Southeast Asian Community and allies rally for Nich Chourng, abducted by ICE and held at the Wyatt Detention Facility

“ICE, I will never forgive you. I’ll never fucking forgive you for kidnapping my father and tearing up our families, especially my family. Nobody deserves this. Nobody."

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Community members and organizations rallied outside the Wyatt Detention Facility on Wednesday to protest the abduction of Laotian father, Nich Chourng, and demand his release.

Nich was arrested by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside his place of work at a Cranston restaurant and is currently detained at Wyatt Detention Facility. He is a beloved father, husband, and community member who resettled here in Rhode Island as a refugee from the American War in Laos, a country where the United States military dropped over two million tons of bombs between 1965 and 1973. Nich has lived in the United States for almost five decades and worked tirelessly to support his family.

Here’s the video:

“I’m here to speak for my father because he can’t speak for himself. His name is Nich Chourng, and I am his daughter,” said Caylee Chourng, a youth leader at the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE). “My father is a man who works two jobs, seven days a week. He has three children, me and my two younger brothers. And every single day, he wakes up to do everything he can to give us a better life, something he never had. He doesn’t rest. He doesn’t complain. He gives his time and energy to his family and everyone in need. He is selfless, caring, and protective. If someone around him needed help, he’d be the one to show up, even though he had nothing on him.

“When I was struggling, when I cried, or when I was bullied, he showed up. He made me realize I had a voice and gave me strength. He made me feel safe. He made sure that I had a voice. He gave me the voice and the strength to stand up for myself, and now I’m using that strength to stand up for him because he was taken from us without warning, without justice, and without regard for what it would do to our family.

“Even one day without my father feels like a part of me is missing. But this separation, silence, and injustice are more than pain. No one should ever be taken like this. No one should have their rights ignored, their family torn apart, and their voice silenced. That’s why I’m here. I’m not just speaking for my father, I’m speaking for every father, every mother, every child, and every family that’s been torn apart.

“I’m affected by a system that values paperwork over people. My father is more than a case. He’s more than a number. He’s a human being, a father, and he’s loved. We will not stop fighting for him.

“ICE, I will never forgive you,” continued Caylee. “I’ll never fucking forgive you for kidnapping my father and tearing up our families, especially my family. Nobody deserves this. Nobody. Families should not be torn apart like this. Especially in hard times like this. I don’t know how our community could be seen as criminal when our president’s got all these felonies on him, when he’s a criminal himself. I don’t understand. It ain’t nothing, and this ain’t right - especially the way they’re grabbing people from the streets. Make it make sense.

“I want to share something that always came to mind when I was growing up. My dad was illiterate. He came to the United States with no education. He was not able to finish school, and that’s not his fault. The United States failed to provide him with any support - no mental support, no education, no anything.

“I’m going to read this message that I wrote: ‘Growing up, my father always told me to write his story, to share what he’s been through, to show what it means to be a Cambodian, to come to the United States in search of what this country promises: the freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.’ I will always honor that wish. I will always speak and fight for him no matter what. But why did this country promise that if they’re not going to do that? It’s disgusting behavior.

“I’m angry that my father got taken away. I’m angry that our community is falling apart. It’s disgusting behavior. The fact is that every government and every fucking legislator are not doing shit. There’s more you could be doing. They’re worried about the wrong things. They’re not worried about the right things. Free Nich. Free everybody. This shit is wrong.”

ICE has been ripping up families across the United States. ICE tactics, which include unidentified and masked-up officers vanishing people off the streets, sow terror, erode justice, and ignore judicial and constitutional oversight.

Caylee’s mother was the next person to speak, and she described the arrest.

“I would’ve never thought it would happen to me. I’ve been hearing about deportation and families being torn apart. It hit me yesterday when I went to pick Nich up for a break at one o’clock, and ICE came and grabbed him. They did not identify who they were. There was no badge. They didn’t tell me where he was being taken or what he was under arrest for. All they did was block us, tell him to get out of the car, place his hand behind his back, and say, ‘You’re under arrest.’ When I asked the ICE agents what he was being arrested for, there was no answer. All they said was ‘He’s going to get a phone call.’ They put him inside a black car with tinted windows without letting him say any words to me.

“I was able to ask for his wallet because we live in a corrupt state. Whatever possessions you have in your wallet, once it is taken into their possession, and anything goes missing, they will say they do not know. You don’t have proof. I was able to grab his wallet and whatever money was in there that could help me and my kids during the time that he’s away from us right now.

