Utah violinist detained by ICE on wife’s birthday released on bond

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The professional violinist who was taken into custody by ICE in Colorado last month has posted bond. Local Denver musicians met him outside the detention facility.

John Shin, 37, was detained by ICE while on a work trip in Colorado on August 20, 2025. Since then, he has been held at the Aurora, CO, ICE detention center. According to his attorney, Adam Crayk, Shin posted bond and was released today.

Because his release was fairly sudden, Shin’s family was unable to meet him outside of the detention facility. Instead, fellow musician Shana Kirk met him outside.

“The first wave of relief, I didn’t expect, and I don’t even know John,” Kirk said, “Johns’ family is hundreds of miles away and he has no one on the ground here so we agreed to be the intermediary to communicating how things work at the facility.”

Kirk is based in Denver and had never met Shin prior to his release. But she felt compelled to help when she heard about his detainment. She said, “The music world is small. Once word started getting around that a violinist got reprehended by ICE, that sounded like an unusual story.”

“We wanted to be out there, so he doesn’t just release on the street,” Kirk said, with local musicians gathered outside the Aurora detention facility. She was overwhelmed by the amount of support from the music community, “[I’m] unbelievably proud but I’m not surprised. It is an incredibly beautiful community.”

While Shin is expected to return to Utah and to his family today or tomorrow, his release does not mean the end of legal proceedings in this case.

Video Courtesy: Efren de gala

Reportedly, ICE arrested Shin because he has a previous impaired driving charge. In 2019, he was charged with DUI, but resolved it with an impaired driving charge in 2020. Crayk says Shin has since completed probation, treatment classes, and all other requirements of his charge.

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“The problem that you have, though, is as someone who is coming to the United States and who doesn’t currently have proper documentation because when you get a DUI, DACA gets taken — immigration will not let you have DACA with a DUI,” Crayk said, when Shin was first detained by ICE.

“He becomes a priority, especially under the current administration — so, he was taken into ICE custody because he accepted and did an agreement in Tooele County for an impaired driver, which caused ICE to take him into custody,” Crayk added.

The next step for Shin is to get him a green card, according to Crayk. He said, “John’s not leaving this county. We are going to win. He is going to get a green card and, ultimately, going to become a citizen because this is not the type of case we should have wasted our resources on, not even close.”‘

John Shin has lived in Utah through his elementary school, high school, and college education, graduating from Utah State University. He has worked with the Utah Symphony and Ballet West.

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