Fifteen Hmong and Laotian immigrants from Michigan who were detained by ICE in Detroit in late July were deported to Laos this week, arriving in the capital city of Vientiane on Wednesday.
All 15 had received removal orders following convictions for crimes ranging from obstruction of a murder investigation to bank fraud, primarily in the early 2000s. Their deportation had previously been impossible because the Laotian government refused to accept them, so they served prison sentences in the United States.
Six of the deportees belong to the Hmong ethnic group who came to the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s from Thai refugee camps after their families escaped persecution in Laos for their involvement in the CIA-backed "Secret War."
Their families rallied support from local officials, including Rep. Mai Xiong, a Warren Democrat who is Michigan's first Hmong American representative. Xiong described families of the individuals who have been deported as "heartbroken."
"If the intent is to deport the worst of the worst, I don't think this is what they're doing…I believe in second chances," she said.
The Michigan residents detained by ICE in Detroit were among 32 immigrants deported to Laos earlier this week, landing in the Southeast Asian nation Wednesday morning, Rep. Xiong confirmed. Two of the those deported are women, and the rest are men.
They were previously detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, but boarded a military flight on Aug. 11 that stopped at Guantanamo Bay to pick up additional detainees, then Hawaii to refuel, before transporting deportees to Laos and Vietnam.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a press release on Wednesday announced "the deportation of Laotian criminal illegal aliens, including a gang member who obstructed a murder investigation, pedophiles, and drug traffickers, back to Laos."
In the press release, ICE listed 12 of the individuals the agency deported to Laos: Sai Vang, 39; Sokhorn Ngem, 56; Lue Kong, 43; Seng Khang, 38; Wa Kang Lor, 44; Su Yang, 47; Fue Yang, 45; Soun Vongrasamy, 64; Bounthavy Phenglavanh, 45; Pang Ngia Hang, 53; Sengaroun Phenglavanh; and Phouvanh Manivong, 51.
Vang, Lor, Su Yang, and Pang Ngia Hang have previously been named as part of the group that was detained in Detroit. ICE has not confirmed whether any of the rest of the individuals whose names have been released were Michigan residents.
At least one of the Hmong men detained in July is still in Michigan. Lue Yang, 47, of St. Johns, remained in the North Lake Processing Center in northern Michigan while the rest of the detainees were transferred to detention centers in Texas and Louisiana.
Yang's case is unique, because his conviction — he pled guilty as an accessory to a home invasion in 2001 and served 10 months — has since been expunged from his record. According to Rep. Xiong and State Senator Stephanie Chang, who represents Detroit, Yang had turned his life around since his time in prison. He served as president of the Hmong Family Association, a nonprofit providing services and programming to Michigan's Hmong community, until he was detained.
Rep. Xiong told The News that Yang's attorney was able to file a legal form called an "entry of attorney appearance" that may have helped his case.
At a press conference last week, immigration advocates and family members expressed their concerns that the individuals detained by ICE would be treated poorly in Laos.
But, Christine Sauve, the policy and communications manager of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center told The News that she had heard from one of the family members that the deportees “made it to Laos safely, that they had been fed and they are being treated well.”
Sauve said there is a fledgling nonprofit organization in Laos that has been formed to assist Hmong individuals deported to the country. She said this group had made contact with the deported Michigan residents.
Rep. Xiong said they were being held in what she described as a military compound in Vientane, until they could secure a sponsor inside the country. She said some of the deportees had extended family in Laos who would likely be able to sponsor their release.
"My message to everyone is that we have to speak up for ourselves and be our own advocates," said Xiong.
She said, "I certainly don't feel safe, and I don't think we should feel safe until we get some transparency from ICE and this administration."
In a Facebook post, Rep. Xiong shared GoFundMe campaigns started on behalf of some of the individuals who were deported.
The deportation flight was originally reported by Tom Cartwright, the former J.P. Morgan executive who tracks ICE deportation flights on his X account, called attention to military flight C17 RCH113 out of Alexandria just before 4 p.m. on August 11.
Cartwright, who is widely known for tracking such flights, posted that the flight landed in Laos sometime in the early morning on Aug. 13.