The current Trump administration claims its mass deportation efforts have expelled nearly a million people through July of this year, but those include both voluntary returns and people turned around at the border, according to a new analysis by the former chief statistician for the Department of Homeland Security.

The level of deportations is sharply higher than during the Biden and first Trump administrations but well below the level of the 2000s. Deportations peaked at about 1.9 million in fiscal year 2000 as border enforcement ramped up under a sweeping immigration enforcement law in 1996.

Former DHS official Marc Rosenblum did the analysis, using only public records, for the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank for immigration research. Rosenblum resigned in protest in July against what he called the Trump administration’s “war on immigrants.” He had been with DHS since 2016 and executive director of the statistics office since 2023. 

Rosenblum emphasized in his analysis how many non-criminals have been either forcibly deported or pressured to leave voluntarily. Only 20% overall — and 28% of those in the U.S. for at least two years — have a criminal conviction.

“These data here do not suggest the administration is deporting the worst of the worst,” Rosenblum said.  

Even among convicted criminals, he added, the records were more likely to be immigration or traffic infractions rather than violent or other more serious crimes. 

DHS officials have maintained that living in the country illegally is enough reason to be deported. Tom Homan, the administration’s so-called border czar, told a Florida audience Oct. 1 that deportations have ramped up this fall and will be even higher in 2027. He was speaking to a Hispanic leadership event near Miami sponsored by the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

“Mass deportation is happening,” Homan said. “I think September’s going to be the highest deportations of any month in the history of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Right now we’ve arrested more people than in the history of this nation.” 

He added later, “Wait until you see what we do next year.”

Rosenblum tallied 980,000 deportations, including arrangements to leave voluntarily after arrest, during the second Trump administration through July 31, about 18 months. About 300,000 had been arrested inside the United States, but most deportations were from the U.S. border with Mexico. There, 680,000 people were either turned around at the border or arrested at the border and deported after processing. 

The number of people leaving the country without being arrested is disputed — DHS earlier this year claimed more than 2.2 million “self-deportations,” apparently based on a decline in immigrant population in surveys. Others dispute that number, saying it’s more likely immigrants are avoiding government surveys. 

In his analysis, Rosenblum estimated the number of immigrants leaving of their own accord — not including people who had formal agreements to leave voluntarily — at between 310,000 and 1.5 million for immigrants who had been here at least a year. The departures include legal immigrants and those who had been living here illegally. 

Rosenblum’s estimate of departures, other than deportation, is imprecise, relying on Mexican census data on its returning citizens to estimate a “plausible level of departures” for other nationalities. 

The numbers in his analysis include people making arrangements to leave voluntarily rather than continue their court cases or contest a return at the border, about 170,000.  It may not include some people who came forward voluntarily to claim financial assistance to leave from the Project Homecoming program. 

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

WASHINGTON — Immigrants living in the United States with humanitarian status from Ukraine and Sudan will retain their deportation protections and work authorizations for now, the Department of Homeland Security said over the weekend. 

More than 100,000 Ukrainians and roughly 2,000 Sudanese with Temporary Protected Status will keep their protections until “such an announcement is made,” the agency said.

It’s the same move the Trump administration made as the deadline for TPS renewal for more than 200,000 Salvadorans approached last month. 

While immigrants with TPS from El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine will have deportation protections, it places more than 300,000 people in limbo because it’s not clear how long the protections will last.

“Families who depend on this status to stay safe and keep working deserve a formal decision in writing, not a weekend statement to press,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, which helps resettle refugees and advocates for immigrants, said in a statement. “Keeping protections in place is the right call, but a promise to a reporter is not a policy.” 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has not indicated if DHS will renew protections for those TPS recipients who were granted the designation because they hail from countries deemed too dangerous for return.

Ukrainians received TPS in 2022 after Russia invaded their country and Sudanese were granted the designation several times, most recently in 2022, because of an ongoing civil war. The State Department currently has a do-not-travel advisory, its highest advisory level, for Ukraine and Sudan.

If no decision is made, an automatic six-month extension kicks in, based on the TPS statute. But DHS has not confirmed whether any such extension is in place for Salvadorians, Sudanese or Ukrainians. 

After Monday, the last remaining country with TPS will be Lebanon, which is set to expire Nov. 27.

The second Trump administration has moved to wind down the TPS program established by Congress in the 1990s. The Supreme Court cleared the way for that initiative after it ruled this summer that decisions from the executive branch regarding a TPS designation are not subject to judicial review. 

So far, more than 1 million immigrants who have TPS have been stripped of their legal protections from the 17 countries that initially had the designation at the start of the second Trump administration.

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the U.S. House condemned a “deeply disturbing” raid early Monday at the District of Columbia home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who has long been a target of verbal attacks by President Donald Trump and Republicans.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., called the morning raid by Department of Homeland Security officials “egregious.”

The House minority leaders said the search of Omar’s home “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”

“For years Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar said in a statement posted on social media Monday. “Now, less than 30 days before the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”

Omar, a Somali-born American and one of four Muslims in Congress, represents a deep-blue district.

Fox News first published a report on the raid just after 7:30 a.m. Eastern, and cited two sources who told the network the operation was related to an investigation of Omar’s immigration paperwork. Omar was resettled as a refugee in the United States with her family at the age of 12 in 1995 and was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen.

A Department of Justice official, asked for comment on the raid, told States Newsroom: “Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

Omar said in a post on social media Monday that she “will not be silenced.” 

“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she wrote on X.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrote in a statement on X that the president is “grossly abusing his power.”

“He has repeatedly attacked her, Somali Americans, and Minnesotans. @Ilhan has done nothing to justify a pre-dawn raid ahead of the election. I stand with my sister always,” Tlaib wrote.

Trump, without evidence, has accused Omar of being connected to a $242 million fraud scheme involving pandemic-era funds meant for hunger programs, as well as other fraud investigations in the state, and has called for her to be deported.

“There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Jan 18.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted, for now, the Trump administration’s request to continue rapid third-country deportation of immigrants to countries not their own. 

The decision will allow the Trump administration to carry out its aggressive deportation method of quickly removing immigrants to one of the countries — some with human rights concerns — the administration has agreements with to take third-country removals from the United States. 

