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A person living in Alabama who claims U.S. citizenship He was deported to Laos despite a federal court order barring him from being deported from the country.
But Homeland Security officials told Independent “There was no mistake,” she said, labeling her a “criminal illegal alien,” stripping her of her green card, and demanding a “Hail Mary” in a last-ditch effort to claim citizenship after previously being ordered out of the country.
Chanthila Souvannarath, 44, was born in a Thai refugee camp, but has lived in the United States since childhood. According to his lawyers, he received citizenship in childhood when his father naturalized, making him eligible for derivative citizenship under immigration law at the time.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Authorities arrested Souvannarath on June 18 in Alabama, where he was living, and transported him to a newly launched detention facility inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a notorious state prison known as Angola.
On October 23, a federal judge blocked ICE from deporting him while he challenged his arrest and detention, but the next day he was put on a plane to Laos.
“This should shock the country,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, who is representing Souvannarath in court. “The deportation of an individual with a substantial claim to U.S. citizenship represents a catastrophic failure of the immigration system and a gross violation of constitutional rights.”
According to attorneys with the ACLU, the National Immigration Project, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, his legal team is now “exploring all legal options” for his return.
According to Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the restraining order preventing ICE from deporting him was not given to the agency until he was already on the plane to Laos.
According to records reviewed by Souvannarath, he was convicted of assault and illegal possession of a firearm in King County, Washington in 2004. Independent.
McLaughlin said in a statement Independent Souvannarath “had no right to live in this country.”
According to McLaughlin, an immigration court judge ordered his removal in 2006. He said, “20 years later, they made a Hail Mary attempt to stay in our country by claiming to be American citizens. I know it’s shocking to the media – but criminal illegal aliens lie all the time.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you have to face consequences,” McLaughlin said. “Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in America.”
But citizens cannot be deported regardless of criminal history.
Court records reviewed Independent Sho Souvannarath filed a petition for his release soon after his arrest in June but he did not pay the filing fee before the deadline. That case was dismissed and he sued again on October 16.
In her order blocking his deportation, Louisiana District Judge Shelley Dick said his “substantial” claim to citizenship means he “cannot be deported or held in immigration detention.”
He wrote, “He lays out the legal framework for obtaining citizenship through one’s natural father and shows how each line of requirements was met.” “This raises serious questions regarding the legality of his detention and imminent deportation.”
The judge noted “the inherent and obvious harms in deporting a U.S. citizen.”
According to Nora Ahmed of the ACLU, his deportation “raises urgent questions about how many others, including potentially other U.S. citizens, have been wrongfully deported because our immigration system does not require legal representation for individuals held behind bars in prisons known as ‘immigration detention centers’.”
Homeland Security’s refusal to return Souvannarath from Laos, where he has never lived, echoes other high-profile immigration cases at the center. Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
The administration has been embroiled in several major cases, including the sudden removal of immigrants in federal custody despite prior court rulings that had blocked their deportation. Including the case of Kilmer Abrego GarciaGovernment lawyers fought to keep him in his native El Salvador, despite acknowledging that he had been deported in error.
Louisiana, home to thousands of ICE detainees, has been the center of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans. ICE runs nine detention centers in the state, which have the capacity to hold 7,000 people at any time.
The administration is also seeking to expand deportations to so-called third countries where immigrants have no claim to citizenship or connections. Laos now appears to be joining in many african nations – including Eswatini, Ghana, Liberia, South Sudan and Uganda – where immigration authorities are sending detainees.