China announced Thursday that it has detained two U.S. citizens, alleging that they assisted in helping people illegally cross the border.

Jacob Harlan and Alyssa Petersen of China Horizons, an English-teaching program that works with schools in China, were arrested in the eastern province of Jiangsu last month, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, according to the Associated Press reported .

"The department handling the case has informed the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai in a timely manner, arranged U.S. diplomats to conduct consular visits and protected the legitimate rights and interests of the two," Geng said at a press briefing.

China Horizons posted on its Facebook page on Oct. 11 that Harlan, the owner, and Petersen, the director, had been detained for 13 days for "bogus crimes." The organization said the two could be detained "for the next few months or years."

The post also said that the group would be shutting down at the end of the month because of "increasing political and economic problems between the U.S. and China."

The families of Harlan and Petersen are working with international lawyers to help return them to America and GoFundMe pages have been set up for each. Harlan 's page has raised nearly $26,900 and Petersen 's page has raised $12,555.

Petersen's page states that she has been teaching English in China for nearly a decade and was arrested on Sept. 27. She is being held in a jail in Zhenjiang. Both pages state that enough money has been raised to begin legal proceedings.

Harlan's page posted on Wednesday that his family in Utah is doing well "under the circumstances," but they would be shutting down his campaign temporarily to avoid "some of the undesired media attention."