LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – It’s a race against the clock to free a St. Johns man who has been in custody for three months.
Right now, his family has no idea where he is.
Lue Yang is a husband and father of six. He was taken into ICE custody in July as he arrived to work in Lansing.
He’s a Hmong immigrant who came to the U.S. in the 1970s as a child refugee.
Yang previously got into legal trouble as a minor. When he was 17, he pled guilty to breaking and entering. He spent 10 months in jail before turning his life around.
He began nonprofit the Hmong Family Association of Lansing and became a leader in the community.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer pardoned Yang on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, I granted a pardon for Lue Yang, a devoted family man and respected leader in Michigan’s Hmong community,” said Governor Whitmer.
WILX News 10’s Ann Emmerich spoke with his wife Anne Vue and State Rep. Mai Xiong just hours before the pardon.
Vue and Xiong have been fighting for Yang’s release.
“He showed up to his immigration interviews on an annual basis and now he’s being punished again. And his case, his conviction was expunged under Michigan’s Clean Slate laws that we established as a legislature in order to give people a pathway to forgiveness and our laws have to mean something,” said Rep. Xiong.
As of Wednesday, Yang was in an ICE facility in Louisiana.
The Representative says he was a good person who did not get due process.
His wife said he left in good health, but that his mind and body have deteriorated during the 90 days he’s spent in horrible conditions.
“I know that he slept on the concrete floor for a good 12 days. And they were shackled the entire time, right? And so, those calls were a lot more devastating, because all of those calls, I would say that he would cry, and it was constant. He probably cried for seven days. In the staging centers, which they’re only supposed to be housed in for 72 hours, and so not having access to outside, no windows, you know it makes people go crazy, there’s no clocks, no calendars, and your light is on continuously so you don’t know if its night or day. So I would say those are the harder conversations,” said Vue.
Governor Whitmer’s pardon sets aside Yang’s conviction, allowing him to move forward without the offense on his record. His conviction was already expunged in 2018.
Now, work begins to get the federal government to release him.
His family doesn’t even know if he’s still in the country.
News 10 contacted ICE and have yet to hear back.
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