Utah Violinist Remains in ICE Custody After Hearing
UPDATE: The Salt Lake Tribune reported on Friday that Donggin “John” Shin has been released on a $25,000 bond and was headed back to Utah.
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On Tuesday a judge issued a $25,000 bond for a Utah violinist being held in an ICE detention center in Colorado.
Musicians have rallied around violinist John (Donggin) Shin, 37, who has been held at a federal immigration detention center in Aurora, Colorado since mid August, after being arrested in hotel parking lot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Aug. 18.
Utah violinist John Shin with his family.
"John Shin is a longtime member of the local Salt Lake City music community," Utah Symphony spokesperson Meredith Kimball Laing told NPR. "His many contributions as a violinist have included some performances with our orchestra through the years, and our hearts go out to him and his family."
Two musicians - violinist Gabriel Gordon and oboist Nicole Fullmer - have been playing in the rotunda of the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City every day since Shin's arrest, and on Monday night several dozen colleagues held a benefit concert at First United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City.
Responding to an NBC News report about Utah musicians supporting Shin, the U.S. Homeland Security Department addressed the violinist's detention in a social media post on X that said: "This 'Utah violinist' is Donggin Shin, a CRIMINAL illegal alien from South Korea. His criminal history includes a DUI conviction. Shin entered the U.S. on a tourist visa on September 3, 1998. This visa required him to depart the U.S. by March 3, 1999. Over 25 years later, he was STILL illegally in the U.S. Our message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States."
To fill in a few more details: Shin, who is originally from South Korea, entered the U.S. with his father at age 10 under a tourist visa. His father switched to a student visa, under which Shin was a dependent. He later received status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, until it was revoked due to a 2019 DUI charge, which was later reduced to a lesser charge of driving-while-impaired, according to his lawyer.
Shin has a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Utah and has performed with the Utah Symphony and Ballet West. Shine has been married for four years to a DaNae Shin, a U.S. citizen, who has set up a GoFundMe organized to fund his legal defense.
Shin has been eligible for a marriage-based green card, but their lawyer Adam Crayk told NBC News that the family struggled with the $2,375 fee.
"At the time he married his wife, DaNae, his father died of brain cancer and his wife lost her job," Crayk said. "So they went through extreme financial crisis, and they’ve been scrimping and saving since that time."
Typically, a defendant who is issued a bond arranges for that to be paid so they may be released until trial. However, Shin’s attorney has told local media that the government might still take steps to prevent his release. Shin currently remains in custody.
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Replies
Will, based on the characteristics you have emphasized, do you think Trump could have achieved fame as a conductor, had he re-directed his efforts and been so inclined?
David -- Trump is like the wannabe dilettante who schmoozes with the board and makes a big donation in order to be invited to be a "guest" conductor. During the performance he waves his arms around stupidly while the orchestra ignores him. Most of the audience are too ignorant to figure out that the guest conductor doesn't know what he's doing, and they give him a hearty round of applause.
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September 3, 2025 at 01:36 PM · For my whole life I was proud of my beloved country until less than a year ago , when my countrymen elected the seditious insurrectionary Mr. Trump as President. The case of violinist John Shin is a terrible first example for today of why I am now ashamed to be an American and ashamed of my country and the politically and ethically degraded condition of the electorate that made Mr. Trump our horrible President, who has rounded up a set of appointees who are anti-American and actively destroying the institutions and relationships that generations of our forebears built to put us at the center of a community of nations striving for freedom and democracy. We seem to be entering a dark night of sadistic authoritarianism devoid of human solidarity or any sense of justice. God Bless John Shin, someone who has helped make America great, and who has therefore been targeted by an anti-American regime intent on destroying everything that was good about our country.