Violinist Donggin ‘John’ Shin may be released upon a $25,000 bond, pending government appeal
The Utah-based violinist Donggin ‘John’ Shin, 37, attended his first deportation hearing on 2 September at a court in Aurora, Colorado, following his arrest and detainment on 18 August. His attorney was John West.
At the hearing, the government contended that Shin and his family had had years to seek legal status and had failed to act, knowing he had lost his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status.
The judge, Melanie Corrin, has ruled that Shin may be released subject to a $25,000 bond, but has given the government the opportunity to appeal the decision. Reportedly, the earliest that Shin may be released is 8 September, to await further deportation proceedings.
A report from Colorado Public Radio (CPR) provided more details about Shin’s case. As previously reported, Shin arrived in the US from Korea at the age of ten, initially as a dependent on his father’s student visa and later becoming a DACA recipient.
In 2019, amid grieving his father’s death from brain cancer and worrying about providing support to his family back in Korea, he was convicted of driving under the influence, though this was reduced to a charge of impaired driving.
Shin pleaded guilty and served his probation, however, this revoked his right to DACA status, leaving him without legal status.
In 2021, Shin married US citizen Danae Snow, becoming a stepfather to her two children. Snow was laid off from her software job during the pandemic, and though the couple aimed to gain Shin legal status through an I-130 visa, they struggled to reach the required financial threshold of $50,000 a year for household income.
‘I was doing my best, but I was just falling short, so that really has been just the holdup,’ Snow told CPR, ‘Everything else was in place, but if you don’t meet those standards, then you’re not going to be able to get approved.’
Shin has a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Utah and has performed as a substitute violinist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. However, with performance opportunities sparse in the pandemic era, Shin took on extra work in telecommunications.
It was when he was on his way to fix a cell phone tower on the Fort Carson Army base in Colorado Springs that Shin was denied access to the base on account of the background check. Shin returned to his hotel, informing his work that he was unable to gain access to the base.
He was later contacted by a caller identifying themselves as being from Fort Carson, requesting a meeting to talk about the project: at the meeting, he was instead taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
‘I’m still nervous,’ Snow told CPR after the hearing. ‘This is just the beginning of the rest of our battles, but my attorneys keep telling me that he is the type of person that we want here. They were saying that he has such amazing support and has proven his character. And so I just really believe that good will overcome.’
Snow has created a GoFundMe to help bring Shin home, which has currently attained $78,704 of its $80,000 goal, and musicians have been rallying with their instruments at the Utah State Capitol government in Salt Lake City.
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