We’re so excited to see you all at @arbeiterbrewing ‘s Asian Phoenix Festival tomorrow-Saturday, May 9 from 12-4PM!
We’ll have new shirts (printed by @afternoonprinting ) and new stickers which will all go to support our continued mutual aid efforts!
We know we’ve been quiet the last few months—but we’ve been trying to recover from winter, burnout, and big life changes. We are so excited to be back in community with you this weekend!
An immigrant with an aggressive form of cancer who was previously in ICE custody is now in hospice after missing several chemotherapy sessions.
Following text from The Mirror 3/30/26
(Image: Christina Vilay/GoFundMe)
Oudone Lothirath, a Lao refugee who arrived in the U.S. as a child in the 1980s, was taken by ICE from Minnesota in January, leading him to miss four out of five chemotherapy sessions needed to fight against terminal Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
His loved ones say that though his condition was serious before being taken by ICE, missing the chemotherapy sessions as a result of the detention cut his life even shorter. After his detention, Lothirath was so weak that it took him a couple of days to be cleared to travel.
Lothirath, 57, was taken by ICE amid the agency’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Federal agents detained him in his home-located a block from where ICU nurse Alex Pretti was killed by an ICE agent-on Jan. 6, a day before Renee Good was shot and killed, also by a federal agent, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.
“He was responding quite well to the chemo, Christina Vilay, Lothirath’s friend and caretaker, said. “He probably had another good year.”
Upon his detention, the Lao refugee was taken to an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas. There, he slept inside a large tent alongside approximately 60 other detainees.
Approximately 35 years ago, Lothirath was convicted of aiding and abetting a drive-by shooting in Rochester, Minnesota, of which he was the driver. The conviction not only ended his path to naturalization but also obligated him to have constant check-ins with ICE. He had never been apprehended by authorities until this year.
Because of his apprehension and felony conviction, he is still eligible for deportation. However, given his rapidly declining health, it is unlikely he will be sent back to his home country. (Continued in comments)
TODAY WE REMEMBER THE LIVES LOSTS IN THE ATLANTA SPA SHOOTINGS 5 YEARS AGO
In the 5 years since we have mourned the 8 lives taken,
6 of them Asian women, including: Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, and Yong Ae Yue,
we reflect on how this pivotal moment shaped us.
The Paper Lantern Project was founded through this moment, our co-founders first meeting during a grief processing space. We quickly bonded over a mission of liberation, as we tried to understand systemic issues and the intersections of racism, misogyny and violence.
We are forever rooted in this time, when we gained an embodied understanding that our AAPI community deserved more resources and safety.
Providing resources and safety for our community always guides us—now more than ever, with reproductive rights under attack and terror from ICE.
We stand firm that fight is not over.
We are always grateful for our abortion providers, but especially today on National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.
We are grateful for abortion providers, clinic staff, security team members, clinic escorts, nurses and everyone else who keeps our abortion clinics running.
We know that, especially here in Minnesota, showing up can be an act of bravery. But because of you we are able to exercise our rights to have a child, not have a child, and the right to bodily autonomy. Every day.
♥️♥️♥️
TYSM community for showing up and buying stickers! This money will benefit @paperlanternproject and the mutual aid work they’ve been doing with affected immigrant families in MN and to @angryasianwomxn for our organizing efforts in NYC like our distro happening this Sunday at the Lunar New Year Parade! Last day is Saturday and the order form will be closed! TYSM for your orders!
Stickers! Are coming at ya! Reminder that you have exactly ONE WEEK left to participate in our ĐỤ MÁ Du ĐÁ FU€k ICE fundraiser benefitting @paperlanternproject and @angryasianwomxn ! Info in link in bio!
🐎Thanks to your generosity we were able to send $2k so far to @paperlanternproject as the need for affected immigrant families there is so high and they are in need of rapid funds. If you don’t want any stickers, please donate some mutual aid to them!
🔥🧊 ICE IS STILL IN MN!
We are so excited to be in community with you tomorrow, Saturday February 20th from 1-3 at @arbeiterbrewing !
Though the cameras and national attention has left, we know ICE is still here and our loved ones are still in hiding. Our loved ones are still carrying their passports. Our loved ones are still scared. The fight is not over. We hope you can join us at Arbeiter Brewing on 2/21 from 1-3pm for an arts based fundraiser. Come and make a bracelet, lanyard, and/or a zine. Buy a sticker or two. All proceeds from this event will go towards helping support AAPI families that are still under distress.
Right now we are still supporting families that need mutual aid to cover childcare, groceries, medical bills, and more.
