A Hmong American woman who is a mother of five has been deported from the Milwaukee area to Laos, a country she has never set foot in, according to a new report.
Ma Yang, 37, is being held in a rooming house in Laos, surrounded by military guards, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. She does not speak the language, knows no one, and says the military is holding all of her documents.
“The United States sent me back to die,” Yang told the outlet. “I don’t even know where to go. I don’t even know what to do.”
“How do I rent, or buy, or anything, with no papers?” she added. “I’m a nobody right now.”
The 37-year-old is also without insulin for her diabetes and is running out of her medication for high blood pressure.
Yang was born in Thailand and was a legal permanent US resident until she pleaded guilty to marijuana-related charges and served more than 2 years in prison. She took the plea deal after her attorney incorrectly stated it wouldn’t affect her legal permanent residency, which was later revoked, the Journal Sentinel reports.
Yang says she would’ve taken a longer sentence to keep her legal residency.
“I made a mistake and I know that it was wrong,” she told the outlet. “But I served the time for it already.”
After her sentence, Yang was taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Minnesota. There, a new attorney told her to sign a document that allowed her to leave but required her to agree that a deportation order would be entered against her, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Yang’s attorney believed she would never be deported, as the US typically deports a small number of people to the country each year and Laos has typically refused to accept deportees, the Journal Sentinel reports. Yang also thought her case would be re-opened because she had poor representation.
It wasn’t.
“I just keep getting screwed in this system,” Yang told the Journal Sentinel.
In February, ICE agents asked Yang to report to their Milwaukee facility. From there, she was detained, sent to Indiana, transferred to Chicago, and finally put on a series of flights to Laos.
Yang was removed from the US after President Donald Trump vowed to deport “millions and millions” and conduct the largest deportation operation in US history.
The Trump administration has been ramping up deportation efforts, and the president has even attempted to speed up their efforts by invoking the rarely-used Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Trump signed an executive order Saturday invoking the act, which is intended to be invoked when the country is at war or if a foreign nation has invaded the U.S. or has issued threats that they will.
However, Chief Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order on deportations under the wartime law on Saturday night. The order blocks the deportation of any non-citizens who are in custody and facing removal under the Alien Enemies Act for at least 14 days.
The Independent has contacted ICE for comment.
