Families say loved ones who checked in for decades are now being detained, and in some cases, deported within months. TUKWILA, Wash. — For years, immigration check-ins were routine for some Lao refugees in Washington with past criminal convictions. Until suddenly, families say, they were not. Boun Morisath, a Bremerton father, had been checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for 30 years, according to his family. His wife, Emily Hassakounburee, said the family went with him to the Department of Homeland Security office in Tukwila last month for what they thought would be another routine visit. “March 11, went in for check-in and didn’t come out,” Hassakounburee said. Morisath remains in custody at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. Families in Washington’s Lao community say they are seeing a troubling pattern: loved ones who have checked in with immigration officials for years are now being detained during those visits. In some cases, they are being deported within months. One of them is Chai, the brother of Kim Hao. Hao said the entire family came to Washington state as refugees in 1988. For more than 20 years, she said, he checked in with immigration officials every year without issue. “We thought Laos was not accepting anybody,” Hao said. “They won’t be taking anybody in because we came from a refugee camp.” But last August, Hao said, Chai went to a check-in and was detained. Less than three months later, he was transferred from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma to El Paso, Texas. “We went to see him as soon as he got transported down there,” Hao said. “The next day he got deported to Laos. Without no travel document.” Hao said her brother was sent to Laos without a passport or travel documents. She said he had little connection to the country. “He left there when he’s probably two years old,” Hao said. “He doesn’t even know where he was born.” Many in Washington’s Lao and Southeast Asian communities came to the United States as refugees after the Vietnam War. Some later had criminal convictions, requiring them to check in regularly with immigration officials. Morisath’s family said he was a minor when he was convicted as an adult due to a clerical error for a minor gun charge in the 1990s in Alaska. They say he was driving a car when someone in the backseat fired a gun out the window. Chai had a child molestation conviction brought by an estranged partner more than 20 years ago, which was later vacated, according to his family and documents. Both men lost their green cards as a result. Hao said the timing of her brother’s deportation was especially painful because his case was later vacated. “If he was here, he would have been out of the detention center because his case was vacated already,” Hao said. The fear is now spreading beyond individual families. Lio Saephanh and Alyson Saechao help lead a South Seattle community center serving Iu-Mien families, a Southeast Asian refugee group with deep ties to Laos. They said families are now having difficult conversations about what to do if a parent or loved one does not come home. “If you go to school and you come home, and if I’m not there, then this could have possibly happened,” Saephanh said, describing conversations some parents are having with their children. Saechao said the fear is affecting even basic community services. “People that come, even the food bank program we have, people will ask if we ask for IDs,” Saechao said. “They’re too scared to come out.” What was once a hub for cultural celebrations, they said, has now become a place where families prepare for worst-case scenarios. “They were constantly seeking for freedom, for salvation, for somewhere safe, somewhere to call home,” Saechao said. “For most of us, it’s not until they got to the U.S. that it felt like home. And then this happens.” Back in Bremerton, Hassakounburee continues to fight for her husband’s release. “There’s no reason to lock him up,” she said. “He complies. He’s not a flight risk. He’s not a danger to society. He deserves a second chance.” But for families like hers, the question now is not only about second chances. It is whether their loved ones will come home at all. According to arrest records from the department of homeland security, last year and early this year, 23 Laotians were detained in Western Washington. Of the 23, 19 of them were picked up at their regular check-ins. We have reached out to ICE for comment on this change of strategy, but have not heard back.