The high court will hear oral arguments in December, and directed the parties to answer several questions including if the district court has jurisdiction over the issue, if the lower court can deliver classwide relief and whether the Trump administration’s rapid third-country removal policy is lawful. Tuesday’s order will remain in effect until the justices reach a decision in the case.

The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, noted they would have denied the emergency request.

The lower court’s order did not bar third-country removals, but prevented the deportation from occurring unless adequate time was given for a noncitizen to verify that they would not face harm in the third country.

Third-country removals are when a noncitizen is deported from the U.S. to a nation other than that person’s home country. It occurs when the home country of a person with a removal order from the U.S. does not accept the person’s repatriation. 

A district court and appeals court found that immigrants must have an opportunity to challenge their removal to a country where they do not have citizenship if they fear for their safety or if they might be returned to their home country where they could experience harm.

WASHINGTON — Most judges on a federal appeals court seemed inclined during oral arguments Tuesday to allow a federal judge to continue investigating Trump officials for possible criminal contempt-of-court charges for defying a judicial order by sending more than 100 Venezuelan men to a brutal Salvadoran prison last year.  

The administration is challenging if U.S. District Judge James Boasberg can continue a contempt investigation after the Justice Department said former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was the sole official responsible for violating Boasberg’s oral and written orders.

Ending an inquiry would be “unfair” to Noem, “who might be a sacrificial lamb because you have picked who you want to go forward,” Judge J. Michelle Childs said. 

The case stems from a proclamation that President Donald Trump signed in March 2025 that invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to rapidly deport Venezuelan males 14 years and older who were suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang. 

The American Civil Liberties Union sued to stop several deportation flights of 137 Venezuelans, and Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order to stop the removals. But the flights landed in El Salvador and the men were detained at a brutal mega-prison known as CECOT for four months before being released in a prison exchange with Venezuela. 

The Department of Justice has only identified Noem as the official who decided to allow the planes to land in El Salvador despite the restraining order.

Boasberg is trying to identify other government officials who may also bear responsibility. The ACLU has argued the officials who provided legal advice, including now-Attorney General Todd Blanche, should be included.

All judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit participated in the rare full-court review. 

They are: Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Patricia A. Millett, Cornelia T.L. Pillard, Robert L. Wilkins, Gregory G. Katsas, Neomi Rao, Justin R. Walker, Childs, Florence Y. Pan, Bradley N. Garcia, Harry T. Edwards, Douglas H. Ginsburg, A. Raymond Randolph and Judith W. Rogers.

Former President Jimmy Carter nominated Edwards; former President Ronald Regan nominated Henderson and Ginsburg; former President George H.W. Bush nominated Randolph; former President Bill Clinton nominated Rogers; former President Barack Obama nominated Srinivasan, Millett, Pillard and Wilkins; Trump nominated Katsas, Rao and Walker in his first term and former President Joe Biden nominated Childs, Pan and Garcia.

Judge not a prosecutor, DOJ says

Representing the Trump administration, Brett A. Shumate, the assistant attorney general leading the DOJ’s Civil Division, argued that Boasberg does not have the authority to investigate possible criminal contempt charges and that role is only for a prosecutor. 

“District judges do not investigate or prosecute crimes,” Shumate said. “That’s a role for a prosecutor, and so the purpose of the investigation at this point is no longer, let’s figure out who the decisionmaker was. It is now, let’s probe the mental state of senior government officials.”

Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the March 2025 order from Boasberg clearly prohibited the Trump administration from transferring the Venezuelan men to CECOT, and that Boasberg should be allowed to conduct his preliminary inquiry to identify any other potential official who violated his ruling.  

“The oral order was crystal clear,” Gelernt said. 

Blance, Bove provided legal advice

Boasberg’s inquiry involves Blanche and Emil Bove, who were both high-ranking DOJ officials at the time. Bove is a judge in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Blanche and Bove gave legal advice to Joseph Mazzara, then the acting general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, who informed Noem of Boasberg’s oral and written temporary restraining order that blocked the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. 

“After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the (Alien Enemies Act) detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador,” according to a filing by DOJ.

According to a June 2025 whistleblower account, Bove told a group of attorneys at the department before the Venezuelan men were removed, that the deportations would still occur and “we may have to say f— you to the courts,” if an order blocking the removals was issued by a judge. 

Before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to become a judge, Bove denied the June 2025 whistleblower account.

Boasberg also wants to hear testimony from the whistleblower, then-DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, and Drew Ensign, a DOJ attorney who appeared before him in March 2025.

More facts needed

Shumate argued Tuesday that Boasberg already had the information he needed, and that the DOJ already noted that Noem was the government official who ordered the planes to continue to El Salvador.

Childs disagreed and said that there could be officials in that decisionmaking process other than Noem.

Shumate said that all Boasberg had asked the federal government was who made the decision.

“We’ve provided that information, but somehow that’s no longer good enough,” he said. 

Millett agreed with Childs that there seemed to be multiple people involved in the decision that Noem made. 

“It’s clear from the declarations that she was receiving legal advice from a number of people within the Justice Department,” Millett said. “Now, if an attorney providing legal advice to the secretary were to tell the secretary, ‘you have the legal authority to f-expletive the court order on this and go ahead and disembark people,’ might it be accurate that that attorney would just as well be in contempt of court as the secretary, potentially?” 

Shumate said that would “depend on the facts.”

“Well, then the district court has to ask some more questions,” she said.

WASHINGTON — An appeals panel Friday seemed inclined to agree that more than 100 Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador are entitled to due process hearings to challenge their removal, which was made under an archaic 18th-century wartime law. 

Arguing on behalf of the class of men who were removed under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union told the three-judge panel that the men, who were accused of being suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, were entitled to hearings to challenge those accusations. 

But instead, Gelernt said, the men were denied their due process rights and spent four months in a brutal Salvadoran prison. 

The men were eventually returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap exchange, but many who had pending asylum cases want to challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act and continue their immigration proceedings.

He said the Trump administration is asking for the ability to “essentially whisk people away to a foreign prison, give them no opportunity to contest the removal, even whether they’re part of this gang that this proclamation applies to… and then say, ‘Because we got them out of the country into a foreign prison, that’s the end of the matter.’” 

DOJ argues against due process

The Trump administration argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the Venezuelan men are not entitled to due process hearings.

Department of Justice attorney Tiberius Davis said that the United States had no custody over the 137 Venezuelan men removed to the Salvadoran mega-prison known as CECOT, and therefore the immigrants are not entitled to hearings in the U.S. 

