After He Battled Wildfires as a Prisoner, California Handed Him Over to ICE
‘If I do get deported, it’s like getting sentenced again, for life’
As wildfires smothered California every fall in recent years, Kao Saelee—a Southeast Asian refugee—served as one of the many prisoners battling the flames on the front lines. The state program he was a part of has come under intense scrutiny recently over the low pay incarcerated firefighters receive—roughly $1 an hour—and the fact that they aren’t allowed to become official firefighters when released (though Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law this month to help remedy that).
But this year, Saelee wasn’t gearing up to join the fight as wildfire season hit early — he was set to be released from jail on August 6 after serving 22 years. The plan: His youngest sister would pick him up, and Saelee and his immediate family would spend a day reuniting, cooking out, and relaxing at a nearby lake to celebrate his release.
But that plan never came to fruition. Instead of allowing him to go with his family, officers handed the 41-year-old over to a private security contractor, who then “chained his hands, waist, and legs,” before placing him in a van to be shuffled off to somewhere unknown to him.
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That “somewhere” turned out to be a coronavirus-ridden ICE jail in Louisiana — 2,000-plus miles away from where Saelee was planning to eat and swim with his family.
“I paid my debt to society, and I think I should have a chance to be with my family,” Saelee told The Guardian during a call from Louisiana’s Pine Prairie ICE jail. Currently, the detainment center has more than 65 confirmed Covid-19 cases. And if we’ve learned anything from the coronavirus outbreak at San Quentin State Prison, it’s likely those numbers are both underreported and increasing by the day.
“What is the point of sending somebody back to a country where they don’t have no family,” Saelee adds. “I would be frightened out of my mind.”
Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus (ALC), which is representing Saelee, launched this Change.org petition to help bring Saelee home and to call on Governor Newsom to stop these transfers to ICE in California.
“ICE’s cruelty is a given, but this rogue agency would not be able to carry out their horrific actions without partnerships with state and local actors,” said the ALC’s Sarah Lee.
The group notes that Saelee’s story of fleeing to this country for shelter and away from near-certain death isn’t uncommon among Southeast Asian refugees. Saelee is Mien, a mistreated minority population in Laos who fought alongside the United States during the Vietnam War. Shortly after the United States fled the war-scarred county, the Lao government engaged in a campaign of retribution, which was more or less a genocide of the Mien people. To survive, Saelee and his family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand, before later immigrating to California to seek respite. At 18, Saelee — who found himself homeless, poor, and hungry — was arrested after taking part in a robbery, during which he fired a warning shot in the air.
Over the more than two decades, Saelee “matured and grew up.” He worked as an incarcerated firefighter in both 2018 and 2019, fighting the very kind of infernos presently grasping the West Coast and responsible for turning our skies orange.
Instead of thanking Saelee for his service and respecting that he had completed his time, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) chose to partner with ICE to have federal agents take him into custody — leaving Saelee to become another victim of Trump’s anti-immigration and refugee agenda. This is the same plan Newsom has spoken so adamantly against in the past and has promised to not stand for in any capacity.
Newsom has also admitted to flaws in the incarcerated firefighter program. He signed Assembly Bill 2147 into law earlier this month, which will create a pathway for ex-inmates who served as firefighters during their incarceration to become professional firefighters once released.
In his closing remarks to The Guardian, Saelee said that he couldn’t imagine returning to his home country—one he has barely any recollection of. And the memories he does have of his time in Laos could only be described as traumatic.
“It would be like the first time I’m walking into the prison system — scared and just lost,” he says. “If I do get deported, it’s like getting sentenced again, for life.”
If you’d like to show your solidarity with Saelee and call for his release from ICE — and urge Governor Newsom to #StopICEtransfers from CDCR — you can sign this Change.org petition. We also recommend informing your local and state elected officials (which you can find here) about this injustice and openly discussing the situation that Saelee and others face in this country regarding inhumane, psychologically taxing deportations.
