In the 1960s, the CIA recruited Hmong people in Laos to battle Communist forces in southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Many of them sacrificed their lives to help the U.S. and saved the lives of American soldiers. But after the fall of Saigon and Laos 50 years ago, the Hmong were persecuted for allying with the American military and many fled, some of them admitted into the U.S. as legal refugees. They found a home in Midwestern states like Michigan, building new lives in places such as Detroit, Macomb County and the Lansing area.
Now, 16 Hmong and Laotian immigrants are facing deportation after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained them in Michigan in July. Fifteen of them had been sent letters telling them to show up for an appointment at their Detroit field office on July 30. The arrests that day were unexpected since many of them have often had ICE appointments before that were routine. But this time, they were taken to an ICE detention center at North Lake Correctional Facility in northwestern Michigan, several hours away, and are now at detention centers in Louisiana and Texas facing imminent deportation. The immigrants detained had criminal histories, which made them eligible for deportation, ICE officials said.
A group of 27 state representatives and senators and a Detroit councilwoman wrote a letter Friday, Aug. 8, to Kevin Raycraft, field director of Detroit’s ICE office, calling for their immediate release.
“This appeared to be a targeted operation, an easy way for ICE officers to detain people without going to their homes,” Maiyia Xiong, of Pontiac, wife of Wa Kong Lor, one of the immigrants detained said in a statement. “My husband, like many others that day, was taken without warning.”
Her statement was read by state Rep. Mai Xiong, D-Warren, a Hmong refugee with the same last name, at a press conference in Detroit. As Rep. Xiong read the statement, Xiong stood at her side at the podium, unable to read it on her own because she was overcome with emotion, wiping away tears.
“My husband and I came to this country believing it was the safest place to build a better future,” Xiong said. “We have always worked hard to raise our children to respect this country and hope to see them achieve their dreams, but now our family is shattered. My children are afraid to go outside, terrified that ICE might come for us too.”
An ICE spokesperson told the Free Press that Lor is a citizen of Laos with convictions for breaking and entering a vehicle to steal property, controlled substance-deliver/manufacture (cocaine, heroin, or another narcotic) less than 50 grams, weapons felony firearm, and weapons carrying with unlawful intent. He was sentenced to a term of five months to 20 years in prison and ordered to be removed to Laos in 2007.
In the past, Laos and Thailand, where some Hmong lived temporarily after fleeing Laos from Communists, were not admitting immigrants the U.S. wanted to deport, said Christian Sauvé, a manager at Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. But after pressure from the U.S. under President Donald Trump, they are taking them in, allowing ICE to deport them.
“All had been ordered removed by an immigration judge, some as early as 2001,” an ICE spokesperson said of the 16 in Michigan recently detained. “ICE was recently able to obtain travel documents from the government of Laos to ensure their lawful removal to their home country.”
Fifteen of the 16 detained were arrested on July 30 and another man was arrested at his workplace in Lansing, Sauvé said.
ICE said that among those detained on July 30 were “a known gang member who obstructed a murder investigation, multiple child sex abusers, drug traffickers and other Laotian nationals with criminal histories.”
Thousands of Hmong and Laotian people live in Michigan
There are 7,001 Hmong people and 4,035 Laotian people who live in Michigan, according to the 2020 census. Speakers at the press conference, which included four state legislators, said they and other immigrant communities contribute a lot of Michigan’s economy. Deporting them will hurt not just their population, but Michiganders in general, they said.
The recent arrests of the Hmong and Laotian refugees echo how ICE targeted hundreds of Iraqi Americans and Chaldeans in Michigan with criminal histories during Trump’s first term, Sauvé noted. Some who had lived in the U.S. for most of their lives were removed to Iraq after the Trump administration pressured the Iraqi government to take them. In one case, Jimmy Al-Daoud, 41, of Hazel Park, who had lived in the U.S. since he was 6 months old, was deported and ended up homeless on the streets in Iraq, struggling to find insulin for his diabetes. He died in Baghdad in 2019 just a few months after he was deported. Families of the Hmong and Laotian refugees fear their loved ones could meet a similar fate.