He added that it would be impractical for the Trump administration to conduct more than 100 online hearings abroad. 

“It’s a real problem with foreign sovereignty to hold hearings, and take evidentiary hearings, in foreign countries, even at our own embassies,” Davis said. “That can be a real problem. So we would have to engage in diplomacy and foreign affairs in order to even do that much.”

March 2025 origins

The case began when President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March 2025 to rapidly deport Venezuelan immigrants. 

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued the Trump administration an order to return several deportation planes to the U.S., but instead they landed at CECOT. The U.S. paid El Salvador up to $6 million to detain the men.

On Monday, there is a separate hearing where Boasberg will hear arguments as to whether several Trump officials should be held in contempt for violating his order by not returning the planes carrying men removed under the Alien Enemies Act, including possible criminal contempt charges against Attorney General Todd Blanche and an appellate judge, Emil Bove. 

Judge expresses doubt

Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards seemed skeptical of the Trump administration’s arguments that the U.S. had no custody over the men while at CECOT. Edwards was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter. 

“It seems pretty clear … that the U.S. was fully engaged and kept itself in a position of control throughout,” Edwards said.

Davis disagreed and said that diplomacy was involved and pointed to how Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to engage with El Salvador’s president to bring back one of the men sent to CECOT, Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully removed to his home country.

“I think the district court sort of swept away those foreign affairs concerns,” Davis said.  

Gelernt said it was harder to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia because he was a citizen of El Salvador. 

“He’s not part of our class. El Salvador clearly had an interest in their own nationals,” Gelernt said. “They have no interest in these Venezuelans, other than collecting a paycheck.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Thursday made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow for rapid third-country deportations of noncitizens to continue, after an appeals court blocked the policy last week.

In a brief, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to temporarily halt the appeals court’s order. The court panel struck down an administration policy that quickly removed noncitizens to countries where they do not have citizenship.

The appeals decision found that immigrants must have an opportunity to challenge their removal if they fear for their safety.

Sauer argued that a stay, or pause, is needed because the lower court’s decision to block the policy interferes in diplomatic relations with countries that have agreed to accept citizens that are not their own. 

“Third-country removals require careful negotiation with foreign governments, which are rarely enthusiastic about accepting foreign citizens (especially criminals), and often requires obtaining travel documents and devoting significant manpower to the staging of flights to protect government officers and flight crews,” he wrote. 

“Disruption of those plans thus imposes massive costs on the government and invariably requires new rounds of diplomatic engagement with countries who may be all the more skeptical of our removal efforts given the disruption,” Sauer said.

Third-country removals, deportations from the United States to a nation other than an immigrant’s home country, occur when the home country does not accept the person’s repatriation. 

This is the second time the Trump administration has taken an emergency request to the high court regarding third-country removals. The Supreme Court in June 2025 temporarily allowed for the removals to continue, before sending the case back to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 

Last week’s decision from the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit did not bar the Trump administration from carrying out removals to third countries but it provided for a longer process. 

It allowed immigration officers to still conduct third-country removals if they follow the proper procedures, such as adequate notice and an opportunity for an immigrant to raise a fear-based claim about being taken to that country of removal.

The Supreme Court ordered the parties to submit briefs by Monday. 

WASHINGTON — Government investigators Thursday released a report that found the Department of Homeland Security wasted more than $20 million in federal funding in its rapid expansion of immigration detention, including warehouse purchases strongly opposed in numerous U.S. communities.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that millions were wasted because DHS began expanding detention operations without putting a plan in place to meet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s goal of detaining up to 100,000 immigrants. 

As the second Trump administration aims to deport 1 million immigrants a year, DHS has rapidly increased the numbers of people in immigration detention after congressional Republicans last year approved roughly $175 billion for immigration enforcement.

“As ICE spends the unprecedented multi-year detention funding provided by (the One Big Beautiful Act) and the Secure America Act, it is critical that the agency uses these taxpayer dollars efficiently and effectively,” according to the report by the watchdog agency. “In the absence of a comprehensive strategic plan to guide detention expansion, ICE has wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives and lacks important information about the long-term affordability of its investments.” 

Tents assembled, never used

In the report, GAO found those detention expansion efforts wasted millions by using facilities that were high in cost or impractical, such as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, which is so remote that water needs to be imported to the base, making it a costly operation. 

Inspectors with the Department of Defense and Department of State estimated that DOD spent $2.85 million to assemble tents that were never used and that ICE obligated $43 million from the start of fiscal year 2025 to June 30, 2026 for a small population at the base. GAO found that 16 noncitizens were held on average daily at Guantanamo in fiscal year 2026. 

Other efforts that lacked proper planning also included domestic military operations, such as the soft-sided facility, Camp East Montana, built on a military base in El Paso, Texas.

GAO previously reported that ICE wasted more than $11 million in taxpayer funds in operating Camp East Montana, such as paying for meals when detainees had not yet arrived at the facility. Investigators noted that ICE had awarded another contract in March for Camp East Montana and “as of August 2026 had not yet incorporated these cost saving measures into the contract and continued to pay for services that it did not need.”

Warehouses cost more than $1B

Investigators also examined the purchase of 11 warehouses at $1.07 billion for the purpose of immigration detention. 

The initiative was initially undertaken by former Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, but she stepped down following the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis who were shot by immigration officials. Her replacement, former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, paused the warehouse effort. 

DHS now plans to sell seven of the sites that were purchased. Investigators said the department’s change of course has led to nonrecoverable costs, such as $7.7 million spent in zoning assessments and title insurance. 

Additionally, ICE is still paying for utilities, security and other services at the warehouses it intends to sell, costing approximately $12.8 million as of last month.

Investigators also warned that ICE’s separate move to purchase $1.5 billion in existing detention facilities has the potential to waste money because the agency has not assessed any long-term costs of operating the facilities. 

And GAO notes that while ICE did not have an agreement with the state of Florida to reimburse funds for its soft-sided facility, the now shuttered “Alligator Alcatraz,” DHS used funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to award $608.4 million to the state. 

No idea of long-term cost

Investigators also raised concerns that ICE has not made an assessment for the long-term cost of operating the expanded detention facilities. 

