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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMilwaukee-area woman deported to Laos though she's never been there, doesn't speak the language
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2025/03/14/south-milwaukee-woman-deported-to-laos-is-stranded-with-few-options/82369691007/A Hmong American woman who has lived in the Milwaukee area since she was 8 months old was deported last week to Laos, a country she has never visited, and says she is stranded in a rooming house surrounded by military guards.
Ma Yang, 37, a mother of five, said she does not speak the Lao language, has no family or friends in the country and that the military is holding all her documents. She was born in Thailand, the daughter of Hmong refugees after the Vietnam War, and she was a legal permanent U.S. resident until she pleaded guilty to taking part in a marijuana trafficking operation.
"The United States sent me back to die," she said. "I don't even know where to go. I don't even know what to do."
As President Donald Trump pushes the mass deportation of immigrants, Yang believes she is one of the first Hmong Americans to be deported to Laos in recent years. As of November, the U.S. considered Laos an "uncooperative" country that accepted few, if any, deportees. Zero people were deported to Laos in the last fiscal year, according to federal data.
Ma Yang, 37, a mother of five, said she does not speak the Lao language, has no family or friends in the country and that the military is holding all her documents. She was born in Thailand, the daughter of Hmong refugees after the Vietnam War, and she was a legal permanent U.S. resident until she pleaded guilty to taking part in a marijuana trafficking operation.
"The United States sent me back to die," she said. "I don't even know where to go. I don't even know what to do."
As President Donald Trump pushes the mass deportation of immigrants, Yang believes she is one of the first Hmong Americans to be deported to Laos in recent years. As of November, the U.S. considered Laos an "uncooperative" country that accepted few, if any, deportees. Zero people were deported to Laos in the last fiscal year, according to federal data.
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Milwaukee-area woman deported to Laos though she's never been there, doesn't speak the language (Original Post)
WhiskeyGrinder
Friday
OP
dalton99a
(87,326 posts)1. Kick
Deuxcents
(21,368 posts)2. This is madness..are we safer now? How about her children? WTH have we become?
PoindexterOglethorpe
(27,490 posts)3. Sadly, this sort of thing happens all too often.
Over the years I've read several similar articles about someone living here their entire life, not a legal citizen, sent back to original country.
to me the really sad examples are children who were adopted from another country, but whose parents neglected to make sure they became citizens.
Initech
(104,202 posts)4. Tom Homan and Kristi Noem are truly beyond fucked in the head.
What a couple of absolutely deranged psychopaths.