A Taiwanese native and line cook well known in the Dallas restaurant community was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, federal records show.
ICE records list Chih-Ming Feng as in custody in the South Texas Processing Center, a detention facility in Pearsall. Feng, also known as "Petey," was attending a routine immigration check-in on Nov. 2 at the time of his detention, . Attorney information for Feng was not immediately available.
In a 2016 interview with the News, Feng said he was initially denied a visitor鈥檚 visa in 2002 due to past military service in Taiwan. He was later granted a student visa. He landed at a culinary school and began his career as a cook after bouncing around several universities in Texas.
An ICE spokesperson told 四虎影院 in a statement Feng had overstayed his visa since 2010 and was arrested in Dallas for a DWI in 2023.
"Under Biden administration policies, he was released on an order of recognizance pending a hearing," the statement said. "On Nov. 6, ICE took him into custody, where he remains pending immigration proceedings."
Feng was most recently employed at the Monarch Restaurant in downtown Dallas, located just a few blocks from the federal immigration courts.
Local chefs who have worked with him in the past are speaking out in support and urging those who know him to write character letters and send them to Feng, in hopes that they will help his case. Chef Casey LaRue, one of Feng鈥檚 former employers, described Feng as someone who would come in early, stay late and work on new cooking projects on his day off.
鈥淚n his down time, he would take the cooks out to go and eat at other ethnic food places to go and teach them things,鈥� LaRue said. 鈥淥r he would go and buy better utensils and things for them to cook with because he wanted everyone to get better."
鈥淚 think that he really benefited everyone and tried to bring everyone up the best that he could.鈥�
For now, LaRue and other colleagues and friends are hoping Feng will be able to come back to the industry he is passionate about.
"Hopefully the best-case scenario is he can get more lenient terms to come back legally after this, which I know he would want to do,鈥� LaRue said.
鈥淚 mean, if he can get out and come right back and there's some path to that, then great.鈥�
四虎影院 reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is waiting for a response.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
