The Brief
Sufeng Yang came to the U.S. as a young child and now has a family has been detained by ICE.
The wife of Yang and mother of four young children went with her husband to his immigration check-in, never expecting she wouldn’t see him again.
State Representative Mai Xiong says she is working to free these refugees, whose detention hits very close to home.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Sufeng Yang came to the U.S. as a young child with his mother after the Vietnam War. Yet Yang, a father, provider, and caregiver for his daughter's 82-year-old grandmother, is now in ICE detention, about to be deported to Laos.
Local perspective
In July, Yang and more than a dozen others in the Metro Detroit Hmong and Laotian communities received letters for what they thought was a routine immigration check-in on July 30th. It wasn’t.
"Without him, she won’t be able to get by—her life will be at risk, her home will be at risk," said daughter Anissa Lee through tears.
The wife of Yang and mother of four young children went with her husband to his immigration check-in, never expecting she wouldn’t see him again.
"Within minutes, his name was called—he walked through the door to the back area and never returned," said State Representative Mai Xiong.
What they're saying
Xiong is working to free these refugees, whose detention hits very close to home.
"I’m a surviving Hmong refugee and the only Hmong American elected in the state of Michigan," said Xiong. "These individuals came here lawfully—as refugees—just like me."
She says the detainees were taken to Texas and now Louisiana, where they are sleeping on concrete floors, and there isn’t enough food.
"This past week has been a nightmare," she said. "These family members are desperate—we don’t have a lot of time."
Meanwhile, a coalition of state lawmakers, immigration attorneys, and advocates is working to secure their release, but those detained already had final deportation orders—some from decades ago that are only now being acted upon.
The other side
ICE told FOX 2:
"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 on July 30. All had been ordered removed by an immigration judge, some as early as 2001. ICE was recently able to obtain travel documents from the government of Laos to ensure their lawful removal to their home country."
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