Overview
- He walked free in Grand Rapids on Dec. 3 and reunited with his family after nearly five months in ICE detention.
- He was detained on July 15 during a broader enforcement push affecting Hmong and Laotian refugees as Laos began issuing travel documents to an estimated 4,800 people with removal orders.
- He still faces a final federal order of removal and must ask immigration and state courts to clear his record and seek to rescind the deportation order.
- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued the pardon roughly six weeks earlier, and Yang says a deportation flight to Laos turned back mid‑Atlantic shortly after.
- Family members and lawmakers, including State Rep. Mai Xiong and U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, mounted a bipartisan effort that helped secure his release.