As many as 15 Hmong Minnesotans are facing deportation this week, following a ramped up campaign by federal immigration authorities targeting those with past convictions.
Those targeted were arrested earlier this month in sites around the Twin Cities, including their workplaces and homes. In one case, a father was taken away by plainclothes officers, forcing him to leave his three young children unsupervised.
Darling Yaj, executive director of the Hmong 18 Council, said families dropped off luggage at the St. Paul Immigration Office on Monday, expecting the deportations this week.
The arrests, and a social media feed publicizing several of them, have raised alarm in the Hmong community, which historically has been spared from such deportations.
Most of those targeted were born in refugee camps and came to the United States as children in the aftermath of the “Secret War,” a CIA-backed military operation in Laos during the 1970s. All had final orders of deportation after being convicted of a crime that revoked their lawful permanent status, also known as a green card.
Pressure on Laotian government
Moua Her, consular officer at the Lao Embassy in Washington, D.C., said the embassy has issued travel documents for 145 U.S. deportees to be accepted in Laos since the beginning of the year. Historically, Laos has rarely issued travel documents to accept U.S. deportees. Typically, Her said the Embassy accepts about 10 deportees a year.
“We don’t want to accept them,” he said. “We have no choice, they [deportees] have no choice.”
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, at least for now, that the Trump administration can deport immigrants to countries where they have no ties. The ruling was prompted by a deportation flight carrying men heading to South Sudan, a place that most of them have never set foot in.
“If we refuse them, they might be deported to another country that they don’t originally belong to and a lot of their families don’t want that,” Her said.
When asked how long the Hmong deportees who were arrested earlier this month have to wait for travel documents and be taken to Laos, Her said “It should be soon, less than a month.”
He also confirmed that some of the Hmong men arrested earlier this month have been issued travel documents to be deported to Laos.
Social media posts raise alarm
The Department of Homeland Security posted arrest photos of several Hmong men earlier this month on the HSI St. Paul account on X, which has raised alarm and fear in the community.
The posts show Hmong men in handcuffs, facing the camera, while anonymous officers restrain them, facing away. Each of the men is identified by name, age, criminal conviction and most are labeled “illegal alien” in the post.
The visual style and wording of the posts is intentionally dehumanizing, immigration advocates and attorneys say.
“I think the correct term for all of these people are that they are Americans,” said Kay Moua, program director at MN8, a Southeast Asian immigrant-led advocacy and anti-deportation organization.
“They grew up here, they worked here, they went to school here, they have contributed to the communities that we all live in right now and that again that this deportation is truly like a betrayal for everything that they have ever known,” she said.
Many of the Hmong arrested earlier this month by federal immigration authorities committed crimes that revoked their lawful permanent status decades ago, Moua said.
“We came here because of our involvement with the CIA, so to label us as illegal is quite troubling because that affects the community as a whole and not just one person,” said Fong Lee, who has a cousin recently detained by federal immigration authorities.
Some of the Hmong individuals arrested earlier this month committed crimes while they were minors, and all of them have already served their sentence, Kay Moua said.
“They have already taken accountability as directed by the U.S. justice system and they have turned their life around to become contributing members of our community,” she said. “So, for these cases, deportations are especially a cruel form of double punishment.”
Arrests by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officers have taken place at workplaces, in homes and in front of children and neighbors, Moua said. And some families say they have little info on where their relatives are being held or when they’ll be deported.
“These are just a few of the examples of stories that we’ve heard, but what we can share right now is that all of these have been really inconsistent, but it is a really scary experience for families,” Moua said. “Often there’s no regard for the safety of any children, and that they’re really just left abandoned and traumatized there.”
In one case, neighbors had to step in after the father of three was arrested, leaving three children 10 and younger unsupervised, she said.
“There’s no transparency from agents so, even when people are asking questions or are trying to invoke some of their rights, agents are not allowing them to hear responses,” she said.
Deportation orders are hard to stop
Lee Moua, a local attorney who represents clients in immigration and other legal matters, said he’s been receiving many calls from Hmong people asking him about whether it’s safe to travel out of the country based on their legal status. “I even get phone calls from U.S. citizens,” he said.
Immigration attorneys say in the past, the U.S. was rarely successful deporting Hmong people, even those who had criminal charges or convictions. However, Laos has started to accept more American deportees this year because of threats by the Trump administration, including visa sanctions and tariffs.
Immigration attorneys say that it is challenging to stop a final order of deportation. To successfully convince a judge to suspend the order is “really rare,” Lee Moua said.
Ma Yang, a Wisconsin woman, was one of the first Hmong people deported earlier this year to Laos. When she shared her story to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it garnered national attention. As a mother to five children in the U.S., Yang was the breadwinner of the family. She was deported after serving 2½ years in prison for marijuana trafficking and is now living in Laos.
Tammie Xiong, executive director of Hmong American Women’s Association in Wisconsin, who is in touch with Yang’s family, said Ma is still communicating with relatives in the U.S. on a regular basis.
“She really misses her children, but I know that there’s still a sense from Ma that this is a huge injustice,” Xiong said. “She wants to do everything that she can, even being in Laos to be able to fight her way to actually get back home to her children and be reunited with her children.”
