Advocates pack Seattle courtroom to support immigrant threatened with deportation to Laos

Close to 200 people packed a federal courtroom and an overflow room in Seattle Friday morning to show support for a West Seattle man who was detained by ICE in July after decades of checking in with federal officials without any incident.

Chittakone “Alan” Phetsadakone was originally a refugee from Laos. He immigrated in 1981, when many refugees were coming to the U.S.

His arrest this summer came as a surprise to his family. Cheryl Eugenio, Phetsadakone's wife of 26 years and a U.S. citizen, said she also was surprised by the support her family has been receiving from the community since her husband's detention.

“We're very private people, and so, like even some of my own family members, I didn't really tell them about it,” Eugenio said.

About 80 people arrived at the courthouse, many from Seattle area school associations. Phetsadakone's family made up about a fifth of the crowd, and included U.S veterans.

“We're just so overwhelmed by all the supporters out there," Eugenio said. "Different groups have reached out to me, [including] people within the school and the community.”

RELATED: What ICE agents can and cannot legally do during arrests

The family has been a fixture in their Seattle-area neighborhood. Eugenio said she works as a secretary for a local school district, and added her husband would help at school and sporting events for their kids. Their youngest, age 13, had to step out of her father’s hearing Friday morning in tears.

“She was the most distraught of all the family members,” said Mo Hamoudi, one of the attorneys representing Phetsadakone. “She is being actively traumatized by the actions of the United States government.”

Phetsadakone’s attorneys argued in court that his arrest was unlawful and he should be released because he wasn’t given enough information about his pending deportation. They’re filing a temporary restraining order against the federal government from doing any immigration action on his case for up to a year.

“The violation of due process here is so important and significant,” said Jennie Pasquarella, an attorney with the Seattle Clemency Project representing Phetsadakone.

RELATED: Wife of WA vet arrested by ICE at citizenship interview speaks out

For decades Laos did not take deportees like Phetsadakone from the U.S. — until the U.S. government quietly began sending people there earlier this year.

“If he had been given notice, he would have had time to pursue his legal claims against deportation, and only because of their unlawful conduct are we in this situation,” Pasquarella told KUOW.

Meanwhile, Phetsadakone is challenging a nonviolent offense he was convicted of when he was 17 years old in the 90s. His attorneys have found discrepancies in his legal defense of that federal nonviolent conviction. If their challenges pervail, the court could overturn Phetsadakone's long-standing deportation order.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Lambert and Lyndsie Schmalz both represented the federal government in the case. They pushed back on the temporary restraining order, which would undercut the government’s efforts to deport Phetsadakone. Their main argument was that he has a standing 20-year deportation order.

RELATED: A Pierce County man expected to be deported to Vietnam. Instead, ICE routed him to South Sudan

A U.S. district judge for the Western District of Washington is expected to rule on the case in the coming days. Phetsadakone’s attorneys are concerned the federal government will try to deport their client, potentially to a third country, before the judge can rule on the temporary restraining order.