tech Chinese student Yunsong Zhao
A judge dismissed a gun charge Monday against a former Virginia Tech exchange student in a Montgomery County case people around the country have been following.
Yunsong Zhao, a Chinese national, is now back in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his future in America is uncertain.
Zhao, a Chinese citizen, was arrested by Virginia Tech Police for an alleged firearms violation in January.
Zhao faced a felony charge for the illegal possession of an assault rifle as a non-citizen.
He had arrived in the United States from China in July of 2017 to study at Virginia Tech.
He was accused of having a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle, illegally paired with a 30 round magazine. It is legal to have the rifle and magazine separately, but it is against the law to have them together.
Zhao had been on a student visa. He was dismissed from Virginia Tech on February 5, 2018 after he was found responsible for two counts of unauthorized possession of a weapon on campus and two counts of failure to comply with a university official at a student conduct hearing. The hearing was held because of his “alleged possession of a prohibited knife on campus on two separate occasions,” court documents reveal.
Since his visa was revoked after being dismissed from the university, he has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in Farmville, Virginia.
According to court documents, Zhao has an immigration hearing on September 27, 2018.
Zhao sued Virginia Tech in federal court over how the incident was handled. He claims his due process rights were violated by Virginia Tech and two administrators in their individual and official capacities. He is seeking injunctive and declaratory relief, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.
Zhao and his attorneys have asked the court to reinstate the former Virginia Tech student so he is able to get his student visa back so he would be able to transfer to another university once he’s out of detention.
However, during a hearing on September 19, a federal judge denied his request to the court to force Virginia Tech to reissue Zhao paperwork so that he could get his student visa back and be released from ICE custody.
Chief United States District Judge Michael Urbanski released the following opinion about Zhao’s motion to regain his visa:
“Insofar as the modification of Zhao’s SEVIS record implicates his F-1 visa and immigration status, whatever due process he is owed with respect to these issues is the prerogative of and provided for in the immigration courts, not the hallways of Virginia Tech.”
Virginia Tech has filed a motion to dismiss the case. A hearing has been held on that motion. A judge is expected to issue a ruling at a later date.
Zhao’s attorneys organized a rally of his trial Monday morning accusing the university of being racist and the police and prosecutors of being corrupt.
In a statement to WFXR, a Virginia Tech spokesman said regarding the rally, they support an individual (or group of individuals) right to express their opinions in a lawful peaceful and respectful way.
Regarding the case, the spokesman released the following statement:
The university fully supports its police department. As a fully accredited law enforcement agency dedicated to protecting the community it serves, our officers follow all university policies and state and federal laws in their work. We are confident the facts of the case presented in court will confirm that.
Zhao’s immigration hearing will be held this Thursday in Arlington, Virginia.
