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US war forces mother to return to a foreign country
A mother from Wisconsin who never lived in Laos was deported after a crime sentence. Their fate raises questions about US immigration policy and the consequences of wars.
US war forces mother to return to a foreign country
at the end of February Ma Yang came to the office for immigration and customs application (ICE) in the USA and had a queasy feeling in the stomach. A few days earlier, she had received a call from ICE to report to her local field office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin-more than six months before her next annual check-in. President Donald Trump had been introduced to office for the second time, and his administration had already taken measures to deport millions of immigrants from the United States.
The deportation of Ma Yang
"In my stomach I already knew that something was wrong," Yang told CNN. The 37-year-old mother of five children was arrested that day and two weeks later deported to the small country of Laos-there from which her parents had fled four decades ago. Yang had never lived in Laos, is not a Laotian citizen and does not speak Lao.
Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Yang came to the USA with her parents and older siblings at the age of eight months. It belongs to the ethnic minority of the Hmong, which during the so-calledThe dramatic course
For decades,yang lived legally in the United States as a constant inhabitant until she guilty in 2022 due to Marijuana-related charges. According to US law, non-citizens can lose their visas if they are convicted of certain crimes. After serving her punishment, Yang was transferred to an ICE HAFT Center and released in 2023 with a deportation order from the United States. Her lawyer at the time had assured her that this order would not be executed because deportations to Southeast Asia were extremely rare.
increasing deportations according to Laos and Vietnam
But that seems to change. Months after Trump's second office, while his administration increases their strict immigration policies, according to immigration law activists, hundreds of people were deported to Laos and Vietnam. Yang's deportation to Laos-the country from which her parents had to flee due to US military intervention-illustrates the comprehensive and aggressive tactics that the White House uses to deport immigrants.
Tricia McLaughlin, press spokeswoman for the Ministry of Homeland Security, confirmed Yang's deportation in a statement to CNN. "Under President Trump and Minister (Kristi) Noem applies: If you break the law, you have to expect consequences," said McLaughlin and added: "Criminal foreigners are not welcome in the USA."
a dark chapter of history
Between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos to destroy the North Vietnamese supply lines. The CIA recruited the Hmong to wage a secret war against communist forces in Laos and Vietnam. The war decimated Laos and the Hmong. Overall, more stray ammunition was thrown in Laos than in Germany and Japan together in World War II, which made Laos the most bombarded country per capita in history.
After the USA was deducted, the communist governments in Laos declared the Hmong enemies. About 150,000 Hmong fled to Thailand and later to the USA, mainly to California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
life after deportation
yang, her parents and siblings arrived in Milwaukee, supported by a church as part of a mass settlement program for refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Yang grew up as one of 13 siblings and her parents worked from sunrise to sunset to take care of their children.
"Life in America was hard for us," reports Yang. "We were really poor." At 14 she got her first child and married an abusive man who fought drug addiction. Finally she found a quieter lifestyle with her long -time partner Michael Bub, and they had three more children.
For years,yang worked as a nail technician in a salon in Milwaukee, which, however, had to close during pandemic. In a financial emergency, a family member offered to make some additional earnings in filling marijuana vape cartridges. This one decision changed their lives radically.
The struggle for returning to your children
yang said she received false legal advice; If she had known that a guilty verdict would endanger her immigration rights, she would have fought against the indictment. Instead, she was guilty and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Her partner Bub, a US citizen, was also convicted, but got away with a two-year punishment. After dismissal after imprisonment, they started to rebuild their life recently bought a house in a better environment.
yang now lives more than 8,100 miles from Milwaukee in the Laotian capital Vientiane and looks forward to an insecure future in an unknown country, separated from their five children and their partner.
"For me it is the most shocking to be torn by my children," says Yang, while emphasizing that her children have difficulty dealing with their sudden disappearance. "I was there and then I wasn't there."
secret deportations during the Trump era
About the Memorial Day weekend in May, when Americans mourned the veterans who had mourned in the fights, a flight with more than 150 deported people from Dallas, Texas, started a new future. Advocacy groups reported that hundreds of people to Vietnam and Laos had been deported since Trump's return to office in January. There are no current data from ICE to specific countries, so that activists have specialized in tracking these statistics on personal networks.
vo Danh, a collective of organizers who campaigned for immigrants and refugees from Southeast Asia, reported that 65 people were deported to Laos and 93 to Vietnam during the Memorial Day weekend. In the run -up to the departure, dozens of immigrants from Southeast Asia were transferred to a facility to Dallas throughout the country.
The view of an uncertain future
yang has now received a temporary ID card in Laos and has been informed by the authorities that it is entitled to citizenship, but this could take a year or more. Your partner Bub is fighting five children as a single father of five children and has difficulty supporting the family. Before Yang's deportation, the couple also took care of Yang's mother, who had suffered two strokes. But Bub found it too difficult to take care of the five children.
"We have given for what we did," Bub told CNN. "When Yang was deported, I wanted me to be in their place if they would allow me." The family has a Gofundme campaign to collect money so that they can hire a lawyer, which helps them, which helps them, to unite with their children in the USA. "I don't want to be forgotten," says Yang determined. "I want to fight for my case to the bitter end."