There are families that have loved ones still detained.
There are families that are still fearful of leaving their homes. And there’s still a great deal of barriers for liberation for our communities.
We can’t wait to see you!
The fight is not over. We hope you can join us at Arbeiter Brewing on 2/21 from 1-3pm for an arts based fundraiser. Come and make a bracelet, lanyard, and/or a zine. Buy a sticker or two. All proceeds from this event will go towards helping support AAPI families that are still under distress.
Right now we are still supporting families that need mutual aid to cover childcare, groceries, medical bills, and more. There are families that have loved ones still detained. There are families that are still fearful of leaving their homes. And there’s still a great deal of barriers for liberation for our communities.
Hey yo!!! Our Lunar New Year Sticker just arrived! “Light the Fire of Liberation” in honor of the year of the Fire Horse and with the themes that are currently lighting our revolutionary fires: Abolish ICE, Free Palestine and Anti-Fascism, all in English and traditional Chinese. We are offering these as add-ons to the current sticker fundraiser ĐỤ MÁ MÀY ĐÁ FU€k ICE in conjunction with @paperlanternproject ! Only $5 for 1 or 5 for $20…make the whole family or AG happy this LNY! 🔥🐎✊Click the link above to order!
Hey all here’s another look at our very angry and very Asian ĐỤ MÁ MÀY ĐÁ FU€k ICE fundraiser! Money goes to @paperlanternproject for mutual aid for affected immigrant families in Minneapolis and to @angryasianwomxn ’s ongoing organizing and mutual aid around ICE in NYC. For $25-$50 sliding scale, you’ll get 4 stickers from artists from @paperlanternproject and 4 stickers from Angry Asian Womxn with an option to include an ICE Watch whistle kit for free! Thanks so much for your support! Order at the link above 👆. If you don’t want stickers but want to donate, head to @paperlanternproject link in bio!
Hey all!!!! ĐỤ MÁ MÀY ĐÁ! FU€k ICE! We are throwing an online sticker fundraiser, a joint effort between @paperlanternproject and @angryasianwomxn . Funds will benefit affected immigrant families in Minneapolis that Paper Lantern Project works with and ICE organizing and mutual aid efforts in NYC spearheaded by Angry Asian Womxn.
Included are 4 stickers by participating artists from Paper Lantern Project, 4 stickers from Angry Asian Womxn and 1 ICE Watch kit which contains a whistle, mask, red card, and know your rights sticker in English/Spanish. Hit the link above 👆 to order! Campaign will run until 2/28. Please allow a couple weeks for shipping! Thanks!
Slide 3: Minnesota is home to one of the largest and fastest-growing Hmong
populations in the United States, with an estimated 95,000 to over 100,000
Hmong residents as of 2023-2025
Centered in the Twin Cities, this community originated from refugees fleeing Laos after the “Secret War” starting in 1975. Minnesota also has the largest population of Karen people in the United States, who are refugees from the civil war in Burma, with estimates ranging from over 17,000 to over 20,000 individuals. These communities, along with Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees are active targets of the ICE siege in Minnesota.
Last slide: screenshot from video from @empiremustfall DISABLED US CITIZEN DRAGGED OUT OF HER CAR BY ICE GESTAPO GOONS TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS
“I yelled, I'm disabled at the hands grabbing at me”
Please watch Aliya Rahman’s entire testimony! It’s so important but we couldn’t repost because of the length.
We have been getting a lot of questions about why we’ve been quiet and why they haven’t seen much of us lately.
The truth is we’re pretty locked in to our mutual aid mission right now and we are using most of our energy on giving impacted people the resources they need to survive this time.
We thought it was important to offer this explainer of why you’re seeing, or not seeing, what we do.
We move differently than rapid response groups.
Our goal has always been to act thoughtfully and intentionally so we can do this work for as long as possible-and keep our people safe while we do it.
Our responsibility is to Asian/Asian American Pacific Islander people who have been impacted by ICE.This means we center safety, privacy, and security.
Our work is underground and often out of sight.
We do this to prevent retraumatizing our community and reducing ICE risk as much as possible.
We are supporting people too afraid to start Go-Fund-Mes, people who don’t understand how crowdfunding works, people who have bank accounts they can’t access, and people who need true privacy.
Because of this we aren’t promoting who we’ve been helping, and we never will.
Even though we are quiet here, we are still helping to fund and support impacted people every day.
If you do want to help us (and we need the help) please consider offering us a tip to help build our mutual aid fund so we can continue fully funding all requests from ICE-impacted neighbors.
