Laotian man files suit in California to obtain passport to return home to die

Laotian man sues to return to home country to die

SAN FRANCISCO — An elderly Laotian man is suing U.S. immigration authorities — not to stay in this country but to go back home.

The 88-year-old Visalia man applied for political asylum in 2008 but now says he is in poor health and wants to be reunited with his wife and children in Laos before his death, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on May 10.

The suit alleges that immigration officials have refused to return his Laotian passport, which they seized when he applied for asylum.

The man filed the suit using just his last name Xiong, saying he wants to hide his identity from Laotian authorities who imprisoned him for working with American troops during the Vietnam War.

“I’m not in good health now,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “My wife and children are still back in Laos. I want to go back and see them before anything happens and I die.”

The suit said Xiong got a visa to come to the United States in 2007 after spending years eluding Laotian authorities. He applied for asylum a year later.

But an asylum officer said he found discrepancies in Xiong’s story and referred the case to an immigration judge, said attorney Kenneth Seeger, who represents Xiong.

Seeger said the judge is not scheduled to hear Xiong’s case until next year, which may be too late for his ailing client.

“He is a virtual hostage,” Seeger said, calling the agency’s decision not to release the passport “bureaucratic stubbornness.”

Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said she would not comment on a pending case.

Haley said the agency will often hold passports if it determines the document requires further review.

The suit seeks unspecified damages in addition to the release of the passport.

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, www.sfgate.com/chronicle