Asian refugee faces deportation despite fears of statelessness : NPR

Mohan Karki (right) and his wife Tika Basnet (left) pose for a photo before his arrest by immigration officials in April.

Tika Basnet

hide caption

toggle caption

Tika Basnet

While appearing before a federal judge in Michigan last week, Mohan Karki saw his 5-month-old daughter in person for the first time.

Karki was chained and stood several meters away, according to his wife Tika Basnet, who was in the courtroom last Wednesday. A few minutes later, her daughter started crying and had to leave the room, Basnet added.

The date when Karki will reunite with his daughter remains unknown.

“I was crying inside,” Basnet said. “I don’t want to cry in front of him because he’s going to break down.”

For more than eight months, Karki, 30, has been detained by immigration authorities in deportation proceedings stemming from criminal charges of burglary, criminal trespass and interference with government property, all stemming from a single incident when he was a teenager.

Karki’s lawyers are fighting to prevent his deportation to Bhutan – a small country between India and China where Karki’s family and others of Nepalese ancestry were persecuted and driven out in the 1990s. Karki himself was born in a refugee camp in neighboring Nepal.

Despite this, in court documents, the federal government claims that Karki is a citizen of Bhutan. His lawyers categorically reject this claim, questioning how Karki could be a citizen of a country for which he has neither passport nor birth certificate.

They also warn that sending Karki to Bhutan would put him at serious risk of statelessness, pointing to reports that some deportees were refused entry by Bhutanese authorities upon arrival and found themselves stranded in South Asia.

On Monday, a federal judge in Michigan denied Karki’s request for release, paving the way for his deportation shortly.

Refugee advocates say Karki’s case is a chilling example of President Trump’s tough stance on immigration. As his administration seeks to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, his supporters say many immigrants are being expelled from the United States despite their claims of imminent danger or statelessness.

“We’re seeing a really worrying expansion of these scare tactics,” said Aisa Villarosa, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, a national legal advocacy and aid group.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who has previously spoken out about Karki’s situation, said she was particularly troubled that he was being deprived of seeing his child while his future remained precarious.

“No one deserves this cruelty. Mohan must be able to reunite with his beautiful family,” she said in a statement to NPR.

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment.

“He was so excited to know we were having a baby girl.”

Karki moved to the United States in 2011 as part of a U.S.-led international effort to resettle Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees.

Two years later, at age 17, he was arrested for a burglary while living in Georgia. His current lawyers say Karki pleaded guilty without knowing that a crime could invalidate his green card and subject him to deportation proceedings.

Karki’s sentence lasted several months between 2013 and 2014. He was then taken into ICE custody, but released months later under a supervision order. A copy of ICE documents regarding Karki’s release, reviewed by NPR, suggests that neither Bhutan nor Nepal were willing to accept it at the time.

In Karki’s absence, Basnet said she spent many sleepless nights worrying that their daughter would grow up without her father nearby.

Tika Basnet

hide caption

toggle caption

Tika Basnet

Then, in April, during a routine ICE check-in in Ohio, where he moved, Karki was arrested by immigration agents, according to court documents.

When Karki learned he would be deported to Bhutan, he thought it was a mistake, Basnet said.

“He was not even born in Bhutan. He has never seen Bhutan,” she added.

Basnet was eight months pregnant at the time. Two months later, she gave birth to their first child. She described the experience as lonely without her husband.

“I was crying during labor because the pain was overwhelming, and at that time I needed my husband’s love and support, but he wasn’t there,” she said.

Basnet knew it was devastating for Karki as well.

“We had always dreamed of having a child, and he was so excited to know we were having a little girl,” she added.

“The United States made this promise to resettle refugees and it has not been kept”

For years, Bhutan did not accept Nepalese Bhutanese refugees facing deportation from the United States. But since Trump returned to power, dozens of people have been deported there, according to the Asian Law Caucus, which monitors such deportations.

It’s unclear what exactly triggered this policy change, according to Villarosa of the Asian Law Caucus. The group submitted several Freedom of Information requests to the federal government regarding the evictions but received limited, if any, responses, Villarosa said.

Last week, the organization filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, the State Department and other federal agencies over unanswered FOIA requests.

“We want answers to why these evictions are happening,” Villarosa said. “The United States made this promise to resettle refugees and it has not been fulfilled.”

Bhutan is also under close scrutiny following accusations that authorities turned back deportees within 24 hours of their arrival. NPR previously reported on a refugee who said he was ordered to leave and then lived in the shadows in neighboring India, without legal status of any kind.

Others, who say they have had the same experience, have returned to what remains of their former refugee camps in Nepal. But even there, refugees have no path to citizenship. Earlier this year, the Nepalese government ruled that those deported could not stay in the country and had to pay a fine until they left.

“People are missing, hiding or fearing for their lives,” Villarosa said.

The expulsions sent shockwaves through the small community of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees in the United States, bringing back memories of statelessness and government targeting.

“It haunts you constantly,” said Robin Gurung, a Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugee. He also co-founded Asian Refugees United, an advocacy group that has been at the forefront of raising awareness about evictions.

In Ohio, Basnet said she was trying to locate a possible family member in South Asia who could help Karki after his deportation. But so far, Basnet has not had success, since all of his relatives have resettled in the United States.

“I don’t know where he’s going to stay,” she said. “He has no place, he doesn’t know [anyone] there.”