There is a remarkable story up on Minnesota Public Radio News done in collaboration with Sahan Journal. It tells of a woman, Thi Dua Vang, swept up in the ICE raids in Minnesota, quickly sent to a Texas ICE facility where she was detained for two weeks and then released with no way home. Like thousands of others detained and assaulted by ICE, she is a LEGAL immigrant with no criminal record. She came here through our country’s refugee resettlement program — a point of pride for every administration, Republican and Democratic, prior to Trump. The program offers a very select group of people that had to flee their home country after experiencing violence and persecution a new start in the “land of the free.”
Thi Dua Vang fled religious persecution in Vietnam. She is a Hmong woman and a Christian.
Thi Dua Vang came to the United States in 2023 as a refugee after her brother, Wa Chi Minh Vang, sponsored her. As Christians, she and her brother fled religious persecution from her home country of Vietnam.
According to the Trump Administration’s own United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Vietnam's religious freedom is severely restricted with heightened state control over religious groups and harsh penalties for independent practices… Hmong and Montagnard Christians have faced brutal repression.” Methods of repression include surveillance, intimidation, and detention. In a perfect hypocrisy, the Trumpers that claim to love freedom and protect Christians, subjected her to the same cruel surveillance, intimidation and detention she fled in Vietnam.
“It traumatized me, and it reminded me of what I went through in Vietnam,” she said. “It’s going to be a couple of long years because of the president and his policies, and I’m waiting for the time to feel free again.”
After two weeks in detention, she was released, in the most cruel way imaginable.
Thi Dua Vang had just heard from federal officials that she was going to be released after two weeks of immigration detention in Texas.
“Are you going home by car or plane?” a Hmong interpreter asked the St. Paul woman, who speaks little English, over the phone. Vang didn’t have an answer.
Alone in Houston, Vang said she asked if she could wait inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing center for a relative to pick her up.
But Vang said federal agents refused. “They forced me outside and told me they didn’t care if I lived or died,”
Her brother and husband found her and returned her home.
Wa Chi Minh Vang, Thi Dua’s brother, said he drove with her husband, A Pao Giang, from Minnesota to Houston because she couldn’t fly back since ICE had not returned important documents, like her Social Security card or state ID.
I would imagine 100% of evangelical Christians would denounce her persecution by authorities in Vietnam. What percentage of evangelical Christians will denounce her persecution by ICE? Persecution that continues:
Since her release, Thi Dua Vang said she still feels unsafe. Federal agents have visited her St. Paul home three times and she’s not sure why, she said.
Again, what percentage of evangelical Christians will denounce her persecution by ICE? Not zero. And deeply reconsider their allegiance to the Republican party? Not zero. From an unrelated piece on NPR:
Alexia Salvatierra is the dean at Fuller Seminary's Centro Latino, which prepares Latino evangelicals for ministry. She says her students and her community feel torn and abandoned by white evangelicals who continue to support ICE. “We feel like we're family. And we're now invisible to you. You know, suddenly, you don't care about what's happening to your family members.”
And lead story in today’s Minnesota Star Tribune
Evangelicals wrestle with faith and politics as ICE surge continues in Minnesota. Small cracks may be emerging in a denomination known for its staunch support of MAGA.
Thi Dua Vang’s story is one of thousands that are similar, most of which go unreported, But they do spread among friend, family, and community networks. And they reach the eyes and ears of evangelical Christians that have been believing the lies from the Trump administration that they are only after violent criminals. If you have any way to share Thi Dua Vang’s story in evangelical circles, please do. Her image in the Sahan Journal piece is haunting. (I did not share the photo here because I do not have permission, but I encourage you to view it and read the entire piece.) She is a human being that has been through so much and persevered. Her story and image should haunt any Christian that supports Trump and the Republicans that have enabled all of this.