“I need him home. I want ICE to release him. He’s a good father. He’s a good husband. He’s a good uncle. He’s a caring friend and neighbor. Many of you in the crowd know him personally. He loves to go fishing. That man, after work, goes straight out to the water. When they ask me where Nich is, I’d say he’s right on the water. He’s over there fishing. If you want to see him, look for that man by the water.

“He shares his fish with friends and people that he doesn’t even know. He does good deeds. He understands. He wakes up to provide for me and the kids. I am unable to work because of my health. I have heart failure and I’m a type 2 diabetic, for which I take insulin and other medications. He has an autistic son who’s five years old and doesn’t know what’s going on. All he knows is that his dad is not there at the moment, and he doesn't understand what's going on. That breaks my heart.

“He is the only person providing for us. When insurance doesn’t cover the meds, he’s the one providing them. We don’t have any family members whatsoever. It’s just my husband, my kids, and me living here in Rhode Island. Two months ago, I lost my mother to cancer, and now I don’t have my husband to support me in this time of the dark cloud.

“Please release Nich. Please release him back to us. We need him. His child needs him. He doesn’t understand what’s going on or where his father is.”

“I am the program manager of the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE),” said Nancy Xiong. “It is a privilege to be alive at this very moment. I grew up in the west end of Providence. I am a child of Hmong genocide survivors fighting for the lives of those unheard and without a permanent home. From the mountains of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps in Thailand to the ghettos in the United States filled with over-policing and racism, our story goes along these lines.

“We got blisters and bruises on our feet, crying babies in our arms, dazed without food in our stomachs, and exhaustion from following the footsteps of the person in front of us in order not to get blown up by landmines.

“Once we arrived at the Mekong River, shots were fired, and the stench of human corpses filled the area. Everyone had to separate and swim across the river to flee to Thailand. We waited several months or years in the refugee camps before we were called to the United States. We left everything to start a new life, not only for ourselves, but for the next generation. These traumatic life experiences not only exist in a Hmong community, but in other Southeast Asian communities as well.

“We did not come to America because we wanted to. We are here because they were there. It was forced displacement due to war, and the constant bombings caused by the U.S. during the Vietnam War and the Secret War in Laos. Yet this place that we sought refuge in, this country, this administration, constantly targets and seeks to discard us back to a place some of us are unfamiliar with. Laos is our homeland, but it is not our home. Southeast Asian communities aren’t the only ones being detained. This inhumane act has been rampant in Rhode Island and across the country.

“No one deserves this. ICE has nothing better to do than waste government resources and tear families apart. They are intentionally targeting the most vulnerable in our communities. Now is not the time to be silent. This is the time to fight for human rights. We will and must continue to fight back. Fifty years ago, we fought the U.S. Empire and its military machine, and we won. We will win again. Our ancestors didn’t come this far for us to be silent, ignorant, and turn a blind eye to the injustices around us. We must ask questions, organize, and mobilize, because if we don’t, who will?”

“When my dad got taken by ICE, I was in school,” said Nich’s son. “It was during the fifth period when he called me, and I didn't know who it was. Then, when I got home, my sister Caylee told me what happened, and I started crying. I keep crying. When my dad called the first time, he wanted to talk to me. I didn’t want to talk to anybody because I took it hard. He’s my only father, and he’s the one who supports me in school and everything. Next week is his birthday, and his brother’s coming down and expects him to be here. Now he has to sing Happy Birthday to himself because ICE took him.

“My graduation is on June 17th, and he was supposed to take the weekday off to come surprise me at my graduation. But no, because ICE wants to take him away from me. They want me to suffer without my dad. But my dad told me to take care of my mom, my sister, and my brother. And if anything, sell his fishing pole. But the only thing I won’t sell is his fishing pole, because it holds a special place in my heart for him. It has his initials, and he used it everywhere. The first time he took me out fishing, I liked it. He took me everywhere: Jamestown, Colt State Park, Tiverton, everywhere fishing with him, catching scallops, blackfish, striper, everything.

“Last year, before he went to California to go see his brother, I asked him, ‘Can he get me a GoPro?’ He made that come true when he came back. We went to Best Buy and picked up everything I needed after we ate. He’s the only figure I have to support me in school. My school year is almost over now. I don’t know what I’m going to do because my dad is in the Wyatt Detention Center behind me. I don’t know what I’m going to do during the summer without him.”

