Milwaukee—A 37-year-old mother of five children ages 6-22 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 their home just purchased together in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Why was the Milwaukee Mother of 5 Deported?
In 2022, Ma Yang was charged for taking part in a marijuana trafficking operation. Her attorney misinformed her, claiming her guilty plea wouldn’t affect her immigration status. That was not 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 statement 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 wouldn’t happen, since only a small handful of people, if any, are deported to Laos each year, and Laos typically has refused to accept U.S. deportees.
She was reporting regularly for mandatory check-ins as a requirement of her release. She received a phone call instructing her to report for a check-in ahead of her next appointment. When she arrived, she was arrested by ICE agents and deported to Laos. In a previous story, we exposed a tactic being used where they call immigrants who had been attending mandatory check-ins to have them come in, then arresting them on the spot. They’ve done the same thing to individuals when they show up to scheduled asylum hearings.
Where is the 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 not 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 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 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 Biden Administration’s making it a priority when they first arrived at the White House in 2021). 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 been to. She now finds herself in a strange country, no family or friends, and knows that she can never return to the United States and see her children again.
Where will she live? How does she buy a home? How does she get a job without documentation in order to earn the money she needs to buy a home? Or food and other necessities? All of this in a strange country where she doesn’t speak the language.
Everyone must be aware of people like Ma Yang being deported by Trump and Tom Homan in order to juice the numbers. After finding out there weren’t enough violent criminals to match the fake numbers he gave his base, they’ve resorted to deporting people who don’t deserve it, like Mahmoud Khalil, arrested by ICE agents and the Department of Homeland Security for protesting for peace on a college campus a year before.
From Reporting in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who was able to speak with Ma Yang with the help of 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.
Zany Progressive feels for Ma Yang, Michael Bub, and their five children in Milwaukee. This never should have happened and we have called out the Trump Administration’s tactics of calling migrants to come in just so they can arrest and deport them. We’ve also called out the arrest and deportation of individuals who show up for scheduled asylum hearings. It is undemocratic and inhumane to punish/remove someone just as a judge is about to hear their claim of asylum.
If you know anyone who was deported by the Trump Administration without cause, we want you to tell your story. Contact us with the details.
Please share this story wherever you can so that more Americans know it isn’t “just the violent rapists and murderers” who are being kicked out. It’s also people who have been members of their communities, contributing to our economy.
Fight back against fascism. Protect our democracy before it’s too late.
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