08/07/2026
Our final post from this year’s Kites to Southeast Asia trip ends with a reflection from Montha Chum, Executive Director, MN8.
“I just got back from my second Kites to Southeast Asia trip, and I’m still sitting with everything I heard.
This visit felt different. For the first time, we traveled to Laos, where so many of our community members have been deported over the last 18 months. I listened to story after story of families being torn apart by U.S. deportation policies, and I’m still processing the amount of harm our systems continue to cause. So many of those deported were born in Thai refugee camps or came to the U.S. as young children, making deportation not a return home, but another chapter of displacement.
One of the moments that will stay with me the most was our first women’s panel. We’ve heard from our brothers who have been deported before, but this was the first time we really centered the wives, the American women who left everything behind to keep their families together, and the Khmer women who have been judged simply for loving someone who was deported. Their stories reminded me that deportation doesn’t just happen to one person. It ripples through marriages, children, parents, and entire communities. It also opened up conversations between husbands and wives that many shared they’d never had before. Seeing our work in Laos, being led by the first Hmong woman deported there, alongside one of the first Hmong men deported there, was something I’ll never forget. It was heartbreaking and beautiful all at once, to see the community they’ve built while knowing so many are still living with the pain of being separated from the people they love, including themselves.
Every time I come back from these listening tours, I’m reminded that our people continue to find ways to care for one another, organize, and build community despite everything they’ve endured. Their resilience is incredible…but resilience should never be what we expect from people, especially after policies that shouldn’t exist in the first place.”
Stay tuned for an upcoming NBF blog post interview with Montha about her experience during this trip.
