Ice's deportations of south-east Asian refugees creating ripple effect' of trauma: I didn't get to say bye to my husband'

"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.'"

"Lor was among more than two dozen Hmong an ethnic group with roots in south-east Asia and Laotian immigrants deported to Laos on an 11 August flight, many of whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) described as heinous criminal illegal aliens. Lor spent three years behind bars after being convicted of property, drug and weapons crimes when he was 21. The operation was the latest in a wave of deportation flights that have roiled south-east Asian enclaves in the midwest and across the country."

A Hmong refugee born in a Thai camp was deported to Laos with only a driver's license and $65, despite never having lived there. He is treated as stateless and cannot open a U.S. bank account to receive funds. He survived on a few dollars a day and began sleeping on the streets, while his wife started a GoFundMe to find and support him. He served three years in prison for property, drug and weapons convictions from his early twenties. The deportation was part of a series of flights removing Southeast Asian immigrants, many labeled by ICE as criminal.

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