Fifteen Hmong and Laotian immigrants from Michigan who were detained by ICE in Detroit in late July were deported to Laos this week, arriving in the capital city of Vientiane on Wednesday.

All 15 had received removal orders following convictions for crimes ranging from obstruction of a murder investigation to bank fraud, primarily in the early 2000s. Their deportation had previously been impossible because the Laotian government refused to accept them, so they served prison sentences in the United States.

Six of the deportees belong to the Hmong ethnic group who came to the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s from Thai refugee camps after their families escaped persecution in Laos for their involvement in the CIA-backed "Secret War."

Their families rallied support from local officials, includ

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