Deported Maryland mother says immigrants treated "less than animals," husband vows to bring her back

The devastated husband of a Maryland mother of four, deported to Vietnam over a theft conviction decades ago, vows to fight to bring her back to the United States. 

Melissa Tran is now staying with a cousin after a harrowing 48-hour journey to the country she left as a child.

Husband's heartbreak 

A tearful Danny Hoang is now running the couple's nail salon by himself and taking care of their children.

"She's so sad," Hoang told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren Thursday. "She only wants to take care of the kids. Now, she can't do that. It's unfair to Melissa, unfair to my family. She's not a criminal. She's not a murderer. She's a good person."

Hoang spoke to Tran, who said the trip to Hanoi took two full days. 

"It was a horrible, horrible trip. They had her handcuffed by her hands and her legs," Hoang said. 

In a text shared by one of her lawyers, Tran wrote that the trip included lengthy stops in Romania, India, and Nepal.

"It was exhausting," Tran wrote. "I never want to sit on the plane in shackles ever again. I felt like we were less than animals."

Her husband is trying to keep up hope that she will someday be allowed to return to the life they built together. 

Hoang said Tran only had her wallet with a small amount of cash when she was taken into custody during a routine immigration check-in with officials in Baltimore. 

She used that money to buy her own plane ticket from Hanoi to connect with relatives in the southern part of Vietnam. 

"She's one of the kindest people I know in this community. She's a main force in this community," said longtime customer and former school principal Valerie Novak. "I believe that the criminals who are here illegally need to go home, but she is not a criminal. She's just not. No mother should be separated from their children, especially when two are still in elementary school. It just isn't right."

Prior conviction 

Tran came to the United States from Vietnam at age 10 as a refugee. She was granted legal access to stay in the country. 

She said that as a teenager, a former boyfriend was behind their theft of money from an employer. Tran cooperated with the police, served time in jail, and repaid the stolen funds. 

Her lawyers said, at that time, she was unaware that her plea agreement in the case could result in her deportation. 

For years, Vietnam would not accept refugees like Tran. She was instructed to check in regularly with immigration officials, which she did without issue for more than 20 years.

Tran never had another run-in with the law. 

But things changed during the second Trump administration when, during one of those routine immigration check-ins, she was detained. 

"Just a normal check-in. You go and you show them your identification, and then, they give you your next appointment date," Tran told Hellgren in October. 

This time, ICE detained her without explanation. Tran spent five days in Baltimore. She described being housed with nine women in filthy conditions. 

"No shower, nothing. No personal hygiene. No toothbrush to brush your teeth," Tran said. 

The women were kept in one room with an inflatable mattress and no blankets.

"I was in shock," Tran said.

Tran was then taken to Louisiana, Arizona, and ended up in Tacoma, Washington.

She said she was always shackled on various buses and planes but relied on the many letters of support she received from friends in Maryland to keep her spirits up. 

"When you're sitting there—and you don't know what's happening to you—and you think all these negative thoughts, it's the letters that I received from the people in the community saying you have to stay strong. We are fighting for you. We are praying for you. It gives me hope," Tran said. 

Legal fight

Hellgren followed her on her next check-in, which went smoothly.

But at her November appointment, she was detained.

"This time around, she gets arrested without any notice, held in a holding cell until she's then put on a plane to Louisiana—and without anyone explaining to her what's happening—put on a plane to Vietnam. The whole system it's designed to be punishing and cruel and to treat immigrants like they're not human," said Jennie Pasquarella, one of Tran's attorneys.

Pasquarella said it will be difficult for Tran to return to the U.S., but possible. 

"What will it take for us as a country to wake up and see what is happening around the country to so many people, so many families who are being kidnapped and banished from their lives here and their families?" Pasquarella said. "The cruelty here cannot be stated enough."

Among the avenues for bringing her back to

Maryland is trying to get a pardon from the incoming Virginia governor. 

Tran's theft conviction was in that state.  

Her legal team said the crimes she committed are no longer considered felonies. 

"To be removed from the only country you've known since you were a child, but you have an established life, I just don't think anything prepares you for what that can feel like," Pasquarella said. "The idea that she has to build a new life over in her 40s and be removed from her husband and her children, her business, and everything she's built here, it's hard to imagine how anyone could be prepared for that."

Trump administration response

WJZ Investigates reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about the case.

"ICE arrested Mong Tuyen Thi Tran, a criminal illegal alien from Vietnam, who has a rap sheet including forgery, larceny, fraud, and writing fraudulent checks. An immigration judge issued her a final order of removal in 2004. She had over 20 years to leave and received full due process," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote. "President Trump and Secretary Noem's message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States."

Van Hollen criticizes deportation 

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, condemned what happened to Tran.

"Here you have a woman who was beloved by her community, started a small business, and I have to ask everybody, is she really the worst of the worst? Do people really feel safer now that Melissa Tran has been deported? I don't think so," the senator said. 

Van Hollen said his office will work to bring her home. 

"We are going to continue to pursue this case and see if we can't have her reunited with her family and her community," he told WJZ. "I don't know exactly how long it will take, but we won't give up because this is such a tragic story, and it's tragic because it didn't have to happen."