“I’m a Rhode Islander from Woonsocket/Cumberland/Providence,” said Patri. “My father came to the U.S. as a Lao refugee from the Secret War, and my mother came as an immigrant from Thailand, so I feel very deeply when I hear about a situation like this. I worked with Nich, and I’m here today with a few of our coworkers. When I found out that ICE kidnapped Mitch, I became deeply devastated and furious. My heart aches for him and his family. We weren’t that close, but I always felt connected to him since we’re both Lao. Nich was always working hard, making food for hungry customers. When we did speak, he would mention his kids, and he sounded so proud to have them. Nich could speak many languages - Spanish, Lao, and Cambodian. His skill gave him the ability to connect with many coworkers.

“All of us in the food industry work under stressful conditions. We are on our feet all day in a fast-paced environment. We work hard every day to provide food and positive experiences to our community. We know that immigrants are the backbone of this industry. As a man who had multiple jobs, Nich should be able to provide for his family without fearing for his safety.

“ICE came after Nich at his workplace, and we know that he is not the only one targeted. They come for immigrant workers here in Rhode Island and across the country. They kidnapped him. They ripped him from his family and his community. We can’t sit by and let this happen. Who will they come after next? It could be our parents, siblings, or another coworker. Our neighbor workers need to unite and stand up to bring Nich home. We need to build our power together to stop ICE from taking any of our people ever again. We stand in complete solidarity with Nich. We want him free. We want him back in his community and with his family.”

“I'm the youth engagement director of the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) and President of the Cambodian Society of Rhode Island,” said Suonriaksmay Keo. “I’m a proud Rhode Islander. I was born and grew up here. I’m a child of Cambodian refugees who were displaced by the United States Wars in Southeast Asia. After many years of occupation in the destabilization of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the U.S. military withdrew and left the countries ravaged by bombs and war. Here, history books call it the Vietnam War, but we know it as the American War on Southeast Asia. Hundreds of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees fled to countries like the United States, where they were resettled in cities like Providence. The United States’ Secret War and the bombing of Laos is a tragedy we will never forget. We feel the impact to this day.

“When we were forced to come here to build better lives for our families, the United States intentionally placed us in under-resourced and over policed communities. We were left to navigate a capitalist system that was never designed to give us a fair chance, a soulless system that continues cycles of violence and trauma.

“For 50 years, the scars from the United States military violence continued to exist for many of us, whether it’s in Southeast Asia, the United States, or even here in Rhode Island. For the past five decades, Southeast Asians have rebuilt our lives and contributed greatly to Rhode Island. Since Trump got reelected and as his administration escalates its attacks on the people, we’ve seen an escalation of deportations in general and especially among Southeast Asians. As Christian mentioned earlier, we’ve seen ICE kidnap our people on the way to work, dropping their kids off at school, or at their ICE check-ins. Just last week, Lei, Manu, and Casey stood strong as they were deported by the United States and ripped away from us. Yet we are still standing strong with them.

“From Rhode Island to Laos, and with our other Southeast Asian community members currently detained by ICE like Nich, we know what we must do because we are a resilient and powerful community. We are a community that is ready to defend our people. We will free Nich and we will bring home Lei, Manu, and Casey. As a Southeast Asian community and survivors of the United States Empire, we have a responsibility to ourselves, to each other, our ancestors, our elders, and our children to stand against genocide and against the genocide of Palestinian people and against deportations of our people and all people.

“We keep our community safe. If we continue to build together, we can strengthen our collective power to create a community where everyone is loved and cared for. We must demand Nich be released to his family. We must demand the release of all detainees in Wyatt and all political prisoners everywhere.

“Free Nich, and free them all.”

“This is an incredibly important time for our community to come together, and I'm so inspired to be with all of you here today to resist the racist ICE terror in our communities that is targeting Nich and so many other people of our community,” said Christian. “I’m a proud member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and a proud Southeast Asian organizer for immigrant rights. We’re here today because our beloved community member, Nich, a father, a husband, and a neighbor, was kidnapped yesterday while leaving his job at a Cranston restaurant. This was only one of his jobs. He works seven days a week to feed his family, working long hours as a chef and stocking groceries. Nich left his shift at the restaurant yesterday. ICE stalked him, lay in wait for him, and abducted him in front of his wife and coworkers. They swarmed him and his wife and violently abducted him. ICE didn’t identify themselves and didn’t even ask for his name. He just grabbed him, shackled him, and stole him from us.

“They targeted Nich specifically at his job. They do this on purpose to strike fear among immigrant workers. They did this to try to scare us into hiding, to paralyze us with fear. But the administration’s tactics will never work, because we are here today to say that we are not hiding. Immigrant workers and non-immigrant workers are rising together, and we will not allow our people to be taken away from us. Nich is not the only worker who was targeted yesterday.

