The family of a Milwaukee woman who was deported to Laos by the Trump administration earlier this month is raising funds to bring her back home to her five children.
Ma Yang, a 37-year-old Hmong-American, has been living in a government facility near the Laotian capital of Vientiane since arriving in the Southeast Asian country in the first week of March.
Yang claims to have never been to Laos or known anyone from the small landlocked Southeast Asian country, nestled between Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and a world away geographically, culturally and linguistically from the United States’ midwest.
Her longtime partner, Michael Bub, has launched a GoFundMe to bring Yang in what he described to be a "beloved mother, daughter, sister and fiancée back home where she belongs".
Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but gained legal status as a permanent US resident until she pleaded guilty to cannabis-related charges and served 30 months in a federal prison. Having taken a plea deal mistakenly believing that her green card would not be at risk, she is now one of the "millions and millions" of people Donald Trump pledged to kick out of America during his re-election campaign.
Activists supporting Yang's family in Milwaukee said Yang was "shaken" by the deportation and the prospect of starting her life from scratch in a new country but was "doing OK for the most part".
Mr Bub in a post on the fundraising website said Milwaukee is the only home Yang has ever known after arriving in the US at eight months old. "She built her life in Milwaukee, working hard as a nail technician and receptionist while raising five children, ages 6 to 22," he wrote, adding that she recently welcomed her first grandchild.
He added that Yang's 12 siblings were all born in the US after her parents fled the Vietnam war. "...the fact that she was born in a refugee camp made her a victim of 'stupid' birth circumstances".
Mr Bub added that the financial burden has been "overwhelming" and the family was raising money to cover her legal fees to "fight for her return home, her health care and medical expenses".
Yang has been living in Laos for the past weeks without any direct legal representation, The Independent has learned. According to immigration lawyer Jath Shao, even if is successful in overturning her deportation through the US legal system, she would most likely not be allowed back until at least the 2040s.
Yang told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Trump administration had "sent me back to die." "How do I rent, or buy, or anything, with no papers?" Yang said. "I'm a nobody right now."
It is not immediately clear why Laos accepted Yang's deportation despite her not being from the country.
The Laos national assembly is in the process of debating changes to the constitution to formally recognise the Lao diaspora, thereby strengthening ties with those who have acquired foreign citizenship after leaving the country during historical migrations. Though still at the draft stage, it could offer Yang a route to documentation in Laos at least.
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