U.S. lifts visa sanctions on Laos. What this means for Fresno’s Hmong, Laotian communities
The U.S. lifting visa sanctions against Laos brought some hope for Fresno County’s Southeast Asian communities earlier this week. But uncertainty remains for thousands of Hmong and Laotians, including many locally, who hold a deportation order and have been living in limbo.
In 2018, the Trump administration sanctioned Laos to pressure the country to take back its deportees. Talks between both governments intensified in early 2020, leaving many in Fresno’s large Hmong community in fear.
The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) called the Biden administration’s move a “victory for Southeast Asian American communities.” The civil rights organization said the Trump administration had used the sanctions against Laos as “a shameful tactic to pressure the country into increasing deportations from the United States.”
“This is great news for our local Southeast Asian community, especially for our Iu Mien, Hmong, Lao, and other Laotian communities living in the Central Valley,” Pao Yang, president and chief executive officer for the Fresno Center, told The Bee in an email. “The lifting of the visa sanctions against Laos is a huge relief for us. This will bring relief to many of us and help keep many war-torn Laotian families together.”
The immediate good news is for those in Laos who want to visit family and friends in the U.S., for people who are being sponsored to come to America through various immigration programs, and for students in Laos who want to take part in international exchange programs, Christine Barker, executive director for the Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM), said.
“None of that could happen while the sanctions were in place,” Barker said. “Now that the sanctions are lifted, they are able to have hope that they might be able to come, and it’s still going to take some time, but it’s possible for those visas to be processed now in a way that wasn’t last week.”
What the visa sanctions lift means for deportations
Thousands of Laotians and Hmong individuals, including many in Fresno, have held a final deportation order for years, but most haven’t been deported because Laos refuses to recognize them as its citizens. The majority have criminal convictions for which they already served time in jail or prison. Many of them came to the U.S. as refugees after what became known as the “Secret War.” Some arrived in the U.S. as children and have never been to Laos.
As of early 2020, there were a total of 4,716 Laotians with a final deportation order who were not in ICE’s custody.
As the U.S. and Lao governments remained in negotiations in early 2020 over a new repatriation agreement, the U.S. was already funding a reintegration program to assist people who have been deported to Laos in recent years.
As talks between both countries intensified two years ago, deportations came to a halt. Barker said Laos stopped taking deportees in March 2020 in part because it closed its borders as the pandemic was taking hold, and the country wasn’t letting anyone in.
“Laos closed its borders right before the deportation order was supposed to be enacted,” she said. “And very, very recently, like in the new year, slowly started reopening for tourism, for visits.”
But Barker said there “hasn’t been any official change in policy regarding deportation.”
A message published by the U.S. Embassy in Laos, however, says sanctions are still “in place for certain senior officials of the Lao PDR government, pending further cooperation with the United States with respect to accepting Lao PDR nationals designated for removal from the United States.”
The message also says the U.S. looks forward to further negotiations to speed up deportations to Laos.
“Obviously, as FIRM and as Christine, I don’t hope those conversations continue because I believe it is wrong to deport people, who came as refugees, back to the country that tried to kill them or their family,” she said. “But there hasn’t been a formally announced policy that deportations to Laos will begin.”
Barker said there are a number of local families impacted by deportation orders, and those families were “very concerned” when deportations were going to start before Laos closed its borders.
But she said families shouldn’t worry now, especially as the situation is still unclear. Families can reach out to FIRM for support. The organization has peer-support groups and one-on-one support available, she said.
“Deportations affect not only the individual at risk of deportation, but their whole family of U.S. citizens,” she said. “If people are extremely worried or dealing with anxiety or concern or depression due to the fear of loss of their loved one through deportation, they can also reach out to us.”
Quyên Đinh, executive director for SEARAC, said the lifting of some of the visa sanctions was a good step to move forward.
“This is an important step to ensuring that Laotian Americans can remain united in the nation that they call home with less pressure on their countries of origin to accept their removals,” Đinh said.
The visa sanctions against Laos followed similar sanctions against Cambodia in 2017. Sanctions there remain.
Deportations of Cambodians living in Fresno have already separated local families in recent years.
.jpg)