Four of 12 confirmed cases of Bhutanese refugees arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Pennsylvania have resulted in deportation, reportedly to Bhutan.
Thursday morning, names of four men from Allegheny, Dauphin and Lancaster counties detained by ICE in March were no longer in the agency’s Online Detainee Locator System. Around noon, Bhutanese community leader Tilak Niroula spoke with the men, who had just landed in New Delhi, India. According to Niroula, those men were informed they would soon be sent to Paro, Bhutan.
“I hope the government of Bhutan will treat them with respect, with dignity, and offer them citizenship,” Niroula said.
Bhutan has not historically recognized members of the Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa refugees as citizens and has previously denied attempts by the United States to deport people back to the country. The return of these refugees from the U.S. to Bhutan could reflect a shift in diplomatic agreements between the countries.
Each of the deported men were born in Bhutan, according to ICE records. The Lhotshampa people are from the nation’s south, driven out of the country in a government-backed ethnic cleansing through the 1980s and 1990s.
Bhutan has a consulate in New York, but it has not responded to three emails or five phone calls since Tuesday, including questions about how the deported men will be treated upon arrival.
“ICE does not comment on current or future operations due to operational security,” said Jason Koonce, a department public affairs officer.
Through a decadelong resettlement effort led by the U.S. from 2006 to 2016, there are now more than 70,000 Bhutanese refugees in Pennsylvania, according to Gov. Josh Shapiro. Around 40,000 of them live in Central Pennsylvania, making Dauphin and surrounding counties home to one of the largest populations of Lhotshampa people in the country. Many, like Niroula, have become naturalized citizens.
“They’ve been an important part of the social fabric, and the economic fabric, the educational fabric, the cultural fabric of our communities,” Shapiro said on Wednesday, before the men were deported.
“I want to make sure that anyone who has been rounded up by the federal government is given their full due process,” Shapiro said. “I expect the Trump administration to honor the law, to respect the law, and ensure those they’ve come in contact with receive due process.”
Niroula met with Shapiro on Tuesday and with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s office on Wednesday. He has a meeting with U.S. Rep. Scott Perry today. Niroula is asking the elected officials to help find information on why ICE is arresting people now and about the status of their cases.
“Be strong,” Niroula said in a message to his fellow Bhutanese refugees in Pennsylvania. “We are in this together.”
Orders of removal, and status of those who remain
Of the 12 Bhutanese refugees WITF has confirmed have been arrested by ICE, at least eight have removal orders, which are decisions by immigration judges allowing those individuals to be deported. Those orders are often issued after a criminal conviction.
But even with removal orders, people can stay in the U.S. for long periods of time if their country of origin won’t take them back, according to Kerry Doyle, a veteran immigration attorney who recently served three years in various roles in the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, under the administration of President Joe Biden. She was an immigration judge for two months before being laid off in February by the Trump administration, along with her class of 13 other new judges, for unspecified reasons, she said.
Several of the men were held by ICE in years past, according to Niroula, but ultimately released because the U.S. could not find a country that would accept them upon deportation.
But once issued, that order still stands, according to Doyle.
“But ICE and the Department of Homeland Security continue to work with countries to encourage them in different ways to take their nationals back and their citizens back,” Doyle said, adding the U.S. often uses leverage to make deals other countries are otherwise hesitant to accept.
When a new agreement is put in place, ICE can arrest and deport people in a move that could seem sudden to the community, which may not be aware of the broader geopolitical movements that govern their stay in the country, Doyle said.
WITF has records for one of the four men deported Thursday, Bidur Khadka, of Allegheny County. He had removal orders dating to August 2023, though his family said they were unaware of those orders until WITF shared the records.
That’s not uncommon, Doyle said.
“Our immigration system is incredibly complex,” Doyle said. “People are not afforded the opportunity to have appointed counsel. They have to hire counsel, which could be expensive and difficult, especially if detained.”
Khadka had a series of arrests for assault and domestic violence from 2019 through 2021. He was given removal orders in August 2023.
Another man who was deported, Maita Gurung, has a long string of arrests related to public drunkenness and at least one guilty plea for simple assault and terroristic threats with intent to terrorize another in 2013. His family has not been able to find the paperwork and documentation to track the status of his case.
Neither man had an attorney prior to deportation.
A final visit
Niroula and family members of two of the detained men were able to visit their loved ones in the Pike County Correctional Facility on Saturday. Family members of two other detained men also were able to visit.
The trip was arranged at the request of Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas. Dauphin County Prison Warden Gregory Briggs reached out to Pike County’s warden, Craig Lowe, who gave special dispensation for weekend visitation.
“I’ve got to do the right thing for the people we have here,” Lowe said.
Two people were able to talk with each detained man. The conversations were limited to 15 minutes, and parties were separated by a glass barrier and used phones on either side.
The facility’s normal visitation day is Wednesday, but the families feared the men would be transferred before then. They were right. The Bhutanese detainees were transferred to an ICE detention center in Elizabeth, NJ, early Wednesday.
Two Bhutanese men from Harrisburg remain housed there, both with removal orders. One is from Bhutan, the other, Ashok Gurung, was born in a refugee camp in Nepal.
WITF is only releasing the names of individual detainees with their families’ permission or as they become part of the public record.
Read more from our partners, WITF.
