For the past few months, stories about ICE raids and the horrible conditions of immigration detention centers have flooded the media. Last weekend, a radio show called “This American Life” did their own story on the struggle to immigrate to America that featured a Hmong woman from Minnesota, City Pages reports.
In 2017, 19-year-old Yong Xiong’s flight touched down in Chicago. She had passed an interview process at the US embassy in Laos. She had filed her paperwork. The embassy interview approved her paperwork and confirmed that her engagement to her fiance, who was waiting for her in America, was legit.
When she reached customs, Xiong was questioned by a Customs and Border Protection agent about her birthdate and age without an interpreter present.
Agents determined that Xiong, who is 4-foot-7, “appeared to be under the age of 18 based on her physical characteristics and childlike mannerisms.” They searched her bag and found pictures of Xiong and her fiance. They claimed that Xiong’s unhappy face in those photos indicated that she was “physically scared” of her fiance.
An interpreter came to help question Xiong, so that agents could determine whether or not she fit the profile of someone who was being trafficked. After she was questioned, agents claimed that her answers seemed coached.
Agents then wrote down her birthdate as January 1, 2000. At the time, this made Xiong a minor. She was told that she would have to stay at the airport overnight. The next day, they used tooth x-ray measurements to help determine her age, a method that the radio show claims is an inaccurate way to determine someone’s age.
The x-rays showed that Xiong could be anywhere from “14.76 to 19.56 years” of age. According to the radio show, agents used this information to determine that she was underage.
At the detention center, Xiong continued to fight to get home to her fiance. She told her clinician that she was 19 and was, in fact, in America to get married. When this didn’t work, she asked instead if she could live with her aunt. The center denied her request even after DNA test results proved she and her aunt were related in St. Paul, Minnesota.
On June 8, 2018, 21-year-old Xiong was released to her aunt. She is currently attending a high school in St. Paul because, according to some records, Xiong is still 16.
You can listen to the full show and learn more about Xiong’s story on the This American Life website.
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