Lue Yang is free !
December 3, 2025
Lue Yang arrived in Grand Rapids into the arms of his family this afternoon. He is free! Thank you to everyone who worked on his behalf. We are so happy for his family and community, the tears of joy overflow!
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GoFundMe for Lue Yang here.
Lue Yang’s Story
Learn about Lue Yang’s journey from being born in a refugee camp in Thailand to becoming a beloved spiritual and community leader. Coming soon.
The Hmong Family Association of Michigan
This vital organization helps unite and assist Hmong families residing within the Greater Lansing region adapt to life in America through community service and local events. They promote, preserve, and integrate Hmong culture, traditions, and language and provide awareness to their non-Hmong neighbors.
In in the News
The latest updates on the status of Lue Yang.
Lue Yang, St. Johns man in ICE custody, transferred to Michigan detention facility
By Kyle Beery, November 10, 2025. WILX
Lue Yang, the St. Johns man who has been in ICE custody since July, has returned to Michigan.
Over the weekend, Yang — a Hmong refugee and community leader in Mid-Michigan — was moved from an ICE detention facility in Louisiana back to a facility in Baldwin, Michigan, according to Congressman Tom Barrett.
Whitmer pardons Hmong refugee facing deportation in ‘race against time’
by Lauren Gibbons, October 23, 2025. Bridge Magazine
A Hmong refugee detained by federal immigration officials in July over a decades-old criminal conviction was pardoned by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer this week — but advocates say his legal situation remains precarious.
“We are in a race against time,” said Nancy Xiong, an Okemos-based immigration lawyer representing Lue Yang and other Hmong refugees from Michigan detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Can anyone bring back St. Johns resident Lue Yang?
By Kyle Melinn, October 15, 2025. City Pulse
In our country’s zeal to eradicate our population of drug-running gangbangers who create mischief here since entering the United States illegally, authorities have unnecessarily caught a St. Johns resident in the dragnet.
A 47-year-old married factory worker, who has been raising six kids with his wife of 20-some years, left home for work one day this summer and didn’t return.
Authorities have since detained him like a hardened criminal — sleeping on concrete floors, eating poorly and living with, well, drug-runners and gangbangers in a “processing center” in Pine Prairie, Louisiana.
His name is Lue Yang.
Michigan expunged a refugee’s criminal record. He may be deported anyway.
By Lauren Gibbs, August 8, 2025. Bridge Magazine
LANSING — Aside from the refugee camp in Thailand where he was born after the Vietnam War, Michigan is the only home St. Johns resident Lue Yang has ever known.
A decades-old criminal conviction stemming from a home invasion but already expunged by the state may now be the catalyst for his deportation to Southeast Asia, which his family and advocates say could result in his imprisonment or death because of his advocacy for Hmong veterans in the US.
Free Lue Yang 