Evers Calls For End to Hmong Deportation Negotiations
Trump administration negotiating agreement to send some U.S. residents to Laos.
Tony Ever. Photo by Emily Hamer / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.
Gov. Tony Evers is calling on the U.S. State Department to reconsider negotiations that would allow the U.S. to deport Hmong residents to Laos.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Evers, a Democrat, said that negotiations between the Trump administration and the government of Laos “are sowing fear into Hmong communities across Wisconsin.”
The negotiations are around a repatriation agreement that would allow the U.S. to more easily deport Lao residents in the U.S. who aren’t citizens and who have committed crimes or have deportation orders against them.
Many Lao citizens in the U.S. are Hmong. The agreement would not apply to U.S. citizens.
Evers letter says that he opposes “any agreement that results in the deportation of Hmong people living in Wisconsin.”
“The potential deportation of Hmong Wisconsinites is yet another example of your administration’s problematic disposition and policies toward refugee and immigrant populations,” Evers said.
Asked for comment on the negotiations earlier this week, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to WPR that the administration is calling on Laos to accept deported U.S. residents, and said that “the U.S. government is funding a reintegration program in Laos for those who need extra assistance.”
Evers Calls On Trump Administration To Halt Negotiations On Hmong Deportations was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
My heart is so heavy for this land of…whose?…this land where I have citizenship because I was born here. The land that was given a Statue of Liberty inscribed with some wonderful words of hope, of welcome. We now have a leader who wants to step into history as the next Hitler. ..in regards to a population welcoming many nations; as the next Stalin… in regards to a civil service that serves the people rather than a dictator. We are living in a dangerous time for our democracy. The Republican syncopates who have yet to stand up…are they so fearful that they will be the next on the list to be “Tweeted” out of their toadying power by a tweety bird, dictator wanna be. “First they came for…and then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Barbara Richards,
My heart is also heavy in these Trump times. THE DONALD has effectively bullied a majority of members of the Republican Party into acquiescence as he has spat upon our nation’s long standing norms re the rule of law and adherence to our constitution. I applaud your identifying THE DONALD as a “Tweety Bird.” I fear with you the toadying power of that
“Tweetiy Bird.”
What can we say to begin to persuade Trump’s followers that there is nothing cool about an ignorant, mean spirited con-man?
twirp.