Bishwa Chhetri, center, and Narad Adhikari, left, members of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugee community in Central Pennsylvania, describe to reporters how he and 100,000 others were driven out of their country in the 1980s and 1990s. (Jordan Wilkie - WITF)
Bishwa Chhetri, center, and Narad Adhikari, left, members of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugee community in Central Pennsylvania, describe to reporters how he and 100,000 others were driven out of their country in the 1980s and 1990s. (Jordan Wilkie - WITF)
At least 18 people of Bhutanese origin who were resettled in the United States between 2008 and 2017 have been deported to the Himalayan country since March 26, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas, advocating on behalf of the large Bhutanese community living in central Pennsylvania, on Wednesday urged “ICE and the Trump administration to immediately pause all deportations to Bhutan until the safety and security of those being deported can be clearly and independently verified.”
To date, at least 15 Bhutanese refugees living in Pennsylvania, all men, have been arrested by ICE. Between March 26 and 28, ICE deported six of them within three weeks of their arrests.
Bhutan, a small country wedged between India and China, drove out about 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese people, called the Lhotshampa or “people from the south,” in the 1980s and 1990s as part of a nationalistic ethnic cleansing.
Nepali news media reported the first 10 refugees deported to Bhutan quickly left that country. Bhutanese officials drove the men to the Indian border, where they were picked up by other vehicles and transported across a narrow section of India’s northeast to Panitanki, a town at the border with Nepal.
READ: ICE arrests 6 Bhutanese legal permanent residents in Dauphin, Cumberland counties
At least some of the men then illegally crossed into the country, per Nepali news reports. Three of the men have been arrested by Nepali immigration enforcement, local reports say.
Douglas said one of those arrested in Nepal was a Dauphin County resident. The governments of Nepal and Bhutan have not answered questions about what will happen to the men.
Of those deported from Pennsylvania, five were born in Bhutan but were young children when their families fled the country. One man, Ashok Gurung, was born in refugee camps in Nepal. Each of the men spent close to 20 years in those camps before being resettled in the U.S.
Deportations from the U.S. to Bhutan signal a diplomatic shift between the countries. In the past, Bhutan denied attempts to deport these same men under President Donald Trump’s first administration and under President Joe Biden.
The U.S. Department of State referred all questions on the matter to the Department of Homeland Security, which has not responded to inquiries about the terms of any agreement with Bhutan’s government to allow former refugees to be deported there.
“We have a moral and legal obligation to not deport people back to a country that ethnically cleansed them,” Douglas said.
Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas, center, called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pause deportation of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese refugees until the United States can confirm the safety of the deportees in Bhutan. At least 10 deportees from across the country were in Bhutan less than 24 hours before being delivered to the Indian-Nepali border, where they planned to cross illegally into Nepal. (Jordan Wilkie – WITF)
WITF has confirmed that four of the men who were deported had criminal records in the United States. Gurung was arrested for felony assault in Georgia in 2013 and served three years in prison. An immigration court ordered him removed from the country in 2017.
Gurung’s family says Gurung was not deported at the time because there was no agreement with Bhutan’s government. He moved to Pennsylvania after he was released from prison; on March 9, he was arrested from his home while working on his car, his sister, Devi Gurung, said.
Once a removal order is issued, it stands, according to Kerry Doyle, a veteran immigration attorney and former political appointee to the Department of Homeland Security under Biden. She also served as an immigration judge for two months before the Trump administration laid her off in February without explanation along with 13 other new judges, she said.
People can live freely in the country for years, but once the U.S. government enters into an agreement with a foreign nation to deport, ICE can pick up people with removal orders and deport them immediately, Doyle said.
It is not uncommon for people to be unaware that they are subject to a deportation order, Doyle said. Family for at least one of the deported men, Bidur Khadka, said they did not know he had a removal order dating back to August 2023.
WITF is releasing the names of individual detainees only with their families’ permission, or as they become part of the public record.
Philadelphia’s ICE office released a statement Wednesday identifying each of the deported men, when they entered the country, the criminal charges for which an immigration judge ordered them deported, and the date of their arrest.
ICE refers to each of the men as citizens of Bhutan, though community leaders contest that designation. Bhutan revoked citizenship for the Lhotshampa people who were driven out of the country, according to Narad Adhikari, a leader in the central Pennsylvania Bhutanese community.
He said the men were not given a form of state identification when they were deported from the U.S. nor upon arrival in Bhutan. Those deported are now stateless, even without the refugee status granted to them 30 years ago when originally driven out of Bhutan.