“ICE has not projected the costs of these facilities beyond the first 3 years of operation, after which ICE will no longer have OBBBA and Secure America Act funds available for obligation because these funds are only available through fiscal year 2029,” according to the report. 

Investigators made a recommendation that the Director of ICE “should develop a comprehensive strategic plan to guide its detention expansion efforts that includes goals, activities, and resource needs.”

GAO reported that the department agreed and that ICE would develop a strategic plan for its detention expansion, but that plan will not be completed until Aug. 31, 2027. 

“Given ICE’s unprecedented multi-year detention funding and the potential for continued waste of taxpayer dollars, more timely completion may be warranted,” according to the report. 

Congressional Democrats requested that GAO do the study. 

Those lawmakers include Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, ranking member on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Dick Durbin of Illinois, ranking member on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Friday struck down the Trump administration’s policy to quickly send noncitizens to countries they are not from, finding that immigrants must have an opportunity to challenge their removal if they fear for their safety.

The decision largely upheld a Boston federal judge’s February ruling that found the Department of Homeland Security’s policy unlawful. But the immigration officers can still conduct third-country removals if they follow the proper procedures, such as adequate notice and an opportunity for an immigrant to raise a fear-based claim to that country of removal.

Third-country removals, deportations from the United States to a nation other than an immigrant’s home country, occur when the immigrant’s home country does not accept the person’s repatriation. 

Once rare, the procedure has spiked under the second Trump administration that has entered into partnerships with several countries, some with human rights concerns, to take third-country removals from the U.S.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit also raised doubts that a country that accepts a person that is not their own citizen could “credibly provide blanket assurances that all removed noncitizens will not be persecuted or tortured there unless it intends to provide them with some sort of affirmative protection against rogue agents and non-state actors.” 

The panel also upheld the lower court’s finding that the notice to a third country was inadequate – about 24 hours – and that the policy was unlawful.

It gives “no notice at all of an impending third-country removal when the country to which the noncitizen is to be removed has provided credible (in the State Department’s judgment) diplomatic assurances that noncitizens removed there from the United States will not be persecuted or tortured,” the panel wrote.

The panel included circuit judges Lara E. Montecalvo, Jeffrey R. Howard and Seth R. Aframe. Former President Joe Biden nominated Montecalvo and Aframe. Former President George W. Bush nominated Howard.

The Trump administration in May 2025 made an emergency request to the Supreme Court after U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy blocked the policy. The Supreme Court in June 2025 temporarily allowed for the removals, before sending it back to the lower court. 

Murphy again in February issued an order that blocked the policy and required DHS to carry out the statutory obligations of proper notice of removal to a third country and to give a noncitizen enough time to raise any concerns for their safety to their removal to a third country. 

The Trump administration later appealed to the First Circuit, and could appeal again to the Supreme Court. 

DHS did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment Friday. 

WASHINGTON — The White House Thursday withdrew the nomination of Richard “Lance” Schroyer to lead the agency the president tasked with carrying out his mass deportation campaign, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, had yet to have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. 

The chair of the committee, GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, had no objections to Schroyer’s nomination, his office said in an email to States Newsroom. 

The White House did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment. The withdrawal was announced in a brief statement on the White House website along with those of several other nominees.

The Trump administration nominated Schroyer on June 27. He worked to establish Oklahoma’s law enforcement partnership with the federal government to assist with immigration enforcement in the 287g program, and is a close ally of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who previously served as Oklahoma’s U.S. senator. 

Schroyer also worked in law enforcement for nearly 30 years.

The current acting director of ICE is David Venturella, a longtime federal immigration official and former vice president of the private prison company GEO that rakes in billions through federal contracts by detaining immigrants at its facilities across the country. 

He took over in May after former acting ICE director Todd Lyons stepped down, following the shooting of two U.S. citizens by immigration officials in Minneapolis earlier this year.

The White House has not announced a replacement for Schroyer. The last time the Senate confirmed someone to lead ICE was 11 years ago. 

Four in 10 pediatricians reported kids in immigrant families are avoiding coming in for healthcare out of concerns around immigration status, according to a new survey published Tuesday.

More than 1,600 pediatricians responded between April and June to the survey by American Academy of Pediatrics researchers.

In the survey, pediatricians were asked whether over the past year, their patients or the families they care for avoided seeking medical care for their child due to concerns around the immigration status of a household member. They were also asked the same about sending kids to school and about applying for safety net programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program or food stamps. 

On average, pediatricians reported that about a quarter of their patients are in immigrant families. Forty percent of pediatricians reported those families avoided seeking medical care for their child out of concern for the patient or family’s immigration status. 

Thirty-one percent of the surveyed physicians reported immigrant families avoided applying for government programs. Just over a fifth reported that families had avoided sending their child to school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said the findings are likely an undercount and that more children are likely going without care.

Stateline reported this month that many clinicians are seeing more advanced illnesses among kids of immigrants, as well as skipped preventive care and forgone surgeries amid immigration status fears.

In the survey, answers varied across different service areas and subspecialities. For example, nearly 45% of pediatricians with subspecialities and almost half — 48% — of urban, inner city pediatricians said families retreated from seeking medical care for their child, versus 32% of rural pediatricians surveyed.

In January of last year, the Trump administration rescinded Biden- and Obama-era restrictions on places where immigration agents generally could not arrest people, such as hospitals, clinics and schools. 

In 2024, a quarter of children nationwide were in immigrant families with one or both parents born in another country, with the percentages varying by state, the researchers noted.

Healthcare professionals have also raised concerns about a new federal policy that goes into effect Friday. It broadens the discretion of immigration officers reviewing applications for green cards, certain visas or admissions into the U.S., allowing officers to consider enrollment in public benefits — such as housing and food assistance, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program — as a “public charge,” which is grounds for inadmissibility under federal law. 

“Pediatricians have long spoken out against changes to the public charge policy because we know that it leaves families fearful of accessing programs and services that are critical for their health and well-being,” Dr. Sural Shah, chair of the academy’s Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health, said during a news conference on the policy last week.

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

WASHINGTON —  Temporary protected status for 170,000 Salvadorans is set to expire at midnight Wednesday, but the Department of Homeland Security said protections will remain in place until the Trump administration makes a decision to extend or terminate El Salvador’s designation, in place since 2001.

“An announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email to States Newsroom. “Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection.”