Like Al-Daoud, Sufeng Yang, of Warren, arrived in the U.S. as a young child alongside his mother, “seeking safety and a better life after the war,” said his daughter, Anissa Lee, 20, of Warren. “He was raised here. He was educated here, and he built his life here. The United States is all he’s ever known. It’s his only home. He’s not just a resident here. He’s a taxpayer, a provider, a father and a caregiver.”
Yang is a citizen of Laos who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, and now faces being sent back to a nation he’s not familiar with. He was convicted of a robbery in Ohio several years ago, but his family says he has supported many in his life.
“He never missed a bill,” Lee said of her father, her voice breaking up with emotion. “He never turned away from his responsibilities. He lives his life around us, around family, around community. Now he’s being taken away from the only home he knows and from the only people he knows the most. My 82-year-old grandmother relies on my father every day. He buys her groceries, he buys her medication, he pays her bills and ensures she has everything she needs to survive. Without him, she won’t be able to get by.”
Lee said her father saved and comforted her after she lost a daughter and has helped touch the lives of hundreds of others.
“He is the backbone of my family,” she said. “He is the source of strength for over 53 nieces and nephews. … Nearly 300 people will be devastated by his deportation.”
ICE said that Yang is a 47-year-old citizen of Laos with a robbery conviction in Toledo, Ohio, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. He had been ordered removed in 2007.
Rep. Xiong held another press conference the day before on Thursday, Aug. 7, on the steps of the state Capitol in Lansing, joined by state Sen. Sam Singh, D-Lansing; state Rep. Emily Dievendorf, D-Lansing, and state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit. Chang was also at the press conference in Detroit along with state Rep. Sharon MacDonell, D-Troy, and state Rep. Donovan McKinney, D-Detroit.
ICE said the people arrested have various criminal histories, including: a known gang member of “Masters of Destruction,” with a conviction for aiding an offender and obstructing an investigation of first-degree murder; criminal sexual conduct, including some cases involving minors; bank fraud; delivery/manufacture of a controlled substance and felony weapons charges; robbery; home invasion; concealing stolen property; manufacture/deliver cocaine distribute/possess with intent to deliver; operating while intoxicated, and felony grand larceny.
The Hmong saved lives of ‘countless Americans’ in war
At the Lansing press conference livestreamed by WWMT TV, Ancy Vue, a wife of detainee Lue Yang, 47, who lived near Lansing, told his story, noting how Hmong people helped the U.S. during what was called the “secret war” in Laos. Yang has lived in the U.S. since he was a 1-year-old.
“I’m a proud American, a mother of six, the daughter of Hmong refugees who gained their citizenship and the wife of a man called Lue Yang, who is now detained, and faces the potential deportation from the only country that he’s ever known,” Vue said. “He was born stateless in a refugee camp in Thailand. … His father served with the U.S. forces during the Vietnam War recruited by the CIA’s secret war to help America. They saved the lives of countless Americans and … fought alongside our soldiers in the shadows, often giving away their own lives.”
ICE said that Yang is a citizen of Laos with a conviction for home invasion in the second degree and was ordered removed in 2001.
His wife, Vue, said that her husband “paid his dues already” for a crime “that was nearly 3 decades ago.” Moreover, she said, “he never entered the home” during the robbery and was given a court-appointed attorney who urged him to plead guilty without informing him this conviction could affect his immigration status.
McKinney criticized ICE for recently announcing it’s offering a $50,000 hiring bonus for new agents, given how many in places like Detroit are struggling to survive.
“It’s cruel, it’s wrong, it’s unjust, and it must end,” McKinney said of ICE detaining the 16 immigrants. “We are calling for their release. Families belong together, not torn apart in secrecy. We also call for transparency and accountability so these horrific events stop happening. Deportation doesn’t just impact one person; it tears at the fabric of entire communities. We’re talking about small businesses losing a valued employee, elders losing caregivers, children losing a parent or grandparent. … These individuals are our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, our fellow Michiganders.”
Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com, X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ICE arrests 16 Hmong, Laotian refugees in Michigan. Family, legislators ask for release.
Reporting by Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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