“Nich and his fellow workers in the service industry feed our community. Food service is one of the largest sectors in Rhode Island, accounting for approximately 20% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). Food service workers create massive amounts of wealth for corporations and the billionaires who run our state and federal governments. Trump’s capital alone is worth $340 billion, yet food service workers barely make enough to feed their families and have just a meager paycheck. Nich had to work two jobs, seven days a week, because one food service job was not enough to survive on. Not only did he have to break his back with no days off to sustain his family and everyone else he helped serve and feed, he also had no days off from living under a regime of anti-immigrant ICE terror.

“Then the far right and the media have the gall to try to frame immigrant communities as the criminals. Our politicians have spent 19 months committing genocide in Palestine, and the capitalist media, which spent 19 months covering up Israel’s crimes, keep trying to label our folks criminals and lawbreakers in an attempt to dehumanize them, but we know that these people are our parents, coworkers, and loved ones.

“They are people who have lived here for years. They’ve built their lives here. They raised their children here. ICE took Nich without explanation and threw him in a cage here in the Wyatt, right here in Central Falls. We refuse to allow our people to be treated like this, and we will not stop fighting until they are all home. The real criminals are the ones kidnapping our family and friends from their jobs and homes.

“They’re the ones committing genocide in Palestine. They’re the ones attacking students on campuses and attacking our right to free speech. Now, our real enemies, Trump and his billionaire cronies, say that we’re in an immigration crisis, but it’s not immigrants that cripple the global south with sanctions. It’s not immigrants who bomb people from Yemen to Guatemala and create the instability, poverty, and destruction that force people to immigrate here. It’s all at the feet of U.S. Imperialism. As my friend once said, people come to the eye of the storm because that's where it feels the calmest. Nich and all of us come to the U.S. because that is where all the wealth stolen from our homelands is hoarded. We come here for the chance of surviving after the U.S. wreaks imperial destruction upon our countries.

"I’m a child of Filipino immigrants who fled U.S. imperialism in the Philippines, just like Nich and his family fled U.S. imperialism in Laos and Cambodia. I will continue to fight not just until all Southeast Asians are free, but until all immigrant communities are free from ICE terror.

“The United States bombed and displaced our people and forced us to flee to the United States. Now, the same United States empire targets our people here, kidnaps us from our friends and community, and deports us. Since Trump got elected again, his administration has escalated attacks on our people. We’ve already seen an escalation of deportations in general, especially amongst Southeast Asians. We’ve seen ICE kidnap our people on the way to work, or dropping off their kids at school, or ICE check-ins. We are here to say not one more.

“We know that our Southeast Asian community is not the only one fighting this struggle. ICE targets immigrants from all across the world, in particular immigrants from countries who have dared to resist U.S. imperialism, as we demand the return of our deported Southeast Asian siblings to us. We also demand an end to all deportations. We demand an end to deportations for everyone.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the American War in Southeast Asia and the 50th anniversary of the defeat of the United States. In those wars, the U.S. dropped millions and millions of tons of bombs on Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. We mourn the death and the destruction U.S. Imperialism rained down upon our people, and we celebrate and honor that our Southeast Asian people ultimately defeated the United States military. The U.S. has a long, long history of trying to destroy Laos and the Lao people. When the Lao people dared to fight for their sovereignty, the United States dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, more than any other country in the world. Decades later, there are still unexploded U.S. bombs across the countryside of Laos that continue to explode and kill the Lao people, even today.

"For many years, Laos and the other Southeast Asian countries have refused to cooperate when the United States tries to deport our people. Our countries resisted, but Trump threatened Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and forced our countries to accept the deportation of refugees that the United States created in the first place.

“We know it’s not just Trump. Under Biden and Obama, the U.S. military relentlessly bombed oppressed people across the globe and tried to deport our community members in record numbers. Biden and Obama built a machine that Trump is now running with full racist demagoguery on steroids.

“Trump tells us that the enemy is immigrants, that the enemy is Cambodians or Guatemalans or Palestinians or Haitians or Venezuelans. But we are not the ones causing the problems that exist in the United States. It is Trump and his billionaire friends who are raising our rents. They’re the ones who are increasing the price of our groceries, who are privatizing our education, and who are stealing our loved ones. Trump and his billionaire friends are the real enemies, not immigrants and not each other. Today, in front of Rhode Island’s only ICE detention facility, in front of the notorious Wyatt, we are gathered to demand that ICE stop Nich’s deportation and release all the people in this prison.

“We are here today to let Nich and everyone detained know that we love them and we will fight for them until they are free.”

[All pictures and videos in this post are ©2025 Phil Eil]