He Fought Wildfires While Imprisoned. California Reported Him to ICE for Deportation

Follow this link for the original September 2020 story about Kao Saelee: He fought wildfires while imprisoned. California reported him to Ice for deportation.

After 22 years in prison, Kao Saelee had modest plans for his first days of freedom: swim in a lake and barbecue with his family.
But when his release date came on 6 August and his sister was waiting on the other side of the barbed-wire fence to take him home, California prison guards did not let them reunite. Instead, officers handed the 41-year-old over to a private security contractor who shackled his hands, waist and legs, put him in a van and drove off.
For the first time in his life, Saelee was placed into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody and flown 2,000 miles to an Ice jail in Louisiana. He is now facing deportation to Laos, a country his family fled as refugees when he was two years old.

Update: Saelee was pardoned in May 2021 and released from custody.

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