Throughout Thursday, U.S. officials insisted Mr. Chen had had a "change of heart" and diplomatic officials scrambled to ascertain what he really wanted, meeting with him and his wife at a Beijing hospital where he is undergoing treatment for injuries sustained during a risky escape from his home detention.
There are also detainees who immigrated to the United States seeking refuge, seeking to escape persecution -- only to be placed in detention when applying for asylum.
Even if those immigrants are eventually given asylum, they may have waited in detention for months or years, separated from their families just for attempting to escape strife in their country of origin.