Deporting Refugees

Over the weekend, I read this compelling WaPo coverage of the (not-yet-effectuated) deportation of Lue Yang.

Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. As an infant, he came to the United States with his family. They arrived as political refugees from Laos–members of the Hmong diaspora.

At 19, Yang was convicted of felony home invasion. Four years later, he was ordered deported. At the time, Laos was not accepting deportees. So Yang continued his life in the United States. His criminal record was ultimately expunged, and he had no further involvement with the criminal justice system. He got married and had six U.S. citizen children now aged 7-24.

Fast forward to September 2025.

Under pressure from President Trump and his tariffs, Laos is now accepting deportees. And while it has more than a quarter of a century since Yang's conviction, he has been slated for removal to a country he has never before stepped foot into.

The story jumped out at me because I am such a fan of co-editor Bill O. Hing's article Detention to Deportation - Rethinking the Removal of Cambodian Refugees, 38 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 891 (2005), as well as the related documentary Sentenced Home (2007). Both pieces follow the deportation of Cambodian refugees who, like Yang, came to the United States as infants, were convicted of crimes in their teens, and were ultimately deported back to Cambodia–the country their parents sought refuge from.

Every year that I have taught, I talk to students about Bill's article and the movie Sentenced Home. We discuss the morality of repatriating people who came to this country as infants and as refugees, back to the country of their family's persecution. Yang's story, unfortunately, shows that these remain live issues in our country.