\n Yang lived for decades in the US legally as a permanent resident until she pleaded guilty to marijuana-related charges in 2022. Under US law, non-citizens can lose their visas if convicted of certain crimes.\n <\/p>\n
\n After serving her sentence, Yang was transferred to an ICE detention facility and released in 2023 with a removal order from the US. Yang said her lawyer at the time assured her the removal order would not be acted upon \u2013 deportations to Southeast Asia were exceedingly rare.\n <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/002-cnn-mayangwi-0050.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n But that appears to be changing. Months into Trump\u2019s second term, as his administration ramps up its immigration crackdown, hundreds of people have been quietly deported to Laos and Vietnam, immigrant rights advocates say, in a stark departure from decades of US immigration policy in the region.\n <\/p>\n
\n The reported uptick in deportations to Southeast Asia comes as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on countries, including some with poor human rights records, to accept US deportees, alongside sweeping policy changes that include punishing tariffs<\/a> and travel bans.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Yang\u2019s deportation to Laos \u2013 a country her parents were forced to flee following US military intervention \u2013 underscores the sweeping and aggressive tactics Trump\u2019s White House is using to expel immigrants.\n <\/p>\n \n Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Yang\u2019s deportation in a statement to CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cUnder President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences,\u201d McLaughlin said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCriminal aliens are not welcome in the US.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos to destroy North Vietnamese supply lines that ran through the country, which is roughly the size of Oregon. The CIA recruited the Hmong to help them carry out their covert war against communist forces in Laos and Vietnam.\n <\/p>\n \n The war decimated Laos and the Hmong. More cluster munitions were dropped on Laos during the Secret War<\/a> than on Germany and Japan combined during World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.\n <\/p>\n \n An estimated<\/a> 30,000 to 40,000 Hmong civilians and soldiers were killed \u2013 a tenth of the Hmong population in Laos. Following the US withdrawal, the Laos communist regime declared the Hmong enemies of the state. Roughly 150,000 fled to neighboring Thailand, and later the US, mainly settling in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.\n <\/p>\n \n Yang, her parents and her older siblings arrived in Milwaukee, sponsored by a church as part of a mass refugee resettlement program that brought more than one million people from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to the US in the decades after the war.\n <\/p>\n \n Growing up, Yang was one of 13 siblings, and her parents worked from sunrise to sundown to provide for their children.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLife in America was tough for us,\u201d Yang said. \u201cWe were really poor.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Yang had her first child at 14 and married an abusive man who struggled with drug addiction.\n <\/p>\n \n Eventually, after another baby and a divorce, she settled into a calmer life with her long-term partner Michael Bub, and they went on to have three more children.\n <\/p>\n \n Yang\u2019s life was not easy, and she worked hard to be present for her kids. Yang and Bub gave their kids a slice of American life, with trips to the McDonald\u2019s playground and shopping at Walmart. The family would frequently gather around her table for warm bowls of khao poon, a curried noodle soup from Laos \u2013 her kids\u2019 favorite.\n <\/p>\n \n For years, Yang worked as a nail technician in a salon in Milwaukee, but it closed during the pandemic and money was tight. One of Yang\u2019s family members asked if she and Bub wanted to make a few extra bucks by helping to fill marijuana vape cartridges and allowing packages to be shipped to their house.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat one decision made our lives change tremendously,\u201d Yang said.\n <\/p>\n \n Yang said she was given poor legal advice, and if she had known a guilty plea would threaten her immigration status, she would have fought the charges. Instead, Yang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Bub was also sentenced to two years in prison but is a US citizen.\n <\/p>\n \n Yang and Bub were in the process of rebuilding their lives before she was deported. They had recently bought a house in a better neighborhood.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe got out, and we said we wanted to do better for ourselves and for our children,\u201d Yang said. \u201cI never in a million years thought this would happen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Yang is now living more than 8,100 miles away from Milwaukee in the Laotian capital of Vientiane, and facing down her future in an unfamiliar place, separated from her five children and partner.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFor me to get ripped away from my children is the most shocking,\u201d Yang said, adding that her children are struggling to cope with her sudden disappearance. \u201cI was there, and then I wasn\u2019t.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Over Memorial Day weekend in May, as Americans mourned veterans who died in combat, a flight carrying more than 150 people who were once displaced by US wars left on a one-way flight from Dallas, Texas.\n <\/p>\n \n Since Trump returned to office in January, advocates say his administration has deported hundreds of people to Vietnam and Laos. ICE does not have up-to-date data on deportations to specific countries, so immigrant rights groups have stepped in to fill the void.\n <\/p>\n \n Vo Danh, a collective of organizers which advocates on behalf of immigrants and refugees from Southeast Asia, reported 65 people were deported to Laos and 93 to Vietnam on the Memorial Day weekend flight. In the days leading up to the flight\u2019s departure, advocates had noticed dozens of immigrants from Southeast Asia being transferred from detention centers across the US to a facility in Dallas.\n <\/p>\n \n Immigration advocate Tom Cartright, who tracks chartered ICE flights<\/a>, noted that in May, Laos accepted its largest flight of US deportees since he started tracking in January 2020 \u2013 a flight which then carried on to Vietnam.\n <\/p>\n \n A spokesperson for Vo Danh, which has been tracking deportations on a case-by-case basis through its network of family members, estimates almost 300 people have been deported to Vietnam and 80 have been deported to Laos in the few months since Trump returned to power. By comparison, between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, 145 people considered by ICE to be nationals of Vietnam and just six considered to be nationals of Laos were deported, according to ICE<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The DHS, ICE and the White House did not answer questions from CNN about how many people have been deported to Laos and Vietnam since Trump returned to office.\n <\/p>\n \n A consular officer at the Lao Embassy in Washington, DC, told the Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a> in July it has issued travel documents for 145 people to be deported in 2025, compared to about 10 in a typical year.