Refugee who fought California wildfires, now fights to avoid deportation

Kao Ta Saelee on the fire lines.

Some days, the smoke from California's burning grass and forests was so thick that firefighter Kao Ta Saelee couldn't see five feet in front of him. 

He was one of the thousands of incarcerated people California uses to fight the wildfires raging through the state. He gets paid $2 to $5 a day for the hot, furious and often dangerous work, clearing brush or saving lives and property.

“It’s hard work, but for me it was worth it to see the look on people’s faces when they know they got people out there trying to help them save their land and their homes,” said Saelee.

After serving 22 of his 25-year sentence, he was eligible for early released because of good behavior. He was supposed to be released August 6. When his release date came, his sister was waiting on the other side of the barbed-wire fence to take him home. However, instead of letting him go free, he was reshackled and handed over to agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and put in a van that drove away. He never got to see his sister.

As a 2-year old toddler, he and his family were refugees from war-torn Laos. When he committed a crime when he was young, he became eligible for deportation. First, ICE separated him from his California family and support system, including his lawyers by flying him to Louisiana, where he will be detained until he is sent back to a country he never knew.

His story is a familiar one for Southeast Asian refugees who were placed in neighborhoods full of violence and crime. After being beaten by a gang of boys, he began to seek protection by associating with other disaffected youth.

At 18, he was convicted of robbery and attempted murder and sentenced to 25 years behind bars.

Even though Newsom has declared California to be a sanctuary state asking law enforcement officers not to assist ICE activities, the states' Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has continued to defy the resolution an cooperate with ICE by informing them of refugees in detention and when they will released.

“I paid my debt to society, and I think I should have a chance to be with my family,” Saelee told the Guardian in a recent phone interview from the ICE jail. “What is the point of sending somebody back to a country where they don’t have no family? I would be frightened out of my mind.”

California Assemblyman Rob Bonta is part of a contingent of lawmakers who wrote  a letter on Oct. 1 asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to pardon Saelee and thus prevent his pending deportation.

He and the other legislators urged the governor to expunge Saelee's record, a new law that goes into effect in January of 2021 when he would be eligible for because of his service on the fire lines. 

"While incarcerated, Mr. Saelee chose to risk his life to serve California," said the letter.  "He has shown that he deserves a second chance,"