Based on the temporary protected status statute, if a determination to extend or terminate a country’s protections is not made by the government by the expiration of the deadline, then TPS is automatically extended for six months.

If the Trump administration does make a determination to end protections, then Salvadorans will have 60 days to leave the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has not indicated his plans for El Salvador’s temporary legal protections. Additionally, there is no notice in Wednesday’s Federal Register or a preview of Thursday’s edition regarding TPS for El Salvador. 

On Tuesday, White House border czar Tom Homan said the decision would be up to Mullin, but added that El Salvador is now much safer than when its previous designation was made in 2001. 

If TPS is terminated for nationals for El Salvador, they will be the latest large group of immigrants to lose their legal status in the country as President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle the program Congress created for people who hail from countries deemed too dangerous for return. 

The Supreme Court has accelerated that move. The court’s conservative majority this summer determined that the TPS statute does not allow decisions on country designations, terminations and extensions to be subject to judicial review. 

Before the start of the second Trump administration, 17 countries had TPS, totaling to about 1.3 million immigrants with legal status. 

Now, if TPS for El Salvador ends, only three countries will remain: Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine. 

TPS is granted to nationals who hail from a country experiencing a natural disaster, violence, or other extreme circumstances, allowing them to remain in the U.S. and obtain work permits that last for six-to-18-month cycles. 

Each renewal process requires a TPS holder to go through a background check and pay hundreds of dollars in fees as well as undergo other vetting.  

If TPS ends for El Salvador, it could stymie the country’s economy, where more than a quarter of its gross domestic product relies on money sent back to the country from Salvadorans in the U.S., known as remittances. 

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, also has a close relationship with the Trump administration, ranging from accepting deportees that are not Salvadoran into his country to visiting the president at the White House.

In 2019, Bukele asked the first Trump administration to extend TPS protections, not because El Salvador was unsafe, but because the end of designation would break apart families in the U.S. 

Bukele has not made any recent public calls for the Trump administration to continue TPS for Salvadorans. 

WASHINGTON — For years, Jose Palma has advocated for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status who hail from countries deemed too unstable for return.

But as the Trump administration has stripped those humanitarian protections for nearly a million people, the Salvadoran national is uncertain if his own legal status will remain in place next week. 

“I’m going day by day,” Palma, who lives in Texas, told States Newsroom in an interview. 

Within two years under the Trump administration, the bipartisan humanitarian Temporary Protected Status program created by Congress in 1990 and signed into law by former Republican President George H.W. Bush has been nearly obliterated.

Palma first obtained TPS in 2001, along with roughly 170,000 recipients from El Salvador, due to several earthquakes that displaced more than one-sixth of the population and left thousands dead. The United States renewed protections over the years, citing continued displacement and ongoing violence.

But the TPS designation for El Salvador is set to expire Sept. 9, and the Department of Homeland Security has made no indication if protections will be renewed. 

Under DHS policy, an announcement typically is made 60 days in advance of the date of a TPS expiration if a renewal is planned. 

Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who helped write the statute for TPS when he was a congressional staffer, said he’s asked Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to renew protections for El Salvador.

“I still haven’t received a response back,” McGovern said during a Thursday press conference at the U.S. Capitol. He was joined by Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon, who said many Salvadoran TPS recipients work and live in his Omaha district. 

DHS did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment. 

The Trump administration’s position on the program is that it’s “temporary,” and that country conditions have improved, despite warnings from the State Department to not travel to some of those countries where TPS designation has ended, such as Haiti.

If TPS for El Salvador ends, only 103,000 out of initially 1.3 million recipients from around the globe will have protections: 150 from Lebanon, 1,790 from Sudan and 101,150 from Ukraine.

Supreme Court decision

TPS is granted to nationals who hail from a country experiencing a natural disaster, violence, or other extreme circumstances, allowing them to remain in the U.S. and obtain work permits. 

Some protections can last through six-to-18-month cycles, and each renewal process requires a TPS holder to go through a background check and other vetting.  

Before the second Trump administration, 17 countries were in the program. Only four, including El Salvador, remain as the White House has forged ahead aggressively on its mass deportation campaign. 

The Supreme Court made the move easier after it ruled this summer that decisions from the executive branch to end TPS were not subject to judicial review. The order meant that lower courts that initially blocked the Trump administration from ending the designations had to reverse their decisions.

Now recipients face the end of TPS with just 60 days’ notice.

“It’s one of those things that is kind of cruel, to have families who are stable and have been stable for decades, to have people who have been doing everything the government asked them to do for 25 years, and suddenly, if the decision is to end TPS, provided only 60 days protection before forcing people to go back to a country they haven’t been for decades,” Palma said. 

One of the first countries after TPS was written into law to receive the designation was El Salvador. 

Stripping TPS from Salvadorans would not only harm the U.S. economy, but it would also negatively impact El Salvador’s fragile economy, advocates predict. More than one quarter of El Salvador’s Gross Domestic Product comes from family members sending money back to relatives in their country of origin, known as remittances. 

“El Salvador’s economy has been built thanks to all the remittances,” said Ana María Méndez-Dardón, the director for Central America at the Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA.  “So if people are returning, that would have a huge impact because the economy depends on the money that people from El Salvador living in the U.S. send to El Salvador.”

The spending also has an impact in the United States. Salvadoran TPS recipients contribute $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy and pay $1.5 billion in federal, state and local taxes, according to the immigration advocacy research group FWD.us. 

About 152,000 TPS recipients from El Salvador are in the workforce, mainly in construction, manufacturing, building and transportation.

Attempts in Congress

TPS does not create a pathway to citizenship and a recipient can only apply for it when the country receives its designation. 

Some TPS recipients can apply for asylum if they qualify, or others could apply to adjust their status to that of a lawful permanent resident, or green-card holder, through a family-based or employer-based petition. 

Congress has made some effort to extend TPS for some recipients. Earlier this year, the House passed a bill to extend TPS for up to 350,000 Haitians on a bipartisan basis, but it’s stalled in the upper chamber. 

Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen attempted to advance a bill in the Senate to create a legal pathway to citizenship for immigrants with TPS, but was blocked by Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt. 

McGovern said Thursday that there is a bipartisan push to extend protections for TPS recipients. Proof of that was Bacon’s presence at the press conference.

“What good is it to force out folks who’ve been here legally, who are working, who are part of our community?” Bacon said. “It does no one any good.”

