At least a dozen Bhutanese immigrants have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported from Pennsylvania. The majority of their families still do not know where they are, says Mohan Seshadri, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance, an advocacy organization fighting for the needs of Asian Pacific Islanders in Pennsylvania.
“For the first time ever, starting approximately two months on the dot, we started to see this wave of abductions and detainment, and then deportation of Bhutanese refugees across the country,” said Seshadri.
Several immigrants who were arrested by ICE were temporarily held in Pike County Correctional Facility in Lords Valley before being deported.
Pennsylvania is home to roughly 70,000 Bhutanese immigrants, the largest percentage of the community living in the greater Harrisburg area, as well as the Scranton and Pittsburgh areas.
Bhutan is a small country in Asia landlocked between China, Nepal, and India. In 2008, Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees immigrated to the United States as part of a resettlement program after the Bhutanese government implemented a ‘one nation, one people’ policy, stripping tens of thousands of ethnically Nepali Bhutanese refugees of their citizenship.
“For decades now, they’ve been growing and surviving and ultimately thriving,” said Seshadri. Since resettling in Pennsylvania more than a decade ago, the Bhutanese community has built integral community cornerstones, including temples, community centers, youth soccer camps, and restaurants in the state.
That all changed under the current Trump administration’s recent surge in deportations. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said during a press conference he wants to make sure anyone “rounded up” by the federal government “is given their full due process.”
“They’ve been an important part of the social fabric, and the economic fabric, the educational fabric, the cultural fabric of our communities,” said Shapiro about the Bhutanese community in Pennsylvania.
Seshadri says he has been in contact with community organizations in South Asia, who report that some deported individuals have had their identification cards and money confiscated. They are then isolated, interrogated for hours, and “driven to the border of Bhutan and told to get out and left to fend for themselves.”
For now, Seshadri says that he and his team are scaling up their outreach efforts to keep local AAPI communities protected. His organization is hiring more organizers and bringing on more outreach members to keep communities informed.
“It starts from a place of ensuring that our communities know that this is happening.. know that they’re under threat, and know what their rights are,” said Seshadri.
Know your rights if ICE or the police approach you? All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have rights under the U.S. constitution. You can find a know your rights guide on the Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance website.
Image: ICE officials gather outside of an ICE removal. (Photo Credit: ICE.gov)