Hmong refugee, born in refugee camp, deported to a country he's never been with $65 in his pockets

Ice’s deportations of south-east Asian refugees creating ‘ripple effect’ of trauma: ‘I didn’t get to say bye to my husband’
Administration’s targeting of group settled in the US after fleeing war in Vietnam creating further displacement


Wa Kong Lor, a Hmong refugee from the outskirts of Detroit, was deported to Laos last month with only a driver’s license and $65 in cash.

Lor had never set foot in Laos, where his parents fled after the end of the Vietnam war. Born in a Thai refugee camp, he’s considered stateless in the country, and unable to open a bank account to receive money from the US. For the past month, he’s been living off the $65, spending a couple of dollars a day on food, said his wife, Maiyia Xiong. He asked her not to tell his mother and four young children back in Michigan that he’s begun sleeping on the streets.

I didn’t even get to say bye to my husband,” Xiong said. “I didn’t even get to hug him and say, ‘Whatever you’re going through, you’ll be okay, we’ll get through this together.’”
Desperate, Xiong created a GoFundMe to raise money for a plane ticket to Laos so she could find Lor, personally deliver him money and help him find housing. She said it seemed particularly cruel that, while she’s struggling to financially support her husband, a portion of her earnings as a non-profit teaching assistant is being funneled toward the government’s immigration agenda.


“They’re using my tax money to deport my husband,” she said. “Why are we paying for our families to be deported?”

Ice’s deportations of south-east Asian refugees creating ‘ripple effect’ of trauma: ‘I didn’t get to say bye to my husband’ | Ice (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/29/ice-deportation-south-east-asians-vietnam-war