Human rights in El Salvador

Many Salvadorian TPS recipients are worried about being forced back to El Salvador, where human rights groups have raised concerns about the authoritarian government of President Nayib Bukele, said WOLA’s Méndez-Dardón.

WOLA is a research and advocacy group that aims to advance human rights in North and South America. It has documented how Bukele’s political party has suspended due process rights and has carried out a mass incarceration of suspected gang members in an effort to reduce crime and murders. 

More than 90,000 Salvadorans have been jailed without due process and hundreds have died in prisons and altogether disappeared, human rights groups have reported.

“So for Salvadorians who might be returned, the risk no longer are the criminal groups or the gangs because many of them fled the country because of the security situation,” Méndez-Dardón said. “But although the gangs are no longer the threat, now the threat is the state.” 

Bukele has met with President Donald Trump several times at the White House and has a years-long working relationship with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who last year granted El Salvador the highest possible safety rating for travel, a level 1. 

In 2024, the State Department gave El Salvador a level 3 advisory, warning people to reconsider travel because of security and safety concerns.

The Trump administration also last year made a deal with the Salvadoran government to pay up to $6 million to detain hundreds of Venezuelans at a brutal mega-prison. In the high-profile case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland Salvadoran who was mistakenly deported to the mega prison, lawyers documented mental and physical torture he experienced while there. 

“People are basically under a constant fear of being detained by the security forces,” Méndez-Dardón said. 

U.S. citizen children

Palma, who also attended the press conference, said he, along with other Salvadoran TPS recipients, are concerned about El Salvador’s government.

“So crime has gone down, but now abuses to human rights have increased,” he said. “That is concerning, because it’s also the government is becoming more aggressive against opposition, public media.”

Palma questioned if El Salvador would have the infrastructure to accept as many as 200,000 Salvadorans, made up of the TPS recipients and their families. Many have U.S. citizen children. 

Palma, who has four U.S. citizen children, said two of his kids are still in primary school. One is 11 and another is 8 years old. 

“This is their country,” he said of his four children. “They are from here. But if I were to lose the TPS protection and I were to be forced to go back to El Salvador, it’s not just affecting me. It’s affecting the whole family. That’s kind of like the situation that so many people across the country are going through right now.”

Supporting her mom

There are roughly 150,000 U.S. citizen children who have a parent who is a Salvadoran TPS recipient, according to the National TPS alliance. 

Cristel Argueta is one of those children. At 20 years old, she’s a college student at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. But on Thursday, she missed four classes relating to her criminology and criminal justice degree to travel to the nation’s capital and advocate for an extension to TPS for El Salvador. 

“I’m missing class to be here, but it’s worth it because it’s for my family,” she said.

Her mother, a TPS holder from El Salvador, came to the U.S. when she was 19, fleeing the civil war that lasted from 1979 until 1992. Her mother was able to get TPS in 2001.

“She has been in this country longer than she has been in El Salvador,” Argueta said. “TPS was started by Salvadorans, and I don’t want to lose my mother.” 

She’s hoping her mother’s TPS is extended until at least Argueta’s 21st birthday, when Argueta will be able to become a sponsor and apply to change her mother’s status to that of a lawful permanent resident. 

“No one should be going through this at any age,” she said. “Seeing the difference in my peers at school who are 20 years old, waiting to turn 21, to get that first legal drink or go party, but I want to turn 21 just to give my mom a legal status. A permanent legal status.”

Reading Time: 12 minutes

Yaay Yang held onto his 3-year-old brother King’s hand as the two walked home on a sunny June afternoon. Their mom had caught King playing in a muddy puddle and asked the eldest of her five boys to escort him home for a change of clothes. 

A few blocks away, Yaay’s relatives sat under a pavilion at Lorraine Park in South St. Paul, waiting for his return so they could celebrate his high school graduation.

“I do understand it … being the role model,” Yaay, 17, said on the walk home. “It’s what I have to do. Even if I’m really not the best, I still want to be a good one for them.” 

Yaay’s life turned upside down five months ago when his dad, Zong Yang, 48, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in February. Yaay, who also goes by his middle name Aden, found himself stepping into his father’s shoes. His mother, Linda Yang, became a single parent overnight, raising five sons without Zong – King, 3; Titan, 7; Everest, 8; Kenji, 15; Yaay, 17.

“I don’t want to disappoint them,” Yaay said of his younger brothers.  

Days after his dad was detained, he started falling behind in school. He eventually bounced back and started caring for his brothers after school. He’s taken on more house chores and cooks for his brothers.

“Admittedly, I’m not that good,” he said of his cooking skills, a slight smile on his face.

Zong had impressed on Yaay the importance of being a strong leader for his brothers long before federal immigration agents flooded Minnesota in late 2025.

“He wants to make sure that I’m ready, and that I have everything all figured out,” Yaay said. “I know that he does care deep down, and I do see that with myself too.”  

Relatives embrace Yang family

Yaay helped unload food from relatives’ cars earlier in the day at Lorraine Park as others finished setting up his graduation party. Luna, a black puppy, sat nearby under a picnic bench. The family bought Luna about a year and a half ago for Titan, but Yaay wound up as her main caretaker. 

In between greeting guests, Yaay found a quiet moment to check on King as he sat with cousins on a bench and gently rubbed the side of his cheek. 

Family members from North Carolina and Minnesota gathered after a heavy rain in the morning left puddles. Pop music played loudly over a speaker as guests ate pasta and Cheetos while Yaay’s uncle, Genue Lor, grilled sausages. While the mood was joyful, tears punctuated the day, as it was the first time the family had gathered in such large numbers since Zong’s deportation in May. 

As news of immigration agents arresting Hmong residents emerged last year, Zong’s potential deportation began looming over the family. Yaay said his dad had held onto the hope that he could avoid detention and deportation so he could attend the graduation events. 

Yaay pictured seeing both of his parents sitting among other families as he walked across the stage in his graduation cap and gown. 

“It does hurt,” he said of his dad’s absence from his graduation ceremony in early June. “A lot.” 

Zong was deported due to a felony burglary conviction from his early 20s and is one of many Hmong and Southeast Asian residents from Minnesota and elsewhere who were deported during Operation Metro Surge.

“He’s the glue that kept everybody together,” Linda said of Zong at the graduation party. “He’s kind of a jokester, and he likes to keep everybody entertained. If anything, he would be with everybody just drinking with them.” 

