After 133 Days in ICE Detention, Dallas Cook Petey Feng Makes it Home. Here’s His Story

When the words “PRISON/JAIL” popped up on Leslie Brenner’s caller ID late last year, she had no intention of answering that call. The restaurant consultant and former Dallas Morning News food critic only did so because her son, who was sitting at the table with her, told her to.

Turns out, she was the only person to answer a call from Dallas cook Chih-Ming “Petey” Feng. The Taiwanese national had been detained weeks earlier during an immigration check-in. It took him almost a month to reach friends. He and Brenner had been acquaintances for years; not real close, but he had her number.

Feng, who worked at high-profile Dallas restaurants such as Monarch, FT-33 and Quarter Acre, spent four months moving between two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities in southwest Texas. He struggled with understanding the nuances of his case. He’s struggled with obtaining a lawyer, accessing his money and communicating with guards. He had healthcare issues, but, as he was wont to do in Dallas, he made friends.

And all the while, he wanted the same thing his detainers did: to get home to Taiwan.

Feng’s journey to America started in 2002. Initially denied a visitor visa because of his military service in Taiwan, he was later granted a student visa. After attending culinary school, he worked his way through Dallas kitchens, most recently landing a job at the upscale Quarter Acre on Lower Greenville Avenue.

He befriended everyone in the restaurant scene. Bartenders, chefs, writers and critics alike know Petey.

Detained at Check In

On Nov. 6, 2025, Petey went to an immigration check-in and was arrested. An ICE spokesperson told KERA that Feng was detained for overstaying his visa since 2010 and was arrested for a misdemeanor DWI in 2023.

Petey had been working to save money to return home and help care for his aging parents, particularly his mother, who has cancer.

After being detained, he called all the numbers he could remember. Brenner helped him by contacting others in the hospitality industry and building a tight network of resources. One chef offered to try to get into his apartment to retrieve pertinent documents and his car, both of which were left behind, abandoned. Another tracked down an immigration lawyer to take his case at a low rate. One anonymous donor offered to buy Petey a plane ticket home.

Friends sent cash to his account so he could buy things from the commissary and communicate with the outside world. At one detention center, email-like messages sent from tablets were limited to 200 characters and cost 25 cents each. In a February chat, he thanked Brenner after he was able to buy toothpaste and soap; the detention center only provided small amounts of each.

He’s always made friends easily, tempering his frustration with the lack of information and ongoing confinement; he once told Brenner that good things don’t happen to people who make waves in places like this. He asked for books — self-help and thick novels — to keep his mind busy. He also asked for a dictionary to aid him with the books he’s been reading.

“Oh…. I was teaching Chinese to a Mexican,” he wrote in a January chat. “Teaching English to a Chinese. And teaching an Iranian how to make ricotta in jail. I did great in my first try. Taste so good.”

Another time, he describes in detail a dessert recipe he dreamed up after another detainee gave him a piece of butterscotch candy. “When I had no money,” he wrote of that piece of candy, “it was so delicious and for some reason it has a hint of smokiness. I hope I can create with my experienc…” The message cut off for exceeding the character limit.

He also often reflected on his unknown future, how he will miss America, but knew it was time for him to go back to Taiwan and care for his parents.

“Seems like life has decided my fate three years ago. When is enough for me to try my things my ways? When will I go home to …. Care of my parents?? I am happy and grateful life has brought me here at this stage of my. I am excited for what it has for me in the future. Please help me to say thank you to Toby and all the chefs,” he wrote in a chat, referring to chef Toby Archibald at Quarter Acre.

There were still hard days. There was friction and friendship among detainees. One day, he wrote in a chat about how he was being “picked on” by a Latino, which started out as a joke but went too far. Petey got defensive. “A Palestine guy tried to be big brother, only made it worst.” Petey retreated to his bed, mad. “To my surprise a tall & huge Latino called Superman came smiling & just standing by my bed without saying anything for 10 minutes & another Iranian came, and so…”

A Missed Hearing

Petey was initially transferred from Dallas to the South Texas Processing Center, a detention facility in Pearsall, about an hour drive southwest of San Antonio. The facility backs up to endless acres of prairie land that bleeds into the desert. About 10,000 people live in the small town. According to The GEO Group, about 1,700 detainees are at the private for-profit facility. Later, Petey was moved to the La Salle County Regional Detention Center in Encinal, Texas.

His initial hearing after his detention was set for Jan. 22. Around 4 p.m. that day, a corrections officer told him he had missed it, demonstrating the lack of communication in the process. The hearing was at 9 a.m. He had no idea.

The case was rescheduled for April 3.

A Key Hearing

Then one day, he was suddenly summoned for a master hearing, which, according to the Immigration Legal Resource Center, explains the charges against a detainee. Petey asked the judge for voluntary departure, meaning he would leave on his own rather than be held and then deported by ICE. That route would also allow him to reapply for a Visa later on, whereas involuntary deportation doesn’t. He was in the middle of making a case for it when a representative from Homeland Security joined the call and said Petey should not be considered for voluntary deportation because he’s a criminal; he didn’t show up for his 2023 DWI hearing. A warrant was issued. Petey says he didn’t know about it.

The judge sided with Homeland Security, denying him voluntary deportation. A lawyer told Petey he could appeal the ruling — he’d rather go home on his own terms than Homeland Security’s. Where would he go exactly? His country or another? When? How?

Most detainees are shackled during mandatory deportation flights. These Enforcement and Removal Operations missions have ICE guards patrolling the aisles.

Later, an officer approached him with deportation orders. Petey signed them and then asked, “I didn’t just sign away my right to appeal, did I?” He had.

In early March, he phoned Brenner and was only able to say, “They’re moving me,” and to let his family know before being cut off. He was being sent from La Salle back to the South Texas facility.

The Wait

At that point, he knew he was going to be deported, but had no idea when or where.

In the meantime, at Pearsall, he stayed busy. “(…) we can work as telachero [Spanish for handyman] and kitchen, laundry room, barber shop, etc. Because there are so many of detainee. Food portion is big and there are extra plates. Its possible to share without commissary,” he wrote to Brenner.

He explained in a chat that they clean the dorm three times a day. He describes how some detainees share food, while others collect food and don’t want to share. He likes getting apples and oranges. This is a treat because at La Salle, there wasn’t as much work, smaller portions of food and no extras.

He liked to wake up early and clean while everyone else was still asleep. He read books after breakfast, which is around 4 to 5 a.m. Then he cleaned the whole room if no one else volunteered. When everyone woke up, “it’s clean and smell great!” he wrote. He said that most people wake up between 7 to 9 a.m., if no other “event interrupts.” He exercises after that until lunch at 11:30 a.m.

Then, he said early this week that he had spoken to ICE officers about his case, and they “gave me a chance.” As Petey has always done, he made friends, even his detainers. Then, on Wednesday, he messaged Brenner again to say he was moving, but he wasn’t sure where he was going. For a day, no one knew where he was until late Thursday when he sent Brenner a text: “This is Petey. I am in Taipei now just landed!!!”

In the past two days, he flew from San Antonio to Dallas on commercial flights, then from Dallas to Taipei. Agents monitored his travel to ensure he boarded flights, but otherwise he was a free man. He’s now in Taipei, making his way to his parents’ house on the southern tip of the island, where he’ll help take care of his mom and dad and likely make a lot of new friends. And likely whip up a butterscotch dessert.