Wisconsin Mom Deported by ICE to a Country She's Never Been: 'The US Sent Me to Die'

An American mother of five has been deported from Milwaukee to Laos—a country she had never set foot in until the forced move.

Ma Yang, 37, was born in a Thailand refugee camp to parents who fled the Vietnam war and, as a family, legally immigrated to the US when Yang was an infant. Now, Yang is stranded in a guarded rooming house in Laos where she cannot speak the language, has no access to insulin to treat her diabetes and has been stripped of identifying documents.

"The United States sent me back to die," Yang told the Milwaukie Journal Sentinel. "I don't even know where to go. I don't even know what to do."

In 2020, Yang lost her job during the pandemic and moved her family into a shared home that, according to federal prosecutors, participated in a marijuana trafficking operation. Yang was accused of helping to count and package cash mailed to out of state suppliers. Under her attorney's assurance that her immigration status would not be affected, Yang took a plea deal and served two and a half years in prison.

After Yang served her time, she was transferred to an ICE detention facility, where another attorney advised her to sign a document agreeing to deportation to Laos in exchange for release—under the assumption that Laos rarely accepted deportees.

In February, Yang was detained by ICE and deported to Laos within weeks. Yang says an officer forced her to sign a document stating she would not return to the US. "I just keep getting screwed in this system," Yang said.

Her removal came as Trump invoked the rarely-used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expedite deportations, though a federal judge has since issued a temporary restraining order blocking further removals under the wartime law.