Dozens of children and adults danced to the music at the party. A large handmade sign hung in the background, reading “Congratulations” in large cursive red and white letters – Yaay’s high school colors. 

“It’s really big,” Yaay said of the party. “Can’t believe this is actually for me.” 

Linda’s older brother, John Lor, who lives in Inver Grove Heights, came with his wife and children. He was in the Yang family’s backyard with Zong when Linda called Zong on Feb. 4 to inform him that federal agents had abruptly cut her off on her way to work, and that they planned to pick him up the next morning. 

“I stayed with the family that day,” Lor said. “It was really heartbreaking. I try my best now to help my brother-in-law and my sister.”

Linda’s younger sister, Mai Cua Lor, who was at the party, looked up to Linda her entire life as a model for how to be a wife and mom. 

“She and her husband – they made such a big impact in our lives, showing us what love is and how to care for one another and putting family first,” Mai Cua said, adding that Linda is a “strong, independent woman.” 

But losing Zong has taken a toll on Linda, Mai Cua said. 

“She don’t ever ask for help. She don’t ever cry. She don’t ever show her weakness. So, when she turns to us and says, ‘I need help. I need support,’ it breaks my heart,” she said, her voice breaking. “Cause that’s my sister; she don’t ever ask for anything.” 

Mai Cua, who lives in North Carolina, felt helpless that she couldn’t do anything when Zong was detained, but she told Linda and her sons to never hesitate to ask for help.

Pa Houa Lo, one of Linda’s three sisters, lives in Elk River and drives down often to lift Linda’s spirits. 

“She’s so strong for her kids, and she doesn’t want her kids to see her cry, but then she turns to us,” Pa Houa said, breaking into a sob, ”and she just tells us she’s broken, ‘cause her rock is gone.” 

Linda grew up in North Carolina and was living there when a mutual friend introduced her to Zong, who lived in Minneapolis at the time. They kept in touch until they met in person in 2007; they married a year later. 

Linda’s brother, Genue Lor, drove 18 hours from North Carolina with his two children to support her. He said he’ll always support his sister and brother-in-law, but understands why opinions are divided over the reason for Zong’s deportation.

Linda knew about Zong’s past. He attended regular check-ins with federal immigration officials for 20 years. Since Laos historically refused to accept deportees from the United States, Linda and Zong never imagined he would be sent abroad. But things started to change last year as Laos shifted its stance due to political pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration. Reality settled in. 

Linda told Sahan Journal she plans to move to Laos after their children are grown. 

“I believe in my sister, and she believes in the law of the system, too,” Genue said. “They really do believe in the American system. That’s why she still has hope that, one day, things will be better. Maybe not in the short-term, but in the long-term, because it’s just the hope of returning together and seeing each other again.” 

A dad’s toast from abroad

Surrounded by Yaay and her parents, who flew in from North Carolina, Linda delivered a short speech in the afternoon, thanking Yaay for stepping up to care for his brothers while also dealing with the pressures of being a high school senior. 

She smiled as tears ran down her face. 

“We haven’t done much for you, but you’ve done so much for us,” she said in a trembling voice.

She paused for a breath.

“And now you’re leaving me!” she said before bursting into laughter. 

Yaay wrapped his arm around his mom in a hug, prompting smiles among the guests. She leaned her head on his chest. Then, she announced a pre-recorded video toast from Zong. 

“But this toast isn’t my toast, ‘kay?” she said, her voice cracking. “This is Zong’s toast to everybody, ‘kay?”

She held up her phone, and Zong’s face appeared on the screen. 

“I just want to do a little toast,” he said as cars zoomed by in the background.

He thanked the guests for their attendance and said he was proud of Yaay. Speaking in Hmong, he said his heart cries when he thinks of the distance between himself and his family. 

“Aden, I’m very proud of you, son,” he said in English. “You did it. You made it. … It tears me up every time to think about you guys.” 

Yaay choked back tears as he stood next to his mom with his arms behind his back, his hands clasped together. Chong Lo, Yaay’s 65-year-old maternal grandmother, gave him a hug. Linda’s sister, Pa Houa, buried her face in her scarf. Everest, Yaay’s 8-year-old brother, cried as he listened to Zong’s recording.  

“Just want to say I love you — miss you man,” Zong said in the video, addressing Yaay. “I wish I could be there, but I can’t.” 

Zong held up a can of beer. 

“Remember, do the right thing in life,” he told Yaay. “Cheers you guys.” 

He downed the drink. Guests at the party lifted their beers and drank them all in one go.  

‘I’m not doing good’

Zong told Sahan Journal in an interview later that he couldn’t appear at the party via a livestream because seeing his family’s faces and hearing their questions would have flooded him with emotions. 

“I knew if I came live, I would have just been crying,” he said. “I would just be bawling, so I couldn’t do it like that.”

He couldn’t bear the thought of his family asking him how he was doing.

“I’m not doing good,” he said in a shaky voice. “I miss my wife, I miss my kids – so that’s why I couldn’t do it live.” 

Zong was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and was never issued citizenship in Thailand, Laos or the United States. He received a green card when he immigrated to the United States with his family as a child and said he never applied for citizenship because he assumed that his green card secured lifelong residency in the country because it said, “Permanent Resident.” 

His family first settled in California, where most of his siblings and his mom still live. He has an older brother in Minnesota. His dad died several years ago from a sudden illness. 

Zong was convicted of felony burglary in Wisconsin in 1999 for stealing several semi-automatic handguns from the Gander Mountain store in Appleton, Wisconsin, when he was 21. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, serving about seven years before he was released at the end of 2006, according to court records. His criminal record also includes a conviction for drug possession in 2019. 

@wisconsinwatch

Yaay Aden Yang’s relatives gathered in late June to celebrate his high school graduation. His father, Zong Yang, appeared at the party in a pre-recorded message because he was deported to Laos in May. Our partners at @SahanJournal followed Aden in the latest installment of an occasional series documenting how deportation reshapes families long after a loved one leaves. #Hmong #Deportation #MetroSurge #SouthStPaul #Minnesota #Midwest

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The burglary conviction is considered a removal offense by the federal government and stripped Zong of his green card and prevented him from ever applying for U.S. citizenship. It also resulted in a final order for deportation against him that required him to regularly check in with ICE at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at the discretion of his immigration officer, or until the government could find a country that would accept him as a deportee.

