Nov. 17, 2025, 5:15 p.m. ETA Hagerstown, Maryland, mother and business owner was expected to be deported to Vietnam on Nov. 17.Mong "Melissa" Tuyen Thi Tran was taken back into ICE custody a month after a federal judge ordered her release from a five-month detainment.Tran's deportation stems from a 22-year-old order related to a felony theft conviction when she was 19.Her legal team's efforts to stop the deportation were complicated after Vietnam recently issued travel documents for her.Community members have rallied in support of Tran, a mother of four who legally came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1993.A Hagerstown mother and business owner was expected to be deported to Vietnam on Monday, Nov. 17, roughly a month after she was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while she attempted to have her deportation averted, according to her legal team.Mong "Melissa" Tuyen Thi Tran was taken back into ICE custody on Friday, Nov. 14, a month and two days after she was released from a five-month ICE detainment, according to Bernie Semler, a local attorney who was helping Tran with her immigration case.Family friend Tina Nash, who is Semler's wife, said Tran called her Nov. 17 to inform Nash she expected to be put on a plane to Vietnam that day.Nash, who has had many conversations with Tran since Tran learned in the spring that the federal government was making an effort to enforce an old deportation order, said she sensed a lot of different things in Tran's voice through her tears during that call."I think that she's kind of almost relieved to not have to live in the terror of 'When are they going to snatch me and take me away from my family?' It's over now."While it’s sad. And terribly tragic for her children and her. I think she's relieved," Nash said.Attorney Jennifer Pasquarella, legal director with the nonprofit The Seattle Clemency Project, said in a Nov. 17 email that it appeared Tran would be deported that same day. Tran was held in Louisiana over the weekend after being taken back into ICE custody when she checked in with ICE in Baltimore on Friday."Melissa's case exposes the abject cruelty of a government intent on treating people as livestock, not as human beings. No sensible government would deport a woman who's done everything that society expects of our people, including when she made a mistake when she was a teenager and immediately turned herself in. She is the loving mother of four children, a small business owner, the caretaker for an elderly woman, and a much-loved member of her community. Sending her to Vietnam will inflict severe harm on her, her young children, and her extended community," Pasquarella wrote in an email to The Herald-Mail.Many area residents have rallied around Tran and her family, both during a live rally on June 4 outside the Tran family's Nail Palace and Spa in the Long Meadow Shopping Center as well as online through a #BringMelissaHome social media effort.The June rally occurred almost a month after Tran was detained by ICE when she went to her check-in with immigration in Baltimore on May 12. She was moved around, then spent several months at an ICE processing center in Tacoma, Washington, until a federal judge ordered her release Oct. 12.Why is Melissa Tran being deported to Vietnam?Semler said things turned after Vietnam recently issued travel documents — a passport — for Tran.Tran and several family members became Vietnamese refugees in 1993, Semler has said. They legally came to the United States and were issued green cards, according to Semler and Nash.Shortly after meeting her future husband, Dung "Danny" Hoang, in 2003, Tran was taken into custody by ICE due to an aggravated theft case when she was 19 and held for six months, according to Tran's previous immigration attorney, Laura Kelsey Rhodes, and information from Tran's supporters.ICE received a deportation order due to the criminal conviction, but Vietnam was not accepting people back who had left the country before 1995. Tran was released and agreed to check in annually with immigration.When Tran went to Baltimore on May 12 this year for her check-in with immigration, she was detained.Early in his second term, President Donald Trump stepped up efforts to deport millions of immigrants, including Vietnamese.Semler said they've known all along if federal authorities were able to obtain Tran's travel documents for Vietnam, it would be "very difficult" to stop her deportation because there was a final deportation order about 22 years ago.Tran's legal team was trying to negotiate with federal officials to reopen Tran's deportation case, arguing that the convictions Trans had were downgraded in Virginia and no longer considered aggravated felonies, Semler said. That would mean those past crimes no longer qualified Tran for deportation.Tran had pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge when she was 19 years old.According to previous statements from Tran's supporters and Rhodes, Tran stole money from an employer. Rhodes said her understanding is Tran's boyfriend at the time was the "idea man" behind the crime and was pressuring Tran.Semler said federal authorities were arguing there were two different dates or occurrences related to the convictions, so there was still reason to deport Tran.There have been no "issues" since her Virginia conviction and Tran had checked in annually with immigration, Semler told the crowd at the June rally.Tran married Hoang. They have had four children, and have been running the North End business, moving to Hagerstown shortly after it started.This is not someone who came over the border illegally or who was a member of a gang, Nash said Monday. Nash said she's had difficulty making sense of the situation and what she described as an "inhumane" process.Semler said Tran's legal team was going to make a filing in immigration court on Nov. 17 as a "Hail Mary" regarding trying to reopen Tran's deportation case. But it would become moot if Tran was already deported or on a plane.Semler and Nash said Tran decided over the weekend not to go ahead with the court filing."She just wanted to be done," Nash said.In an emailed statement through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's press office, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "ICE arrested Mong Tuyen Thi Tran, a criminal illegal alien from Vietnam, has a rap sheet including forgery, larceny, fraud, and writing fraudulent checks. An immigration judge issued her a final order of removal in 2004. She had over 20 years to leave and received full due process."President Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States."What happens now for Melissa Tran?Semler and Nash said Tran has distant family in Vietnam so the expectation is that when Tran arrives in Vietnam, she will be released to live her life.However, Nash said that is the expectation. They don't know if those being deported to Vietnam will arrive in the same part of Vietnam where Tran's distant family lives.Nor do they know if Tran will be provided a hard copy of her passport if and when she is released.Semler and Nash said Tran speaks Vietnamese.Nash said Tran was just turning 10 years old when she and several family members left Vietnam. Tran returned to Vietnam at least once, maybe twice, around the time of her high school graduation.Tran had no bag with her when authorities took her into custody on Nov. 12. Tran had her wallet and a folder of immigration papers as federal authorities were "trying to pull her away from us," Nash said.Semler said they were on their way back to Hagerstown on Friday when he received confirmation from Pasquarella that she had seen the travel documents.Support for Tran familyNash said she plans to keep the Bring Melissa Home Facebook page open in the short term to update people on Tran's progress.Nash said she told Tran on the phone Monday that "We all love you very much. We're going to remain here for you always."Tran, per Nash, replied, "Please tell everyone I love them very much."As the organizer for the Bring Melissa Home movement, Nash said, "We, as a team — and I know also the family, thanks everyone for everything they've done and all of the support."I hope that the support for the family that's here and also for Melissa continues. But that I think it's important for people to understand that the support needs to look a little different because her immigration fight is over. It's closed. It's done. So we need to support them in a very different way going forward," Nash said.What that will look like is too early to say, Nash said.