Milwaukee—A 37-year-old mother of five ages 6-22 years was brought to the United States by her parents from Thailand when she was 8 months old. Ma Yang, who became a legal permanent resident at age 7, has lived and worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin her entire life.
Her partner of 16 years, Michael Bub, has had two brain surgeries and suffers from partial paralysis and memory loss. Ma Yang had been caring for him in the home they just purchased together in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Milwaukee Mother of 5 Deported
In 2022, Ma Yang was charged for taking part in a marijuana trafficking operation. Her attorney misinformed her, assuring her that a guilty plea wouldn’t affect her immigration status. That was’t the case.
After serving 2.5 years in prison for the charges, Yang was transferred to an ICE detention facility. Under her attorney’s advisement, she signed a document stating that a deportation order would be entered against her in exchange for her release.
Despite agreeing to be deported, she and her attorney believed it would never actually happen since only a small handful of people, if any, are deported to Laos each year. Laos normally refuses to accept U.S. deportees.
Yang was reporting for mandatory check-ins on a regular basis as a requirement of her release.
One day, she got a phone call instructing her to report for a check-in ahead of the next scheduled check-in appointment.
When she arrived, ICE agents arrested Yang and she was deported to Laos.
In a previous story, we exposed this tactic: ICE calls immigrants who were faithfully attending their mandatory check-ins, and tells them they need to come in that day.when they arrive, ICE agents arrest them on the spot. They've done the same thing to individuals who are showing up to scheduled asylum hearings.
“The United States sent me back to die. I don't even know where to go. I don't even know what to do.”
Where is Ma Yang Now?
Ma Yang said that, upon arrival, she was questioned by military officials in Laos before being taken to a rooming House in the capital city of Vientiane where she was’t allowed to leave or contact anyone for five days.
When a military official took her out to purchase a cell phone and withdraw cash, he told her she was free to leave anytime. Yang says she’s too afraid to venture out into Laos alone when she doesn't speak the language and military officials took all of her documentation when she arrived.
The 37-year-old Milwaukee mother of five doesn’t have access to the life-saving insulin she needs and is running dangerously low on blood pressure medication.
Alone in a country she’s never even been to, Ma Yang misses her partner, her children, and her grandchild.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Michael Bub is trying to make things work as a single father without his partner and caregiver. He’s been able to speak with Yang each day after the Laos military official took her out to buy a cellphone.
This is the family separation we warned would happen during President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. During his first term, children were taken away from their parents (thousands still have not been reunited despite the efforts of the Biden Administration. This time, parents are being taken away from their children.
It’s difficult to imagine the fear Ma Yang must be feeling. She grew up in the United States—the only country she's ever known. Now she’s in a strange, unfamiliar country, without family or friends, and she knows that she can never return to the United States to see her children again.
Where will she live? How will she buy a house or rent an apartment? How does she get a job without documentation? Without that she can’t earn the money needed to buy food, shelter, a vial of insulin?
All of this is happening in a strange country where she can't speak or understand the language.
Everyone should know that people like Ma Yang are being deported. Not the “worst of the worst.” They quickly discovered that there weren't enough violent criminals in the country to match the over-exaggerated numbers Trump gave his base.
Now they’ve resorted to deporting people who are innocent, law-abiding members of society: like Mahmoud Khalil, arrested by ICE agents and the Department of Homeland Security for protesting for peace on a college campus a year before.
The reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was able to speak with Ma Yang with help from her partner, Michael Bub:
"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.
If you know anyone who was deported by the Trump Administration without cause, we want to amplify your story. Contact us.
Fight back against fascism. Protect our democracy before it’s too late.