\n <\/p>\n \n Advocates predict another wave of people will be deported soon. Last month, the Homeland Security Investigations field office in St. Paul \u2013 which boasts a large Hmong population \u2013 announced on X a slew of arrests<\/a> of \u201cillegal aliens\u201d from Laos.\n <\/p>\n \n Many of the people deported from the US to Southeast Asia in recent months are former refugees who committed crimes, some decades ago, and pleaded guilty without realizing they were risking their right to remain in the US, said Connie Chung Joe, the CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, the US\u2019s largest legal and civil rights organization for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey came here as war-torn refugees, very poor, limited English proficiency, without any cultural ties, and then the community did not have safety net support,\u201d Joe said. \u201cSo, you saw a lot of trouble that came out, including the proliferation of things like gangs, young people getting into trouble, and they would end up with some sort of criminal background.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Because of the risks these refugees faced if they returned home, and the refusal of some Southeast Asian countries to accept deportees from the US, relatively few people with removal orders \u2013 legal directives ordering a non-US citizen to leave the country \u2013 were deported.\n <\/p>\n \n Instead, after making their way through the US criminal justice system, many Southeast Asians were told to report to ICE for annual check-ins while they continued their life in the US.\n <\/p>\n \n As of May, 4,749 people considered by ICE to be nationals of Laos had removal orders from the US, according to Syracuse University\u2019s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC)<\/a>, which tracks immigration court data. There were 10,745 Vietnamese nationals with removal orders, according to TRAC.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe majority of individuals (who have been deported) are American in everything except for their green card,\u201d said Quyen Dinh, Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey are spouses to US partners, they have US children, they are taking care of elders who also fled as refugees of war and genocide.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n During his first term, Trump struck a new deal with Vietnam to accept immigrants who came to the US before 1995, including war refugees, superseding a 2008 agreement not to deport them. The US also introduced new visa sanctions on Laotian government officials to push the country to accept deportees. But Trump left office before these plans could materialize, and the Biden administration lifted the Laos visa sanctions.\n <\/p>\n \n Since returning to office, Trump has increased pressure on countries to accept deportees from the US \u2013 even deportees who are not citizens of those countries. After a court challenge, the Supreme Court ruled<\/a> that Trump could deport migrants to countries other than their homeland, including South Sudan<\/a> and Libya,<\/a> with minimal notice.\n <\/p>\n \n Last month, the Trump administration introduced full and partial travel bans on citizens from 19 countries, including Laos, citing the country\u2019s visa overstay rate and historic refusal to \u201caccept back its removable nationals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said Yang was released from ICE custody in 2023 \u201cbecause at the time ICE could not remove aliens to Laos due to the country\u2019s refusal to issue travel documents. Now, under President Trump\u2019s leadership, Laos is issuing travel documents and Yang was able to be returned.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n However, because Yang was born in a refugee camp, she is not a citizen of Laos and is considered stateless \u2013 a precarious legal status whereby someone is not considered a national of any state.\n <\/p>\n \n Yang currently has a temporary ID card in Laos and was told by authorities that she will be eligible for citizenship, but it could take one year or more.\n <\/p>\n \n Bub, Yang\u2019s partner, has undergone several brain surgeries and receives disability payments from the government. He is now struggling to support five children as a single father.\n <\/p>\n \n Before Yang was deported, the couple were also caring for Yang\u2019s mother, who had suffered two strokes. But Bub found it too difficult to care for her and five children, so she\u2019s had to find alternative care.\n <\/p>\n \n The couple say the family is serving a second sentence for their crime.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe paid for what we did,\u201d Bub told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n When Yang was deported, he said \u201cI wanted to trade places with her if they\u2019d let me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Dinh, from the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, said the American government should be accountable for the fate of refugees from US wars. She and other advocacy groups are fighting to enshrine the status of Southeast Asian immigrants in the US and protect them against deportation.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOur communities lost our entire homelands and livelihoods because of the destruction of our home countries, because of US decisions and US hands and US forces,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you accept a refugee, it is for the duration and the lifetime of the harm that you have done and have created.\u201d\n <\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/003-gettyimages-515118544.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Following](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/004-gettyimages-543900176.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Eleven-year-old](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/005-cnn-mayangwi-0055.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/006-cnn-mayangwi-0086.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Yang's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/007-cnn-mayangwi-0006.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Yang's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/009-cnn-mayangwi-0051.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Yang's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/008-cnn-mayangwi-0031.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Yang](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/010-gettyimages-1246967143.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/011-cnn-mayangwi-0104.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Bub,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/012-cnn-mayangwi-0076.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Souvenir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/013-cnn-mayangwi-0054.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Bub](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/014-c-cnn-mayangwi-0001.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/015-cnn-mayangwi-0005.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Ma Yang arrived at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in late February with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-293724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114920503144481669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}