According to document provided by ICE, the men deported this year are:
Maita Singh Gurung – Citizen of Bhutan
Maita Gurung was admitted to the U.S. Nov. 8, 2010. Lower Paxton Township Police Department arrested Gurung Oct. 8, 2012, and charged him with simple assault and terroristic Threats. Gurung was convicted of both these charges April 9, 2013, and sentenced to 12 months of probation. The Susquehanna Township Police Department arrested Gurung Oct. 21, 2014, and charged him with theft by unlawful taking. Gurung was ordered removed by an immigration judge in Philadelphia Sep. 15, 2015. ICE arrested Gurung during a targeted enforcement operation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, March 12.
Ashok Gurung – Citizen of Bhutan
Ashok Gurung is a native of Nepal and citizen of Bhutan who was admitted into the U.S. on Aug. 13, 2012, at Newark, New Jersey as a refugee. The Dekalb County Superior Court in Georgia convicted him of aggravated assault and sentenced him to three years confinement on March 19, 20014 [sic]. An immigration judge in Atlanta, Georgia, ordered Gurung removed on July 7, 2017. ICE arrested Gurung during a targeted enforcement operation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, March 9.
Bahadur Singh Rai – Citizen of Bhutan
Rai Bahadur entered the U.S.as a refugee in New York Aug. 15, 2011. Rai was convicted Aug. 5, 2013, in the Ada County District Court in Idaho for domestic battery or assault enhancement-in the presence of a child, a felony, for which he was sentenced to serve 90 days in the Ada County Jail, five years probation and fines. ICE issued Rai a notice to appear Aug. 8, 2013. On Sep. 24, 2013, an immigration judge granted Rai voluntary departure Sept. 24, 2013. He failed to depart the U.S. by Oct. 17, 2013, as required. Rai reported to ICE in Pittsburgh March 7, where his order of supervision was revoked and he was placed under arrest and detained for the purpose of removal.
Budha Singh Gurung – Citizen of Bhutan
Budha Gurung was admitted to the U.S. in New York, Aug. 1, 2012. Gurung pleaded guilty in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas May 2, 2014, for simple assault and sentenced to two years probation. Gurung pleaded guilty Oct. 14, 2016, in the Magisterial District Court of Lancaster County to criminal solicitation – patronizing prostitutes and was sentenced to one year probation. Gurung pleaded guilty Dec. 4, 2019, in the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas for rape – forcible compulsion, sexual assault, indecent assault without consent, corruption of minors, and unlawful contact with minor – sexual offenses, and was sentenced to confinement of 5five to 10 years. ICE encountered Gurung while incarcerated with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and issued a notice to appear. An immigration judge issued Gurung an order of removal Aug. 27, 2020.
Bidur Khadhka – Citizen of Bhutan
Khadka is a native and citizen of Bhutan who was admitted to the United States on or about Jan. 6, 2011 at New York, New York as a refugee. On or about Dec. 1, 2022, Khadka was convicted in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania of strangulation – applying pressure to throat or neck and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 2 to 4 years and 2 years probation, and Endangering Welfare of Children – Parent/Guardian/Other Commits Offense and sentenced to 5 years probation. On Oct. 21, 2020, he was convicted in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania for the offense of intimidation of a witness or Victim – refrain from report and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 6 to 12 months. On April 18, 2023 ICE served Khadka with a notice to appear alleging that he was in violation of Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act as an alien,that at any time after admission, has been convicted of an aggravated felony as defined in section 101 of the Act, a law relating to Murder, Rape OR Sexual Abuse of a Minor and Section and Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, in that, at any time after admission, an alien has been convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct. On August 31, 2023, an immigration judge order the removal of Khadka from the US.
Rup Narayan Kharel – Citizen of Bhutan
Kharel is a native and a citizen of Bhutan who entered the United States on or about Aug. 3, 2009 as a lawful permanent resident. On Feb. 22, 2023, Kharel pleaded guilty, in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, to aggravated indecent assault – comp. less than 16 and endangering welfare of children. On May 31, 2023, the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas sentenced him to 5 months and 29 Days -11 months and 29 days for the aggravated indecent assault conviction and 4 years of probation for the endangering welfare of children conviction. On May 30, 2024 ICE arrested Kharel, serving him with a notice to appear alleging he was in violation of Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as an alien who at any time after entry has been convicted of a crime of domestic violence, a crime of stalking, or a crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment and Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act as an alien, that at any time after admission, has been convicted of an aggravated felony as defined in section 101 of the Act, a law relating to Murder, Rape OR Sexual Abuse of a Minor. On Jan. 9, 2025, an immigration judge ordered the removal of Kharel from the US.
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