Wa Kong Lor, a Hmong refugee from Detroit, was deported to Laos last month with only a driver's license and $65. Born in a Thai refugee camp, he had never been to Laos and is now stateless, unable to open a bank account. His wife, Maiyia Xiong, said he has been sleeping on the streets and living on a few dollars a day, asking her not to tell their children.
Xiong, who created a GoFundMe to raise money to find her husband, expressed anguish at not being able to say goodbye. She noted the irony that her tax money as a teaching assistant is used to deport her spouse. Lor was among over two dozen Hmong and Laotian immigrants deported on an 11 August flight, many labelled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as 'heinous criminal illegal aliens'. Lor had served three years for property, drug and weapons crimes committed at age 21.
Since Donald Trump's second term, deportations of Southeast Asians with criminal records have surged. On a single flight over Memorial Day weekend, Ice deported 93 Vietnamese and 65 Laotian nationals. The Lao Embassy reported issuing 145 travel papers for deportation since January, a tenfold increase. In Minnesota, home to the largest Hmong population outside the US, over 150 Southeast Asians have been deported since May.
State Representative Kaohly Vang Her is working with Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to expedite state pardons, which can prevent deportation by vacating convictions. A similar effort succeeded in New York, where Governor Kathy Hochul pardoned a Lao refugee in July. Her noted that many facing deportation have reformed, raised families, and paid taxes, and their removal creates a 'ripple effect' of trauma and reliance on public assistance.
Southeast Asians are three to five times more likely to be deported due to prior convictions, which can strip legal permanent resident status. Advocates see these deportations as a betrayal of US duty to refugees. 'When you accept a refugee, you accept them for their entire lifetime,' said Quyen Dinh of the Southeast Asian Resource Center.