Zong spent about four months earlier this year in immigration detention facilities in Texas and Louisiana, before he was put on a flight to Laos. When he arrived in Laos on May 9, he was moved to a detention facility operated by the Lao government. He was later released because a local sponsor vouched for him, which is required of U.S. deportees before they leave Lao custody. 

“Nervousness is still there,” he said of his slow assimilation to life in Laos, a country he had never stepped foot in before. 

These days, he’s less intimidated buying food from local vendors, or when meeting new people. He’s making small steps to care for himself: He often goes to the gym with a friend and recently opened up a bank account. 

He lives alone in an apartment located 15 minutes from the National University of Laos in Vientiane, the country’s capital. 

“It’s like watching your life just live before you, and you can’t do nothing about it, just go on without you, you know? Like I was supposed to be in the picture,” Zong said of why he didn’t appear live at Yaay’s graduation party. “I’m not supposed to be 2,000 miles away. I’m not supposed to be in the Eastern Hemisphere, you know? I’m supposed to be right there with them.” 

Yaay prepares for college

After Zong’s toast, Linda passed the microphone to Yaay, who was caught by surprise. Yaay told the guests he plans to attend Winona State University this fall and study chemistry. 

“I’m just going to go and see what life has planned for me,” he said, holding tightly onto the microphone as he nervously glanced at the ground.  

“You got it baby!” his maternal aunt, Pa Houa, shouted.

Yaay graduated on June 4, walking across the stage in his red cap and gown as his dad watched live on WhatsApp through Linda’s cellphone. Zong, who didn’t attend college, always reminded his children to focus on education. 

Yaay walked with about 200 high school seniors. He wore a red stole with a Hmong design of the elephant foot motif and his name written in Hmong, “Yej Yaj.” Some of the student and teacher commencement speakers briefly addressed the federal immigration operation that rippled across Minnesota from late 2025 through early 2026. 

“It is a city built on the backs of immigrants, and it continues to be a community where we are strengthened by our immigrant families,” student speaker Jackson Schultz said about South St. Paul. 

Yaay was one of the last students called on stage. Linda zoomed in on him to give Zong a better view. Linda’s sister, Pa Houa, and Zong’s cousin, Mai Zoua, cheered loudly. 

“It’s emotional,” Linda said at the graduation ceremony. “I know his dad wanted to be here; it’s another one of those bittersweet moments.” 

Yaay, filled with a mix of excitement and nervous energy, found his family when the ceremony ended. 

“It’s the first time that my life’s not really being directed by going to the next school grade,” he said. “It’s going into college and moving up and living on my own. It’s adulting, basically.” 

Yaay smiled happily for photos, holding a bouquet of flowers and a string of balloons. He’s relied on close school friends to cope with his dad’s deportation. 

“It is a big accomplishment and obviously with all this stuff going on, I wish my dad was here to witness me do this, and just be here with me in this moment,” he said. “Being able to make my parents proud and being able to live up to their expectations, even how basic it is, it’s still heartwarming.” 

More than 7,000 miles away, Zong watched from Laos at about 8 a.m. as Yaay walked across the stage at 8 p.m. Minnesota time.

“I was just happy to see people that still love us to go support even though I wasn’t there,” Zong told Sahan Journal in an interview later, his voice cracking. “It was hard, but it’s just something that I was happy to see.”  

He hopes to find ways to still be a part of his sons’ lives during big and small milestones. 

“I hope that as they get older, they will understand the whole situation,” he said. “I hope that they do not hold on to say that I left willingly, that you know, that I had a choice, and I just went. That’s what’s going to hurt me the most.” 

Not dead, but gone

Yaay’s maternal grandfather, Nhia Ying Lo, 67, also gave a speech at Yaay’s graduation party, telling Linda to have a big heart, and that she has a family to rely on. He bent over and cried into his hand at times, overcome with emotions. 

Nhia Ying told Sahan Journal in an interview that what happened to Zong is unfair, given how the United States enlisted Hmong allies to fight in the Vietnam War. 

The United States started to recruit Hmong men and boys in 1961 to fight in a CIA-backed operation against Vietnamese communists. An estimated one-fourth of the Hmong men and boys who were recruited died in service, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. 

Following the end of the Vietnam War, Hmong people fled political persecution prompted by their alliance with the United States. Many ended up in Thai refugee camps. Many Hmong, including Zong, were born in the camps and later immigrated to the United States. 

That generation of Hmong people don’t know the Lao culture or language, Nhia Ying said, and only have familiarity with the Hmong community in the United States.    

“Why would they take people like this, with access to jobs, to go live in Laos? They know we are people who don’t know anything (in Laos),” he said.  

When it was time for her speech, Yaay’s maternal grandmother, Chong Lo, 65, stood in front of him, one hand clasped over his shoulder.

“Help each other,” she said in Hmong. “Love your mom.” 

She cried every time she talked about Zong, or heard his name mentioned at the party. 

“I want people to see this, to know what the pain is like, that his life – he’s not dead, but he’s gone,” she said in an interview.

She pressed a tissue to her nose. 

“For a family to actually survive this, the parent with the children has to work double — double shifts,” she said, crying so hard she could barely finish her sentence. 

Seeing Yaay and Kenji helping Linda gives her some relief, she added. Linda’s sister and brother, Pa Houa and John Lor, who live in Minnesota, regularly visit the Yang family to help with the children.

“We’re never going to be able to replicate his dad, but we’re here to just show our love and support in every way possible, because he’s (Yayy) as much as our son, and that’s (Zong) as much as our father as well,” Pa Houa said. “It’s good to see (Yaay) pass his milestone, but it’s also a little bitter because you wish everyone could join you.”

Most of their family members were playing volleyball when Yaay and King returned to his graduation party after a 10-minute absence to change Yaay out of his muddy clothes. Yaay let go of King’s hand. King took a few steps and glanced back at Yaay with a look of uncertainty on his face.  

“Go,” Yaay said softly, motioning to the playground. 

Dozens of relatives from both sides of the family awaited them.

“Seeing everyone here,” Yaay said, “it’s nice, and I think I also needed this – just to see all the people who are there to back me up, and help me, and just give me something to work for and not fail.”

Minnesota teen balances graduation, new responsibilities after dad’s deportation to Laos is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.