Refugee in ICE Detention Missed Chemotherapy Sessions While Receiving Treatment for Terminal Cancer

A Laotian refugee who came to the United States as a child in the early 1980s is receiving hospice care after missing chemotherapy sessions for terminal Hodgkin’s lymphoma while in federal immigration detention. The man is 57 years old and has days to live according to those caring for him.

He requires insulin for diabetes and medication for a heart condition. His care assistant said he was responding well to chemotherapy before entering detention. The care assistant spoke by phone on Friday from a home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the man now stays.

The man listened in on the call from his bedside but was too sick to speak. In early January the man was detained during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. Agents took him from his Minneapolis home to a federal facility more than 1,300 miles away in El Paso, Texas.

He slept on an uncomfortable bunk bed in a large tent with about 60 other detainees until his release and return to Minnesota. The care assistant said the man did not receive medical care while in detention and missed two chemotherapy sessions. After his release he was immediately hospitalized and missed two additional sessions.

He was too sick to attend a fourth session and later spent eight days in the hospital, causing him to miss a fifth.

The care assistant said the cancer worsened and spread to the man’s bone marrow. The man had been receiving life-sustaining chemotherapy for almost two years. The care assistant, who first met the man three years ago at a local Buddhist temple in Minneapolis, has supported him through his cancer treatment.

Had the man completed five full rounds of chemotherapy scheduled for January he would have had many more months to live, the care assistant said after speaking with his oncology team. The man was released from detention after the care assistant contacted his doctors and asked them to send a letter to the facility warden describing the urgency of his medical condition.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The man’s family fled Laos after the communist government took control in 1975 following the Vietnam War. The family settled in Minnesota, which has one of the largest Lao populations in the country. When the man was 22 he was convicted of aiding and abetting a drive-by shooting.

He served six months in county jail. The conviction ended any path to naturalized U.S. citizenship and required him to check in regularly with immigration officials. His most recent work authorization card was issued in 2023. The man had worked consistently, never married and had no children.

The care assistant launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover his medical and funeral expenses. He has expressed a wish to be cremated and have his ashes placed with those of his late father.