The family of a Hmong American man facing possible deportation is asking for help from the community and policymakers to get his release.
Lue Yang, a St. Johns resident who came to the U.S. as an infant in 1979, is being held at an ICE detention facility after being arrested at work last month, his family said.
Yang’s family came as refugees from Laos after facing political violence for helping the U.S. military and CIA during the Vietnam War. His family said he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand.
Ann Vue, Yang's wife of 24 years, said at a press conference Thursday that Yang’s Hmong heritage and family history will make him a target if he’s sent back.
“With Lue’s public advocacy here in America for our Hmong veterans and our Hmong American people today significantly increases that he will be identified and persecuted upon arrival. He will receive a death sentence,” Lue said.
Vue said Yang has been active in Hmong community organizations.
While he was young, however, Vue said Yang got into some trouble. As a child, at the advice of a court-appointed lawyer, he took a plea deal on a charge that resulted in him serving 10 months in prison, she said.
Vue said that made him a target for deportation despite it being expunged from his record.
In a statement, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said Yang was ordered removed for deportation in 2001. Vue said neither Thailand nor Laos would accept him.
“Lue is not a citizen of Laos or Thailand. Both countries have rejected him over and over in the early 2000s, each time stating that he is not their citizen. He was born on a Thai refugee camp because of the United States’ war. Go back to them and ask them,” Vue said.
That policy may be changing, however. While Laos and the United States still don’t have an official agreement, the southeast Asian nation may be more willing to cooperate with the Trump administration.
“ICE was recently able to obtain travel documents from the government of Laos to ensure their lawful removal to their home country,” the ICE statement said.
In the 2010s, Vue said the family spent considerable resources trying to get Yang citizenship. But state level expungements don’t matter for federal records when it comes to immigration.
Vue is pleading with the governor, lawmakers, community advocates, and other Michiganders for help in her husband’s case.
Advocates say Yang was among the first of more than a dozen Hmong refugees that ICE arrested last month. While he was arrested at work, others were taken in at ICE’s Detroit field office.
A letter in the format of a Department of Homeland Security G-56 form, provided to the Michigan Public Radio Network, instructs recipients to show up to the agency’s Detroit Field Office for an interview near the end of July. It included few details other than the office location, a time for the interview, and instructions to bring the letter, “immigration paperwork, and any identification.”
Asian Law Caucus attorney Aisa Villarosa said she’s not even sure agents had warrants when they detained the others.
“Because many were rapidly quietly moved from one ICE facility to the next, as many as four facilities across thousands of miles within a matter of days from Michigan to Louisiana, there are glaring due-process questions about every step of their detention and processing,” Villarosa said.
Like Yang, other Hmong and Laotian detainees had existing deportation orders from the early and mid 2000s.
That includes Macomb County resident Sufeng Yang. On Friday, his daughter Anissa Lee sang her father’s praises, saying his family desperately needs him back.
“He is the backbone of my family. He is the source of strength for over 53 nieces and nephews. If you count everyone who’s lives he has touched, there are over 300 people who would be devastated by his deportation,” Lee said.
ICE said Sufeng Yang has had an outstanding deportation order since 2007. It noted a previous robbery conviction in Toledo, Ohio.
ICE said the arrestees all had some sort of record.
“A known gang member who obstructed a murder investigation, multiple child sex abusers, drug traffickers and other Laotian nationals with criminal histories were arrested by ICE Detroit, July 30. All had been ordered removed by an immigration judge, some as early as 2001,” the statement read.
Villanova said, despite the setbacks, the group could still fight deportation by having their immigration cases reopened.
“Many of these offenses are 10-plus years old. For the files that we've seen, folks were often minors, high school students, et cetera. So, if we can get enough time and mobilize, there are some really strong paths,” Villanova said Friday.
Another option outside of the immigration court system Villanova mentioned was a federal multi-party habeas review that would entail having a federal court assess the cases and demand the people remain in the country.
Each, however, presents its own sets of challenges while the group remains inside the immigration system, sometimes shifting positions.
While Lue Yang was in Michigan, the others had been sent to a massive correction facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, often a final stop before removal.
On Friday, the advocates worried about when their final removal could come while also raising alarms about conditions on the inside.
Christine Sauvé with the Michigan Immigrants Rights Center said things are dire.
“They have been making desperate calls to their family members in the past 48 hours and letting them know they are all very hungry. There is not a lot of food. They are being forced to sleep on concrete floors,” she said.
